Creatives are going to experience that lack of creativity in different ways.

For me personally, my creativity comes when I find that I just can’t seem to get the right words to express the idea that is forming in my head. I experience it as staring at a sentence knowing that it just isn’t right - that it could be better - that it perhaps isn’t up to the standard that I have come to expect for myself. When that happens, I feel a sense of frustration because I know that I am capable of more - although that belief in itself is also a reassurance because it isn’t like I believe that I am no longer creative, simply that my creativity doesn’t seem to be turned on for the moment.

It’s about flipping that switch. I think of stories I’ve heard of artists like Elton John who claimed that if he hadn’t written the song in 15 minutes, then he would throw it out. He believed that inspiration was something that came quickly. Now, I believe the idea can come fast but I’m not sure that I am likely to throw anything out if it doesn’t form at a miraculous pace and I would suspect that is the same for those who specialise in graphic design and conceptual ideas.

So today is really about exploring that - how do you know that you are experiencing a creative funk, and how do you get out of your own way to change that result?