Or how to listen to the ground for the forthcoming trend.

As a young design devotee, you need to be constantly aware of what will happen next. You can try to follow the trend, you can try to anticipate the trend or… you can be the trend. But let’s be honest, being the trend is hard work — and you wouldn’t want to get tired, won’t you? So, you can just…

• 1. Make a selection of worth-reading websites. There are a thousand valuable websites about design on the web. Select those you are more likely to find interesting: they share links you can get inspired from. Need inspiration? Here is a fantastic list of inspiring trendy blogs.   
• 2. Subscribe to a RSS-Feed. Syndicate is an easier away to keep on touch with your favorite blogs: You can easily see the lasts articles, and optimize your time spent reading them. You are trendy + proactive, kudos to you! 
• 3. Be curious about other fields: design is basically everywhere. Look around and keep your eyes open 24/24H. Magazines, flyers, ads, fashion, street art, cooking, or even mathematics can be an inspiring source that will settle new trends. 
• 4. Check some trends-spotting & marketing blogs: There are many of them, giving an insight about what will be next, figures and graphics on the side. Never forget that a webtrend can transform into a design trend faster than you think.
• 5. Have a social life. People can help you understand what is cool. How they talk, dress or what they listen to reveals what the crowd think and like. Plus, friends are good for health.
• 6. Learn to isolate what is an old dying trend. Vintage wallpaper patterns? Aqua effects? Woody background? Helvetica? If you’ve seen it before, it’s already too late. (But you can still use it for your own pleasure, that won’t hurt anyone.)
• 7. Look at the past. You known the famous merry-go-round metaphor? It’s true. Old stuff make new stuff… even those you’d never think about. Look at the 80’s, who thought they’d ever come back?
• 8. Look at what others are doing. Especially if you’re still at school. There is plenty of trendsetters around , working in the same studio, or the next door office. Be aware of your immediate microcosm.
• 9. Be judgmental. Coco Chanel, goddess of the goddesses once said: ”Fashions fade, style is eternal.” Never forget that what is trendy today, will suck tomorrow. Don’t hesitate to judge what you think sucks now.  
• 10. Intuition is your best friend. Be confident in your ability to smell good stuff. It’s really works.

So, wanna play Nostradamus for the year to come? Please share your insight about next-year big design boom!!

Too much white space to fill, and no inspiration.

Sometimes, it just won’t work. You get stuck in front of your computer, your paperboard, your painting or whatever… and nothing happens. Creativity is not a constant flow. Sometimes, you just can’t get a drip of it. Sometimes, it just seems that you’ve lost all of your artistic mojo. Sometimes, you feel that it won’t happen again for hours, days, or worst, months.

And that could be quite a problem, since you’re asked to be creative 8 hours/day, 5 days/week. 

There’s not a good and only solution to this problem. A thousand books have been written about this. You know, some kind of “training for the creative mind”, “How to be creative”, “How to be a bright genius”. So what? Does it makes your mind back to work, ready to produce brand new fantastic concepts?
It can help, but you’re probably as unable to produce something brilliant as a few minutes ago.

The mere idea is not to make you back on track in a second. It’s to set you in a better mood, that will probably help you to be a tad more concentrated, and maybe, a bit more creative.

1. Environment is important. Should it be materially speaking or emotionally. When surrounded by stress or by mess, you’re unable to focus on your project. So, maybe a little bit of cleaning may help. Isolate yourself from malevolent people and from malevolent 3 weeks-old pizza slices. Arrange your desk in a pleasant way. Clean your files, and get a brand new nice wallpaper for your desktop. But… don’t clean too much. You don’t want your space to feel impersonal. and don’t forget that something in your mess might trigger some inspiration.  
2. Music is a good way to enhance your creative mood. You should always take a great care of your musical inspiration. Whatever you like, it can have an influence on your creative choices. Setting up a “creative playlist”, respecting your different work phases might help you to overcome your concentration problems.
3. Drink a coffee. Not 12. Or your creativity problem will turn into an addiction problem.
4. Get some inspiration and feed your brain. Look at books, websites, portfolios, magazines, ads, fashion, exhibitions… Anything can trigger your creativity. Make it a way of life: a sharp eye is your first weapon.
5. Go for a walk. Not easy when working in an agency. But make you feel better. In case of real creative lack, go for a walk somewhere farther— foreign country if you can afford it, next town if not. Seeing new landscapes is good for you.
6. Take care of yourself. Designing for someone else can be an ungrateful job. So do yourself a treat and design something for you. Something that YOU like, and that doesn’t fit in the bounds of someone else. And don’t ask advices about it. If you like it, then, that’s good.
7. Enjoy yourself. If you feel that the doomed graphic-designer syndrome will be longer than expected, try to change your way of life. Eat better food, do some sport (yeah, basically, that’s just some kind of random tip) and have a lot of fun. Why? If you are happy and not mourning the decease of your creativity, it should come back within a week. 
8. Don’t let yourself overwhelmed. Just be proactive and do a lot of things. The more you do, the more you get done. It’s worth a try.
9. Share the pain. If you can, share it with the creative team. If you’re alone, then talk to someone you feel confident with. Talking is a good way to have a great weight off your mind. 
10. Listen to your inner voice. Trying too hard to fit in the mold of design trends can reduce your creative power to zero. Try to find your own voice and not to care too much about what others might think. Copying what have already been done might help you for a short period of time, but will probably get in your way at last. That is the most difficult part: Not being re-doing over and over again the same old stuff, but not being too much influenced by stupid trends. Being creative is being able to be yourself, in a sellable way. If your stuck with your designer’s block, it’s probably something deeper that goes wrong. And I am no psych-analyst, so I won’t help you on this point.

If your going trough this right now, good luck. If you’re not, and never have been, consider you lucky! Please share your tips for getting inspired, on a daily basis. Do you watch Tv, play tennis, or sing in the shower?