George,
Haha, what inspired this post was exactly one of those three hour projects that is taking me two weeks! I like to mull ideas over in my head, too. I usually do that while working out at the gym—and then I get a really good idea and nearly forget it becaues I can’t write it down! “Creative projects require you to be creative.” Hehe, new favorite quote of the day.

mitch,
I react much the same depending on how I perceive the other person. So I’m guessing you really, really like networking online I think different personalities face every situation differently because there are different underlying fears. If you like personality tests, I so highly recommend taking the Riso-Hudson Enneagram test (scroll down to the bottom). In my opinion, it the best one out there because it allows for changes in base personality based on how mature one is. I’m a One, The Reformer, if you’re curious.

I was browsing over ur profile and noticed ur type is INTJ as well like me. Maybe diff. designers face designing or creativity also based on that?

With most jobs you can turn off your brain for a while and still get the job done, but with a creative project you NEED that brain! (not saying that designers are smarter then everyone else, LOL, just that creative projects require you to be creative ).

On a different note, I know that if I start a project without mulling it over in my head for a few days I get designers block badly (a 3 hour project has been known to take me 2 weeks), if I spend time thinking about it in advance I usually have a good idea what I want to do with the project.

I also like what you said about copying other designs, I usually start any web design project by blatantly ripping off the design of a site that I like alot (sometimes one I’ve already designed, sometimes not), I then hack away at it in PhotoShop until it looks nothing whatsoever like the original design, it just helps so much to have that starting point.

All the best!

George - LogoDesign.org´s last blog post: Imitation We Can Believe In: Plagarizing Obama

I think psychology plays an enormous role in creativity, absolutely. I have several clients that could all give me the exact same feedback and I’ll react differently to each one based on how I perceive them and the relationship I have with each.. sometimes I’ll say to my self “pfft, what a wanker they are”, or I’ll get angry and scream “what do they know?!”.. then there’s the total opposite, “Yeah, cool, I see that, no problem”..

After I realised that it was all in my head, I sat back and thought about it and try to not be bothered by others comments when they’re negative, and instead try to get something out of it.. I often get a better job at the end of it because of really trying to figure out what’s going on inside the clients head, rather than my own..

and also, what fun is it doing what we love if we let other people get us down about it? they’re entitled to their opinion as much as we are.

lovely post lauren, really dig it
Alex Charchar´s last blog post: Music and the Artist