Oct 26 How do you challenge yourself?

Don’t look at too much design. It’s counterintuitive, but when I stopped browsing web galleries and spent more time with a camera, or reading magazines, or looking at industrial design or furniture, my web design improved. Problem solving and design thinking are everywhere. The more varied my inspirations,the more my work feels fresh instead of derivative. - Joshua Blankenship via Quora

Lately I’ve been struggling with how to challenge my creative juices. I’m finding myself looking at what others “get” to design and what their agencies, design shops, or what have yous are creating and I find myself getting frustrated that I’m not getting those same opportunities. I’m finding myself making excuses like; well if my agency did work like that, then my work would be better.

It’s easy for to blame my lack of creative motivation on the opportunities given to me, but that’s just plain lazy. As a designer or art director you can easily get caught up in billable time, creative briefs, scope of works, and all of the other crap that makes being a creative tedious and less fun but sometimes one needs to just take a huge step back and remember, you get paid to play on the computer and make pretty things all day.

Challenge yourself to make the pretty, prettier.