The Logo Factor Design Blog » Opinion & Ramblings

Logo design: 2011 in review

Steve Douglas — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:31:12 +0000

Notable rebrands and redesigns

Ditching their stylized mascot, the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team rolled out a new logo that is a hybrid of the original Jay’s design launched back in 1977, with bits and pieces from a later version that was unveiled in 1997. See the National Post’s Jay’s logos throughout the years for the full genesis.

Sporting both a name and design change, the new Miami Marlin’s logo was designed to reflect the theme of the city they represent. The Marlin sorta remains, but in a much simplified form.

The new Stumble Upon logo reception wasn’t all wine and roses. In fact, some referred to the change as downright boneheaded.

The Comedy Network is the Canadian equivalent of Comedy Central and like its US cousin decided to roll-out a new logo. Gone are the child-like graphics that have been featured in the brand since the 90s, replaced with a stark, font only version.

Apparently TechCrunch picked this logo just to piss you off.

New logos that weren’t

A potential new HP (Hewlett Packard) logo did the rounds on several design blogs, complete with beautifully produced case studies and back-story videos. Reaction was mixed – some calling the new logo revolutionary while others remaining in the ‘meh’ camp, Turns out neither opinion mattered as the new logo was part of a 2008 ‘what if’ scenario pitched by Moving Brands and HP has no plans to change their logo just yet. On the other hand, some of the recommendations in the case study have already been adopted.

The new Home Depot logo is still showing up on year end lists as one of the ‘most notable logo redesigns of 2011′. Trouble is, the Home Depot logo was never changed, but simply an April Fool’s prank put together by Brand New.

The logo that really got to the point

And yes. It’s real.

The top 100 most valuable logos

At least according to Interbrand’s ‘Top 100 brands’ for 2011‘ list.

Logo design controversy of the year

Branded Logogate 2011 by some, this nasty little kerfuffle started when all sorts of designers started finding images that appeared to have been lifted from their portfolios (most seem to track back to portfolio site Logo Lounge) and put up for offer as templates on the Logo Garden do-it-yourself logo design site. To whit – designer Jeff Fisher writes about various instances of his work being cribbed, repackaged and offered for sale. Over at Rock Paper Ink, and without mincing too many words, Bill Gardner calls out the LogoGarden.com site with Love Thy Logo – charlatan, huckster, moron and thief. Logo Lounge has more. Apparently, most, if not all, of the offending images have been taken down and for their trouble, Logo Garden received $2M in funding from FCA Venture Partners

Speaking of funding

Spec site 99designs picked up $35 million in funding from Accel Partners. Another contest site DesignCrowd.com found their coffers $3 million heavier with an investment from Starfish Ventures (which they promptly used to acquire beleaguered ‘brand in a box’ site Brandstack).

Human RIghts gets its own logo

After four months and a global online campaign that netted 15,000 submissions, Serbian designer Predrag Stakic was announced as the winner of a design competition to find a logo for human rights. The logo, entitled “free as a man,” beat out over 15,000 other submissions and earned Stakic 5,000 Euros (about $6,500).

Best logo design blog of the year

For a logo design blog that showcases an unbridled love of logos and design we’d be remiss if we didn’t tip a hat to Graham Smith‘s I’m Just Creative site and blog of the same name

What logo design secrets can we learn from the top 100 brands?

Steve Douglas — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:36:39 +0000

Interbrand has released their ‘Top 100 brands’ for 2011‘ list. Based on the total value of the brands named, it makes for an interesting read (Coca-Cola, at brand worth of $72B is number one). But what about these brands’ logos? What logo design secrets can we learn? Taking a look at the top 100 logos (above) and off the top of my head –

29% of the top brands’ logos use red.
33% use blue.
13% use yellow or gold.
28% use black or grayscale.
5% use more than two colors.
95% use one or two colors.
41% use text only.
9% don’t feature the company name at all.
93% are simple enough to be recognizable (if not completely legible) at the size featured above. As in really small.
3% feature people.
67% were created using a horizontal aspect ratio.
Number of swooshes: 3

Maybe you can see some trends that I’ve missed. Thoughts?

Tracking down logo knockoffs

Steve Douglas — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 17:50:19 +0000

How Google’s newly improved image search can make policing logo design knockoffs a whole lot easier.

