Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of posts whose sole aim was to rant about other post. Being some kind of sheep, I’ll do the same right now. And you’ll probably agree with me, because, in fact, all those posts are true in a way.
First there was Clients from Hell, and then there was Do not read clients from hell, because you know better.
First there was the Paula Scher interview, and then ther was it’s countepart by Eric Karjualoto.
First there were post containing lists, and then posts saying than lists sucked.
First there were posts ranting about uneducated clients, and now, there’re posts saying how bad we, designers, are uneducated and not able to educate our clients.

As a matter of fact, the community loves to talk. And loves to complain too, but that’s human nature. I wonder if there’s any other other community ( as in “people sharing the same jobs”) where people are so incline to talk about what they do and how they do it, and how it should be done. There even were posts about how bad was the community to design itself — because of the lists, the inspiration posts, the likeness of everything declared awesome by the peers. Right. this is probably not that good — but is well-balanced by the fact that the community is also full of resources, exchanges, discussions and friendship. Among all those things, the real problem I see is that, wanting to pursue every articles’ ideal designer behaviour, one might get lost and confused as what is really good for him/her.

As an example, we’re told quite often about educating our clients — I’m thinking about a peculiar Smashing Magazine post here — but how does that apply in real life? If you are not in a position to negociate, let alone your own boss. As much as you’d love to tell a client how much his choice is wrong regarding design concerns, you can’t always have the final word on this. People telling you not to work with those assholes clients? Yes, right, again if you have the choice, and can afford it.

In the end, all those posts about do & don’ts, what good and what’s wrong, what you should do and what would be considered an awful sin by the law of God designers all lead you in a sort of guilty confusion. Am I a good designer? Am I a coward for not fighting my client? Am I an awful person for enjoying a good laugh at horror client stories?
It’s not that I don’t like those articles.
I’ve wrote some of them, most for my own inspiration and motivation, in the past. Now, the more I read, the more I feel confused. There are rules I want to follow, about color theory, UI design, golden ratio and such. But being told how I should talk to a client or what I’m supposed to read in order to be a good designer? I don’t know. I don’t feel comfortable with that.
I thought being a designer, which means to me being a problem solver, involved a great part of unique individual sensibility. There are things great designers have in common, like an eye or an ability to understand people. But I don’t feel like they should all endorse the same behavior pattern, as described in most of the recent articles. More than pushing you forward to discover what works for you, they try to much to impose a repetitive scheme. Again I wrote some of those, and am not really sure it helped anyone in this case.

I do wonder, though, if one should not stop reading the community’s articles and start focusing more on what really works in his/her context, his/her environment, his/her own work pattern or maybe just taking a hint from time to time from those, without reading all of it. There’s not one and only solution. But it’s definitely not in someone’s else writing.

Yes, this post is a total rant, yet again. You can comment, disagree, shout, or send me flowers if you want to. The point is, as long as you don’t obey blindly anything I wrote here it’ll be fine by me.

Hello, hello, dear friends and readers.
As always, I thought about starting this blog-post by the ever-incessant complaint about how I didn’t have time to write anything. Because, well, I actually didn’t take time to sit down for a while and write something, which, on one hand, is a sure symptom of someone not being able to manage her own time. Thus, on the other hand, is also a far more interesting symptom of “lack of creativity syndrom”.

This barbarian name, applied to a barbarian state of mind, is revealing the truth that I’ve been hiding for month now.
My creativity flow is low. My imagination is on standby mode. My ability to live, breath, and feel creative is gone far far away.
This is a problem. A hugeeee problem, mind you. Especially when you work in the creative field. And especially when you’re always descibed as the creative person of the team.

When there’s a problem, there’s a solution (& I really do hope there is). So, what’s the key to being productive again?
Actually, I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately — I was a bit worried at first, but as every disease I got, I’m pleased to observe evolutions and interesting developments it gets into.
That’s the “little chemist” syndrom, but I oughta talk about that later.
As part of the analysis, I had an observation about myself and other designers I know… (Sorry guys, you were part of a huge lab experience, you can now go back to your normal lives)

First of all, we’re not all equal in creativity flow. Some still manage to get busy and imaginative, while others get burried under everyday-work matters. This might be part of a motivation problem. So, first item I wrote on the list: lack of motivation.
Then, I noticed we felt like we had no time at all. Which is pretty true. But… the more you do, the more time you seem to got.
This, I called it: Unability to do things.
That was not because lack of time, but because we were too tired to do anything.
Symptom number 3: you’re tired.
All of this leads to symptom numer 4: Boredom. Being unproductive makes you bored. So you feel unmotivated. And you don’t do anything. Your brain starts to melt. And then, you’re tired.
This is a viscious circle that makes you drown under the deep sea of brain-dead designers. Being a creative designer means to be creative outside the job timetable too. So that does not only affect your workflow, but also your life, and even worst your well-being.

So, what’s the solution?
I’d say… Getting challenged.

First, get a few days off work. And do whatever you please, just for you.
And then..

Do something new. Surprise yourself. Kick your own ass into making things. Find the time.
A night spent in front of the TV is a night not well spent. Go and see people. Discuss. Start projects. Mostly, find new things enjoyable — may it be cooking, gardening or whatsoever.
The more you’ll talk with highly creative people, the more you’ll find that they just force themselves into being productive all day long.

This is difficult. This is painful. But this is also pretty interesting to try once in a while.
Just as some do a home cures during autumn, this is just a “creative cure”.

The challenge ?
Take two month, to get to the end of the year, to get highly creative. Imagine a project of something you’d really enjoy doing. 2 months, to produce something original, funny, awesome or using adjectives that my lack of english knowledge don’t let me use. New portfolio? New website? Blogging everyday? Drawing 1 thing a day? Build a wood house in the garden? Re-decorate your home? Change your fashion approach? Learn something new?
I say, see you in 2 months. for now I’ve got my own ass to kick.

For those who never heard of it before, Many Stuff is a great blog presenting graphic designers (and their works) on a regular basis. I stumbled upon a report on the creative process they did released 2 years ago and was curious to see if things had changed so much in this period. It’s still very interesting and features designers from Genevieve  Gauckler to Pierre Vanni.
Take a look, and let’s hope for an up-to-date process recollection in the months to come.

The creative brief can be your best friend, as your worst fear — it can dictate, show, give guidelines or be completly out of order. It is supposed to help you to define what you client wants, and how he wants it. Most of the time, you should receive it from a marketing service, an obscur  communication guy or directly from the client, depending of the project. Learning how to read it is part of the designer’s job, like some kind of a police investigation, in order to understand the intricate mind of your client. But what if you have to write it yourself?
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