Seek Outside Inspiration

Ideas don’t just come out of thin air. You might think they do but they are a product of our environment, conditioning, and other input. If you are struggling to come up with a new idea or visual approach don’t just sit there and try to force out something successful. First of all, you might give yourself a headache, and second of all there are much more productive and fun ways to come up with new ideas.

Do an internet image search using words related to your concept. For example, if you are trying to design a business card for a company that does something abstract, you could take words from their mission statement as a jumping of point. If the company says that it “fosters cooperation between businesses from all areas of the country, fostering a collaborative and profitable environment for all,” you might be stumped, since no visuals relate clearly to such a thing. But a good way to get your brain flowing is to search using some of these terms. Try “fostering,” “country,” “fostering,” “collaboration,” profit,” and “environment”. Often these will result in unexpected and helpful results and give you yet another avenue to search.

Be careful not to get distracted and loose track of what you are doing, but searching for new ideas this can be fun and refreshing!