Take a few seconds to watch the little video above. It pretty succinctly describes the newly improved features of Google’s Image Search and how you can use it to find images that are similar to one another. Pretty slick claims. But does it work? And what are the practical implications? Well, yes it does work. With almost magic-like precision. As far as practical implications go, there are tons. Designers, and owners of intellectual property can use Image search to track down unauthorized use of their design goodies – in this case (obviously) knocked off logo design. Let’s take a look at how a search shakes out by first visiting the Google image search home page:

I’ve found that you get best results from images that are already included in the image search index, so I picked a logo that’s been in our portfolio in one way or another since 2003 – a design for The Tanning Factory:

To make Google image search do its thing, we simply have to ‘drag and drop’ the image into the ‘Search by Image’ field (you can also ‘drag and drop’ from any web page using another browser window):

That brings up a ton of related images that Google ‘thinks’ are similar. The results are nothing short of uncanny:

By drilling down through the index, we can find all sorts of logos that have been appropriated from The Tanning Factory original. There’s a music blog:

There’s a T-shirt company:

There’s a modeling agency:

There’s this so-called graphics factory:

Then there’s this one – The Restoration Factory, part of the Texas Museum of Automotive History that’s using a knocked-off version for their new student program:

Googe image search can also be used for tracking down knocked-off photographs. My daughter was able to find a picture from her anti-smoking college project being used, in all places, on a website that’s marketing tobacco products to teenagers. She proudly told me this morning about sending her first ‘cease and desist’. Atta girl.

Hat tip to Jeff Fisher‘s Blogomotives for first cluing us in on how to really use image search.

RIP Steve Jobs

Steve Douglas — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:51:00 +0000

“I want to put a ding in the universe.” – Steve Jobs. 1955 – 2011

Wikipedia news – editing spin jobs & a logo typo

Logo Garden’s bitter harvest

Steve Douglas — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:05:42 +0000

Or, the perils of do-it-yourself logo generators. Continued.

Couple of days back, I wrote about buying the WWF Panda logo (for a paltry $69.00) from do-it-yourself logo design site Logo Garden. It was a short and light-hearted ‘take the piss’ post, written to demonstrate the very-real risks of purchasing a logo from these DIY logo sites, especially if you’re an entrepreneur who may not be well versed in logo design and intellectual property to begin with.

Turns out the WWF panda was but the tip of a very big iceberg, with designers finding all sorts of images that appeared to have been lifted from their portfolios (most seem to track back to portfolio site Logo Lounge) and put up for offer as templates on the Logo Garden site. To whit – designer Jeff Fisher writes about various instances of his work being cribbed, repackaged and offered for sale (above is but one example). Over at Rock Paper Ink, and without mincing too many words, Bill Gardner calls out the LogoGarden.com site with Love Thy Logo – charlatan, huckster, moron and thief. Logo Lounge has more.

Now, and after various nasty-grams, DMCA take down notices and a whole bunch of Twitter outrage, Logo Garden are quietly removing some of the more high-profile designers’ work from their site and database of pre-designed icons. Point still remains. Even at $69.00, these do-it-yourself flash logo generators are a very risky proposition indeed. Unless you want to buy Max Headroom as your logo for sixty-nine bucks.

Then you’re good to go.

The perils of do-it-yourself logo makers

Steve Douglas — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 19:31:03 +0000

Or how I bought the WWF Panda logo from Logo Garden for only $69.00.

According to the press release that hit my e-mail account this morning, Logo Garden is “poised to disrupt online logo design and biz card space” with their do-it-yourself logo maker. Ooooh, that does sound swell.

Billed as the ‘fastest growing logo site in the world’ Logo Garden is yet another in a line of Flash-driven do-it-yourself logo generators that promise for a few bucks ($69.00 to be exact) would-be entrepreneurs can avail themselves of do-it-yourself logos without employing the skills of, oh I dunno, a pesky graphic designer (though Logo Garden looks remarkably like another DIY logo site – Logo Yes – and if I were a betting guy…)

Anyhoo, say I wanted to open a new business called, lessee, Steve’s Pandas or something. I’d naturally want a logo that incorporated a panda. So, we’d start off looking for some animals using the funky animated interface…

And then narrow it down to pandas using the handy-dandy search field. I kinda like the cute little fella in the top left corner. That’ll work nicely methinks.

The Flash-driven interface let’s me drop in type, so I’ll add my company name, mess around with the fonts and Bob, as they say, is your uncle.

