Change Your Environment

• Decorate a wall with old or new designs ripped out from magazines, put up king size posters of your favorite designers or artist, find music that inspires you. Decorate your work environment with flowers.

Other Creative Methods

Have you ever tried practicing any of the methods below? Give it a try, you’ll be surprised.

• Get Relaxed – Take a moment to do something that makes you happy; that brings you joy; that you love; that centers you. Meditate, take a walk, go for a swim, read something that puts you in a good mood, write a diary – writing down your thoughts.
• Give Gratitude - Thinking about all things you are grateful for produces a positive energy flow and vibration. As you feel the love in your heart for all the wonderful blessings and gifts in your life, you will instantly relax and feel all warm-and-fuzzy inside. In that moment of warmth and love, you are open to creative energy.
• Tickle Your Imagination – Imagination is highly visual. Try closing your eyes, and imagine that you are in a scene, any scene. Okay – pick your ideal scene, practice seeing the details of your environment in this scene. See the colours, the textures, touch something. What does it feel like? What do you hear? What do you smell? What is the temperature like? Etc. This makes you more relaxed and gives you gratitude also.
• Be In the Moment - Every outstanding musician or artist will tell you that when they are creating great music or art, there are no thoughts, they are completely in the moment, and experiencing flow. Athletes call this ‘being in the zone‘. You can practice present moment awareness by giving full attention to whatever you are doing: eating, washing dishes, making your bed, etc. Meditation helps tremendously.
• Be Inspired - Practice seeing beautiful things that moves you emotionally. Flip through a book containing thought provoking images, go to an art gallery, read something inspirational, talk to someone who calms you.
• Draw - This may sounds funny, but one of the effective ways to practice getting in touch with your creative side is to start drawing. Drawing forces you to see things differently.
• Be Open - Never shut down any idea that comes your way, do not make judgments about it. Appreciate any idea that comes to you, even ones that seem “stupid” or “obvious”. This way, you encourage more creative ideas to surface from your being.
• Think on Paper - With a bunch of loose paper, start jotting ideas down. Write everything down that comes to your head: random words, phrases, ideas, thoughts: sometimes you might want to circle things and draw lines to connect ideas. When an inspiration hits, follow it. If you suddenly have a different idea, jot it down somewhere on the page or in a new page.

What other methods do you use to get ideas fast?

Hugs to all, T

Below you will find a few sites that I enjoy and I hope you will too!

http://www.fontstock.net

http://simplythebest.net/fonts/

http://www.urbanfonts.com/

http://fontfeed.com/archives/the-logos-of-web-20/

Well, I was surfing looking for something to inspire me… and I came across some awesome sites. There is a lot of information and some great ideas. I hope you enjoy….

flickr.com

cssbeauty.com

webcreme.com

dynamicdrive.com

styleboost.com

lots of hugs, T

• RED: With its aggressive, stimulating and sexy nature, assertive attention and provoking action, the red is impossible to ignore.
• PINK: Depending on its saturation or value, pink evokes varied mood swings. Magenta and fuchsia are perceived as sensual and theatrical. But water-down the red in lighter pinks and the raw sensuality of red is replaced with gentle romanticism.
• ORANGE: Inheriting some of the drama of red, orange is tempered by the friendly humour of yellow. It’s the colour that stimulates the appetite and radiates with warmth and vitality.
• YELLOW: Yellow and black is the most unignorable colour combination in nature – tigers, stinging bees – it’s the colour that says: you’d better pay attention to me.
• BROWN: Rustic, durable, wholesome and deliciously rich are just some of the traits of the colour that’s often associated with earth and home, substance and stability.
• BLUE: Ever noticed how many corporations and financial institutions use blue in their brands? That’s because blue is seen as dependable and committed. It is also the colour we often associate with calm and serenity. Darken the blue and you’ll add an instant authority, credibility and power to it.
• GREEN: Because of its association with nature and foliage, green in design can be used almost like a neutral colour: greens never clash with red or pink roses, yellow sunflowers, lilacs or bluebells.
• PURPLE: It’s perhaps the most enigmatic and complex colour, with the range of meanings – from royal to elegant to spiritual to mysterious. Purple is often favoured by very creative and eccentric people who are not afraid of appearing daring.
• WHITE: Not surprisingly white communicates purity, sense of clarity and simplicity. White is also perceived by the human eye as a bright colour, that’s why it works so well in contrast with all other colours.
• BLACK: People see black as the most dramatic, heavy, powerful, classic colour with an up-scale look. Because of its extreme contrast to white, black and white is the quintessential combination of depth and clarity, power and innocence.

Remember to start strong and end strong in everything you do! hugs, T

www.morguefiles.com

www.imageafter.com

www.sxc.hu

www.dreamstime.com

So… here I am a graphic designer of 15 years experience.. and I would like to give a little advice to all those newly graduates and youngins of the graphic world… before you set up any files and you know this is going to be printed… check with the vendor for their printing specs. Everyone is different. Check on which format they use, are they printing in RGB or CMYK, what dpi should you be working with, oh and there is bleed! Good Luck