BLOCK

Things that are bothering me at the moment:
1. I realized I have a John Mayer song on my ipod, and it's playing right now. When did this happen??
2. I'm using my ipod (w/headphones) at work because there's been a fucking baby crying ALL MORNING at the daycare center next door. That's it-no kids for me. Ever.
3. I feel like shit. I went to a free stand-up comedy event at the Parlor yesterday. Half of the comics were hilarious. Half made me squirm awkwardly in my seat.
4. I don't know what I want to have for lunch. I'm sick of everything there is around here. And I'm sick of spending money.
5. Creative block!!!!

It's taken me like, three full days to come up with any kind of layout design for this curriculum overview I need to have done in the next 2 weeks. I'm reminding myself of stop-and-go traffic. I add one element, then spend 20 minutes on google or stumble, then add another element. It's not because I'm lazy. I swear. I've just figured out my method for unblocking the block.
I stumbled on this article about how different designers beat their creative blocks. One guy (I forget who he was) said "What are you talking about? I never have blocks. I just design. And then design some more. I'm always inspired."
Bullshit.
I think if you're constantly "inspired" you're not ever really inspired. It's like being constantly, 100% happy. Would you really know what happiness really felt like if you'd never compared it to sad?

Anyway. I'm rambling because this is my latest attempt to unblock my brain. Because my method IS to stray and distract myself. Every 10 minutes or so I have to go look at something else, look at some other design, figure out what it is that makes it so good and then shelve it away in my personal repertoire.

The screen grab tool on my mac is like, seriously the greatest thing ever. Look at some of the amazing things I've found:









Each of these designs is so freaking amazing for such different reasons. The entire coliseum built with type? Amazing. The colors of the flourishes and antique paper used on a book cover? So pretty. The 60's SHAG inspired birth announcement? I didn't think two colors could ever go together so well.

Yet I'm still stuck. I have the bare bones, the skeleton of a layout for this thing. I probably just need 20 more hours of distraction:






















Last Google Search (giving LK credit here): Pattern Brush Corners
Listening to: Girl and the Sea//Beams