Wow, that is a pretty sweet logo. Now, it’s only a matter of checking out, plunking down 69 clams through my PayPal account and we’re in logo design nirvana. Time elapsed, ten minutes and no graphic designer had to darken my door. What could possibly go wrong?

After checking out, my nifty new logo is stored on the Logo Garden site, ready to download in a wide-range of formats so I can start plastering my cute little panda logo over everything I own. Website, business cards, perhaps a vehicle wrap for the official Steve’s Panda van…

Great system? Perhaps. Only one itty-bitty problem with the whole thing. Namely, this

Oooh dear. That may represent a problem (“but my logo has eyes!” won’t cut it for the copyright and trademark lawyers I’m afraid). Though the good folks at Logo Garden have that angle covered. Witness the fine print on the site regarding pesky issues like trademark and copyright:

(2) Trademarks and Copyrights. User acknowledges that no trademark, copyright or service marks are being conveyed under this Agreement. User acknowledges that LogoGarden has no obligation or duty to perform copyright, trademark or service mark searches to validate the symbol database is not infringing on any trademark, copyright or service marks. Accordingly, LogoGarden encourages Users to perform their own independent searches. User acknowledges that LogoGarden shall have no responsibility to assist User in seeking state or federal intellectual property protection (i.e., trademark registration). LogoGarden shall not be responsible to assist User to perfect the Users rights.

Course, if you find any infringing trademarks and/or copyrights, the good folks at Logo Garden would like you to let them know:

(3) Third Party Rights. If Users believe any content appearing on the Web Site infringes another party’s rights, please to notify us of this infringement.

Ahm, okay. I think I found one. After I dropped $69 bucks on it. Wonder if I can get my money back?

to: LogoGarden.com [service@logogarden.com]
date: Tue, Aug 16, 2011 at 8:36 AM
subject: Refund Please

Please refund this order. The logo I bought belongs to the WWF (World Wildlife Federation) and the minute I print this design anywhere, I can expect a cease & desist letter from their fairly well-heeled lawyers.

Sincerely yours
Steve Douglas

On Sun, Aug 14, 2011 at 2:36 PM, LogoGarden.com wrote:

LogoGarden.com
Order Confirmation

Thank you for your order. The details of your order are listed below.

Bill To:
Steve Douglas

Email Address: xxxxxx@thelogofactory.com
Password: xxxxxx

Order No: 11799

Logo – Qty: 1 – Price / Each: $69.00 – Total: $69.00

Subtotal: $69.00
S/H: $0.00
Tax: $0.00
Credits: $0.00
Total: $69.00

from: service@logogarden.com
to: xxxxxx@thelogofactory.com
date: Tue, Aug 16, 2011 at 5:06 PM
subject: Re: Refund Please

Hello,

I’m sorry but per the Terms of Service posted on our website we cannot issue you a refund.

“(d) Refunds. When User completes their logo and/or logo and business card and chooses to submit payment, user is charged for the Services. User understands that all sales are final and no refunds shall be issued. LogoGarden has the right to cancel orders and provide a refund at any point in the development process. LogoGarden retains the right to modify or change this policy at any time without notice.”

Taken from: http://www.logogarden.com/terms-of-service.php

Sandy

service@logogarden.com
www.logogarden.com

Update:

Apparently, the WWF logo isn’t the only knocked-off logo being offered for sale on Logo Garden. Their Facebook page is littered with complaints, reports of alleged knock-offs and examples of work copied from a wide-range of designers. You can also check out Iconify‘s logo design thievery and Prejean Creative‘s LogoGarden should be plowed under for more.

Buyer beware indeed.

Yet another anti-spec work initiative

Steve Douglas — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:47:27 +0000

The launch of another anti-spec work initiative proves that the controversy about crowdsourcing, design contests and free-pitching isn’t going anywhere soon.

If there’s a topic of discussion that’s sure to get most designers riled up, it’s spec work (when a designer is expected to design something in the hopes they may get paid for the designing) and spec-work driven sites like 99designs, Crowdspring, Mycroburst, et al. Many see the spec-work process as a threat to the design industry itself with many practitioners of the craft bemoaning the inevitable ‘commoditization’ of design brought on by globalization, cheap(er) design software and a glut of designers, and would-be designers willing to toss their free hat into the spec-work ring.

