How to Generate Creative Ideas When You're Feeling Stuck

Creative ideas rarely arrive on command. More often, they appear when we create space, stay curious and allow ourselves to explore different ways of thinking.

However they come to you - be ready for them. Whether it be in your car, when you are mowing the lawn or chopping up veggies for dinner.

Embrace creativity and learn from it. Create a space for your creativity. You may want to have a space with inspiration images/articles pinned up - encouraging different ways of solving a problem, or creative solutions to a real world problem.

Use alternative strategies. Get inspired by the world around you. Take a walk. Listen to a passing conversation. Open the dictionary to a random page or listen to a TED talk on something you don't already know about. Draw upon experiences, smells, sounds and what images they conjure up for you.

Your creativity is a skill. It is something to practice. Everyday work it into your day. How you style you make your bed, the way you dress, how you prepare your desk before you work... these are just a few simple ways to get your 'head in the game' and break out of a daily rut. Get your brain thinking differently and you never know what it may spark!

Develop your creative skills. Books like A Smile in the Mind is a great example of creativity and wit brought to graphic design in unexpected ways. There are multiple interviews with designers, visual examples and creative training to enjoy.

Challenge what you already know. If you have a goal - how can you achieve it? Try an alternative way. Already know all of the facts on a topic? Find a new point of view. Look for a problem, then try and fix it. How do you currently come up with your creative ideas? Try something different. Then accept there are even more ways to do everything just mentioned...

Don't disregard creative solutions straight away. Allow them to flow. Write them all down, then judge later.

Great branding doesn't come from copying what's already out there. It comes from understanding a problem, exploring possibilities and allowing creative ideas to evolve into meaningful solutions. As Oscar Wilde says, "Be yourself, everybody else is already taken".

“Where will and idea take you.” - Article and photography by Secret Weapon Creative