When the creative well runs dry

Yeesh. Some days it is so hard to be creative - I can practically feel my brain shutting down as a result of having to come up with too many creative concepts in the last week. The downside of this job (besides the pay, the insane deadlines, the restrictive clients and the unpaid overtime) is that sometimes, your inner-creative-dude doesn't want to play ball. I have been doing this long enough to realise that this is a temporary state, but it still gives me the heebie-jeebies.

It seems kind of unfair that I am expected to be creative, on demand, on a daily basis. I imagine writers/fashion designers/web developers get at least a few days of day-dreaming and high-end distraction to break up the days of frenetic activity. I guess it is the nature of the beast that is graphic design, which is why it tends to attract neurotic types such as myself (did I say neurotic? I meant hard-working perfectionist who pays attention to detail).

I strongly believe that the downtime is as important as the time you spend busting a gut in this job - it is always during lunch, or when you are out for a walk getting some much-needed sunshine, or staring out of the window that the best ideas come to you. All the more reason to down tools, take a long coffee break and go across the road for a rainbow freddo (do it now!).