Without any real governing or licensing body, designers have been left up to their own devices to protest the phenomenon through grass-roots campaigns, websites and Twitter barrages. Now, fresh on the heels of the No-Spec! website is another anti-spec campaign called, oddly enough, the anti-spec campaign.

Describing spec work as “a cancer within the design industry” and opining that “all designers need to understand their role in fighting it” the website for the initiative features profile pics of designers who support the cause (really big picture of the home page after the jump).

Whether these campaigns and websites will have any tangible effect on the onslaught of crowdsourcing and design contests is anyone’s guess (I’d say the horse has already fled the barn) but for the few minutes it takes to add your digital two cents, it’s certainly worth supporting.

If you count yourself in the anti-spec camp that is.

10 truisms of working on a crowdsourcing site

Steve Douglas — Mon, 09 May 2011 12:19:32 +0000

So you’ve finally embraced the ‘new reality’ and decided to enter design contests on a crowdsourcing site? Here’s what you can expect…

1: You will start with the best intentions

Having decided to toss your design hat into the crowdsourcing ring, you will treat every contest you enter as sacrosanct and give it your all. The thinking will go something like this – “most of the people entering these contests aren’t really cutting it, so if I give it my best, the contest holders will see my superior work and reward me for it”. You’ll figure that contest holders will value your efforts on their behalf, give you lots of feedback (or star ratings) on everything you submit and generally be appreciative of your work. You’ve bought into in the pro-spec talking points and figure you’ll get lots of experience, learn how to deal with clients, pick up some dough and some customers along the way. You might even find yourself defending design contests to your peers, claiming that “this is how it is”.

2: You will be get caught up in the competition

By their very nature, designers are a competitive lot, so you will get caught up in the ‘heat of the moment’ and actually enjoy pitching ‘just one more’ concept into the contest(s) you’re entering. You’ll keep believing that this ‘last shot’ will finally convince the contest holder that your idea is the one for them. You may even have some fun. For a while.

3: You will enter a lot of contests

When you don’t win your first couple of contests, you’ll take a ‘more the merrier’ approach and enter a lot of simultaneous contests, thinking that at some point, a contest holder will pick your work. Still producing the best work you can, you’ll start churning out concept after concept figuring that somwhere along the line, one will win. This goes double if you’ve managed to pick up some prize money along the way. After all, if you’ve won one contest, you can win more. Right? Trouble is, according to the crowdsourcing sites’ claims, there are 25,000, 90,000 or 150,000 other people who are thinking the exact same thing.

4: You will get frustrated

At some point, frustration will set in as your work is glossed over for obviously poor quality work, material that’s stock art, clip art or a recycled design that’s been entered into dozens of previous contests. Despite perfectly valid explanations of your rationale, you won’t get any feedback from the majority of contest holders – not even a simple ‘thank you’ – and most of the time it will seem like you’re uploading your work into the void. You’ll see dozens of contests that you’ve entered canceled without a winner being selected (most crowdsourcing sites allow holders to walk away without awarding a winner regardless of how many designers have pitched their wares). You’ll begin to think that you’re wasting your time, as the realization that you’re spending an awful lot of it with little, or nothing, to show for you efforts, starts to sink in.

5: You will be copied

That is a certainty. As some point your concepts will get nicked (by someone who might even win with it) or your design will get lifted in its entirety. Don’t look to the crowdsourcing site for help either – they’re more interested in keeping bitching out of the contest threads (looks bad for holders doncha know) than they’ll be in righting any wrongs.

6: You won’t earn a living

If you’re lucky, you’ll pick up a few shekels here and there. If you’re not, you won’t. In any case, the amount you’ll win will be nowhere near commensurate with the amount of time you’re spending. Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule – teenagers living at home with Mom and Dad trolling for pocket money and folks from emerging nations to whom a $200 logo contest prize represents a month’s salary – but in general, you won’t make enough money to make working on a crowdsourcing site worth your while.

7: You will begin to cut corners

Alas, after entering so many contests, without much in the way of feedback, new customers or prize winnings, the “why should I bother” sentiment will start to creep in. Your honest efforts don’t seem to be cutting it, so you’ll start to dip into your archives of unused concepts, icons and logo design ideas (this, by the way, is actually encouraged by some crowdsourcing sites). You’ll begin to take a scatter-gun approach to contests, entering as many as you can, while spending the least amount of time on each. At some point, you’ll realize that you’re defeating the purpose of joining the site in the first place. Rather than attempting to win clients over with your superior work, you’re practically spamming contests in order to win something. Anything. It’s no longer about design, it’s about winning contests.

