Blank mind?

Graphic designers, Web designers, Industrial designers, Fashion designers, Interior designers, Product designers, Jewelry designers, Automotive designers, Engineer designers, Landscape designers, Game designers, Interaction designers, Textile designers, Stage designers… and whatever field regarding design someone has developed a passion towards to and find a need or almost an addiction to it, there’s a birth of a design profession.

No matter which kind of designer one is, once one has a project in the hands, one is ready to play with the creative process coming along with it. Given process surely differs depending on the design profession one has, and the designer itself. But a big moment within this process, I’ll bet everyone has in common, is: encountering the “blank mind”… feeling familiar?

I like to call it “blank mind”, because literally that’s exactly what I’ve personally experienced at the point where I ran out of ideas, when [of course] I need them the most. And no matter how much I enjoy or want to work with that certain project; there are just times, when all of the sudden my mind seems to be a complete blank piece of paper, without ink. Am empty box.

Call it mind-wandering, fatigue, problems, mind-saturation, stress, work-overload, unlucky day, Murphy’s law…

Anyhow, among my favorite tips [I'm sure you've probably read or heard many of them] to help designers fill out the “blank mind”, I can recommend the following:

✎ Drink a cup of coffee or hot tea.
✎ Listen to your preferred music.
✎ Eat a tasty piece of chocolate [ok if you cannot eat sweets, try a tasty fruit or nut you can eat].
✎ Have inspiring things around you in your work area to be able to look at them any time (e.g. magazines, postcards, books, gadgets, toys, websites bookmarked).
✎ Take a look outside your window and spend 5 minutes admiring the beauty outside [believe me, even when you think there's not such thing outside, you'll find it, per say if you take a deep look into the pavement texture of a street]. If you have no windows in your work area, go outside and admire the beauty from there.
✎ Start drawing, sketching, painting or writing non-sense objects or words. Don’t think about it, just let yourself go. It doesn’t matter if there won’t be no use of this in your project. Invite your mind to create.
✎ Take a break. Sometimes the mind only needs time to process what it needs to process. Creativity won’t fall from the sky, but as well won’t be erected by force. Creativity will flow with the go.

Have a favorite tip to share for filling in the “blank mind”?