The truth and fact is that if you’re doing something long enough you get better and better at it. Seriously, unless you’re like totally not doing your thing – you can get pretty good at things if you put in the effort. But there are also some other truths about what happens in time. First of all you start seeing things differently. Second of all you get repetitive and it’ll be hard to “think” creatively. Don’t worry though these are some normal symptoms. Of course a nice computer-less vacation would help a lot in such a case, but that’s not always possible. What to do then ?
Experiment more with the way you work
Change something. Change your tool of choice, instead of using photoshop do some work in Pixelmator. Instead of using a mouse use a tablet. Or the other way around. Instead of using your regular monitor try working on a 13″ one on your laptop. Instead of making up the graphics first, do the structure of your project, or start with only text. The best way to keep being creative is to not let boredom jump in along with it’s best friend “routine”. The moment you see you don’t like anything you do anymore – go and change something. And not necessarily the project itself.
Try to imagine yourself using the product or website
Knowing the guidelines try to make something you would enjoy. Sure it sounds easy while it’s not. But instead of making it right away try and visualize it in your head. Go crazy. Take some random pictures and pick the colors from those pictures. Then use those colors as the scheme for your visual project. Then take a picture of it. Use sticky notes. Write about anything that comes to your mind while working. Even stuff like “I F&%&%$^ hate it and I wanna go home”. Even if you won’t get the flow back you’ll have a nice collection.
Make a trophy wall
Sure all those website designs look nice in your online portfolio (if you don’t have one you should, go make it now and then come back here). But your portfolio is just there, somewhere in the internet, and even if you refresh it every five minutes it still doesn’t make you feel much ,right? Well people have always used walls to display their trophies, so why shouldn’t you? Pick your best projects, shrink them to a standard photo size, print them all. Then post them on your wall one by one. Put the current project at the end and write a big question mark on it. Experiment. And if you do make the wall remember to share a picture!