8: You will quit

Nobody, and I do mean nobody, can afford to work for free, forever. If you’re a decent designer, your win ratio will be in the 6 – 9 percent range, so common sense, financial realities and other opportunities will eventually convince you to hang up your crowdsourcing hat. Whether you do that after ten, or after a 1,000 contests will depend largely on your personal situation (teenagers living at home with Mom and Dad can hold out longer than you could ever hope to). But it is a certainty. Working on a crowdsourcing is not a sustainable way for most designers to earn a living so you will quit.

9: You will regret wasting so much time

Sadly, and judging by most designers I talk to, this one is true of most of the people who pack it in. They regret spending so much time for so little in return. You may also regret driving one more nail into the coffin of the design profession because…

10: You will help the site. Long after you’re gone

Crowdsourcing sites need a constant influx of fresh, warm bodies in order to keep their services alive and your profile will be used as one of the ’90,000 designers ready to help’ pitch of the site. Some sites won’t let you delete your profile for that very reason. The concepts you’ve entered will be counted in the ‘get 100+ designs’ advertising buzz used by the crowdsourcing company. Both of these will be used to advertise crowdsourcing as a viable alternative to the ‘old-fashioned’ way of doing things to clients, and as a recruitment drive to other designers who’ll be convinced to start at the beginning of this list.

And so on.

The ‘value’ of logo design contests

Steve Douglas — Wed, 04 May 2011 19:39:15 +0000

Logo design contest and crowdsourcing sites market themselves as a superior alternative to working with a freelance designer or design firm, mostly due to the raw number of concepts contest holders will receive. Do they have a point? Is a ‘more for less’ mentality an effective way to get a logo designed? We break it down.

Gotta admit, when you read ’300 submissions’ to this or that logo design contest, it represents a pretty hefty number. For a client it seems like great value – a couple of hundred submissions for a couple of hundred bucks. Choice, choice, choice. For designers who have opted out of participating in design contests it represents a fairly daunting statistic. How can the freelance designer or small design firm possibly compete with the sheer volume that design buyers are likely to receive if they run a contest on a so-called design crowdsourcing site? Truth is, you don’t have to. The numbers advertised (ie: 99designs is named after the number of designs, on average, that are submitted to their contests. Crowdspring claims 110+ concepts) are a hodge-podge of design, of various levels of usability (or salvageability if you will) that we’ll break down using our handy-dandy pyramid infographic above. Granted, the chart is completely unscientific and arbitrary, but does represent some casual observations we’ve made over the years.

Unusable concepts

To be charitable, and at the risk of being called a snooty designer, the vast majority of logo concepts submitted to design contest sites are crap. This shouldn’t come as a surprise – most design contest sites have absolutely no vetting process and advertise membership to their sites in the same way as those ‘Make Money Online’ spam e-mails we get every couple of hours. As in “design for our clients and make money online”. While crowdsourcing sites claim anyone can design, that’s simply not true. There’s also some technical know-how that’s necessary to pull off a successful logo design and most people in this category simply don’t have it. When the only requirement to ‘have a go’ at a logo design contest is an e-mail account, you can rest assured that the majority of people signing up have no idea what they’re doing. It is the nature of the internet. It is the nature of people.

Sub-par concepts

Having said that, there’s lots of people with working knowledge of Illustrator and.or Photoshop who also pitch their wares into contests. The contest holder stands a better chance of obtaining something of worth from this category – these enthusiastic folks can probably cobble together what looks like a logo. But are these logos any good? Are they worth the couple of hundred the contest holder has plucked down to get things rolling? I’m not entirely convinced. One of the pro-contest talking points is that they’re a great way for inexperienced designers to learn how to design. That’s cool and all, but these would-be designers are learning in live gigs, and technically on the contest holder’s dime. That’s not downing the designers who are trying – my hat goes off to them – but are they able to create decent logos at every contest, sometimes dozens at a time, they enter? Even an experienced logo designer would be foolish to make that claim. And as the theme of this blog post is the ‘value’ of logo design contests, what ‘value’ is there in paying for dozens of designers, who may or may not have a clue what they’re doing, to design your company logo?

“What ‘value’ is there in paying for dozens of designers, who may or may not have a clue what they’re doing, to design your company logo?”

