@David – thanks for the perspective. It seems the general consensus is that slumps are normal and happen to the best of us… but I sure wish they didn’t. At least I have the good fortune of working for myself so I can take the time to sort things out. I’m sure if I had a boss s/he would not appreciate me flaking out the way I have lately!

Louisa – I agree! I love seeing what others are doing, but sometimes it’s more harmful than helpful. It usually depends on my mindset when I’m browsing. But in this case, that’s what actually kicked off the “uninspiration” in the first place. Needless to say I haven’t surfed as much over the holidays. ;)

I think I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, I really like your avatar. It works very well, and certainly stands out amongst others.

Anyway, back on topic. A creative slump is part and parcel of being a designer, kind of like an off-form sports star.

I find that taking a break, or concentrating on something else non-work-related helps. See the bigger picture, and realise the chances we have in life.

Have a great festive break!

I’m bound and determined to figure out the comment problem. I really bugs me but I have no idea how to isolate the issue or where to begin with testing. :( It’s possible that it’s theme related, since this layout spawned from another one that had the problem too. Ah well, it’s on the list anyway.

Hehe, I only leveled up my Forsaken mage to 58 (before the expansion came out). I couldn’t take the grinding anymore. It just wasn’t fun. LOTRO is fun though. I’ve maxed out an elven hunter (lv 50) and it’s just so cool to run around Middle Earth! PvP still needs some work though. I will give Blizzard the props for having great polish on WoW. LOTRO is still bumpy, but I like it. Let me check my email and see if I have one of those 10 day friend passes ;)

On the comment – you’re right I have had problems with this before and it is so irritating. I’ve scoured the codex and forums and cannot find a solution. It has something to do with the number of links, even though I’ve upped the allowed number. Also it seems to be random, sometimes only 2 links with hang it up, sometimes 4. The max is set to 5, so I don’t get it.

I can’t see your comment on the page when signed in, but I can see it in the Comments panel of the admin. I think what I’ll do is edit your comment so it’s sans links, then refer to your links directly in my post. That be alright?

@David – Your comment got marked as spam so I missed it before, but thanks for stopping in! You’ve got a good point, and I do love what I do. I feel lucky to have creative control over my projects (most of the time), and the ability to map out my day the way I want. It certainly helps, since creativity can rarely be produced on-demand.

@Tara – I like the idea of doing a mood board, though I’ve never done one so I’m not really sure how. Even if it just ended up being a hodge-podge of magazine cutouts I think it’s worth a try. :) I’ve done something similar with screenshots, where I take a bunch from different sites I like and then drop them all into Photoshop and start arranging elements in different ways… but it doesn’t get me away from my machine which I think I need to do more often.

Oh and I do love tea… but I’m a coffee girl at heart. :)

I think we have all been there. I can have weeks when all the design I do works well – kind of effortless, then there will be one week where the ideas don’t flow and you get completely stuck in a rut. Its kind of frustrating – you know you can do it but nothing works.

Word association – spider diagrams always help me and when I am really suck I result to a mood board – i buy a stack of magazines somehow related to a project and print out bits I find online – cut them out and stick them on A1 mountboards. The actual process of doing this actually gets you away from the computer which i am sure helps when you are in a rut and you also get a feel for the type of idea you are trying to portray.

Apart from that do what the Brits do – get a cup of tea – cures everything you know :)

About my first comment, since you can see it, can you copy the code, sign out as yourself and enter it as though you were me (or send it back over here and I’ll enter it again). It seems to me you’ve had this problem before…

@Hair Solutions – ??

@JamieO – I’m not sure what you mean about my mental office being a sterile palette, but I love the deck. If only I had a workspace like that! Then again I’d probably never get anything done because I’d be on the beach all day. :)

Imagine this deck as your workspace, what artistic gold could you build then?