Stock art, clip art and ideas from somewhere else

The amount of clip art, stock art and ideas pinched from other sources that get entered into logo design contests is staggering. What do you expect? When people only have a slight chance of getting paid (if their design is selected) many put in the effort that is commensurate with working for free. That’s human nature. When you combine this with the anonymous aspect of most design contest sites, it’s practically guaranteed that stock art (usually not licensed for logos), clip art (ditto) and pinched artwork will end up in most logo design contests. No big deal (as long as you catch the infringing designs) but does (at best) eliminating copied logos from your contest or (at worst) selecting a knocked-off logo, have any bearing on the value of same? I’d think not. The boasted ‘drenched in design’ ain’t looking so hot now is it? But wait, we ain’t finished yet…

Recycled concepts from previous contests

This one is becoming more and more prevalent as designers who have entered hundreds of contests (often without winning any) begin to stock-pile unused design concepts. When working on spec (ie: getting paid only when your design is selected) what would you prefer to do – spend an awful lot of time coming up with unique concepts each and every time, or dip into the reservoir of unloved concepts that are collecting digital dust on your hard drive? I know which one I’d pick. Maybe, after entering the same logo in 1, 5 or 10 contests, someone might actually pick it, huh? Nothing wrong with that per se, but it’s one step away from picking a stock logo, and doesn’t lend itself to the supposed ‘value’ of running a logo design contest.

Quality, original ideas

Sure, there are some decent designers on crowdsourcing sites, and as much as it pains me to admit, you’ll probably find some quality, original ideas pitched during the duration of most design contests. However, the number will be a small fraction of the overall tally. And there’s where the true value lies of running a logo design contest – denoted in our pyramid infographic by a small yellow triangle. But does obtaining such a small sample of quality original ideas equate to the ‘more for less’ value as boasted by contest and crowdsourcing sites? From where I sit, and using my admittedly old-fashioned financial filters, it certainly doesn’t. Wading through an immense sea of unusable concepts to (hopefully) find a pearl seems like a terrible waste of a lot of people’s time, including that of the contest holder.

You’d be better of working one-on-one with a freelance or design firm and see that itty-bitty yellow triangle get a lot bigger.

Breaking out of creative block

Steve Douglas — Mon, 02 May 2011 14:28:37 +0000

From time to time all designers and creative types will run into creative block. Here’s some tips on breaking out of it when it happens to you

Do something else

And I do mean something else. Put down the mouse and/or the pencil and get away from it all. Take in a movie. Watch TV. Take the dogs for a walk. I like to take a quick jaunt on my motorbike (hence the video of Friday’s trek at the head of the post). Nothing cleans out the cobwebs faster. I also like to compose music (both tracks in the video are home-made creations). Engaging in a hobby, or favorite pastime, will help you get re-focused.

Look to others for inspiration

Take a trip around your favorite design blogs and websites. Look at other designers’ work and read about their trials and tribulations. If that doesn’t work..

Walk away from the computer

If you’re suffering from a particularly brutal creative block, even looking at others’ work won’t help and you’ll just end up mindlessly clicking from one site to the next. That’s just a waste of time and will keep you mired in the creative muck. Probably time to..

Take a nap

Shutting the brain down for an hour or two has nice recuperative powers and an afternoon ‘power nap’ will help you regroup. Fatigue is a great enemy of the designer (and ironically, most designers I know – myself included – tend to work into the wee hours of the night). A rested mind is a creative mind. So get rested.

Read a book

Fiction. Horror. Romance. Do-it-yourself. The subject matter doesn’t matter, and a couple of hours of mindless reading will help you get back on the creative track. Worrying an uncooperative design project to death won’t.

Prepare a nice meal

Comfort food is good for the soul. It’s likewise good for conquering creative block. Could even be a greasy hamburger from your local fast-food joint (though obviously don’t overdo it – don’t imagine clogged arteries help anything).

Human interaction

Have a nice conversation with your friends, partners or co-workers. Don’t complain about your creative block, talk about the day’s current events, the movie you took in on the weekend. MIndless chatter will help unclutter your mind and help get you back on track.

Sketch it off

Break out the sketch book and doodle. Doesn’t have to do with the design project that’s causing you grief. An afternoon doodling does wonders for creative block and also serves as a repository of ideas and rough concepts that can help for future projects.

Write an article about breaking creative block

That’s the reason for this post.