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10 ways to stay creative in 2023

Happy New Year people!!!

In this blog post, I discuss ten ways to stay creative in 2014 and not get bogged down with the reality of getting back to a day job after the new year party is over.

1. Practice your creativity

Practice makes perfect so make sure you do keep practising regardless of your creative hobby. For my profession, I realise that I need to keep abreast of technological advances and also improve my graphic design ability to take the next level from advanced to a master’s. To improve my skills regularly I find websites like YouTube ( for free videos ), lynda.com and teamtreehouse.com a great source of improving your skill set and also improving your creativity as you will know what will and won’t work when designing websites and graphics.

2. 365-day sketch challenge

As you may know, I also like to create art as well as graphics, brands and websites but trying to find the time or inclination to draw and paint whilst trying to earn a living working 9 – 5.30 can be challenging. If you can allocate 30 minutes a day to try to create a sketch it will make you a better creative and probably cross over in your day job too.

3. 365 photography challenge

Those who feel they can’t paint ( although everyone can! ) or don’t feel they have time may prefer to point and click every day to record a special moment in their lives.

This is a great way to create a pictorial journey and with the advent of social media programs like Instagram it could be quite easy to keep a log book of what you are doing even if the highlight simply is washing the dog, or sending an email, it’ll make you look at mundane things in a whole new way, enhancing your creativity for that next project you think seems difficult to make exciting!

4. Challenge yourself

Have you become complacent and comfortable in where you are in life? Is your life becoming a bit dull? We all aim for comfortable living and able to do what we want when we want and living in a nice house with nice things is the dream of every living human but sometimes difficulties and challenges can help you advance yourself and your creativity more than being comfortable can. Setting some challenges or pushing yourself through difficulties will make you look at life and things slightly differently which will of course, once again, improve your creativity!

5. Study new things you’ve wanted to learn

Want to be an ice skater? Learn how to do it. Want to fly a plane? Do it! New experiences open up new creative avenues for you that haven’t been tapped before. Push your boundaries and be determined to learn something new you never know where new skills will lead you even if it isn’t directly related to creative professions.

6. Travel to new places

When you travel to new places it really does open your mind, my solo journey to Colombia a while back was an eye opener and this year’s travel to Norway and Mexico. Travelling opens you up to new people, new ways of living, new beliefs and new cultures and new art. These experiences will stay with you once you return back to your studio. The world is a huge and fascinating place and if you don’t at least attempt to travel to some destinations I believe it will keep your mind shut, they do say, ‘travelling broadens the mind’.

7. Believe in yourself and keep going

It is really easy to get demotivated, particularly in January, many people get the January blues straight after Christmas, it was so much fun and very relaxing but don’t worry, you will get over it!

To try and help you get over the feeling of sadness that the Christmas fun times are over put your favourite music on, get some positive vibes flowing and shake that booty, Stevie Wonder needs you!

8. Turn the TV OFF

Our lives are becoming more and more full of constant distractions! TV, computer games, smartphones, social media ( although handy for business I admit… ) and gossip…it is all endless! Take some Zen time and turn away all that nonsense and focus within, thats where the creativity resides and once you stop focusing on mind-numbing media you will find you have acres of time to improve your own skills and creativity.

9. Study the works of others

When it comes to painting and drawing I try not to study the works of others as it can influence the way I work myself but sometimes when the creativity is dried up it can be helpful.

Whether we like to admit it or not all creative professionals are influenced by each other and each creative develops a ‘style’ and usually in the style of something that has come previously by those with more experiences in life. It may not be an exact representation but studying other artists and designers that you admire it can help boost your own creative thinking and your own processes.

It really is not a bad idea to take elements of others’ ideas as long as you can add your own touch to the finished product ( and of course, you are not breaching copyright! ).

10. Do things that make you (and others) happy

It’s no rocket science to figure out that if you are happy it is easier to be creative and become motivated to act on your creative impulses and likewise when you make people happy, even a complete strangers, it is a feeling of satisfaction that you know someone is feeling good.

That positive vibes that you feel after your good deeds or just generally doing things that make you happy give you the motivation you need for the creative sparks to be ignited within you and who knows, helping others may just inspire your creativity and artwork in a theme for a painting or making a connection with a like mind you may even work together on a project!

How do you find your creative sparks when you have a creative block? Please share your own ideas of how you stay creative below.

A Review of the Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF)

During the many British lockdowns due to COVID, I knew I wanted to improve my design skillset. I had acquired over ten years of web and branding design experience but this wasn’t enough. I knew I could improve how I approached my work further by learning UX. As someone who has an interest in ‘why people do things’ and psychology; UX felt like a natural progression. I wanted to upskill myself to add that extra UX string to my bow and build better websites. I began my journey into UX by looking at various courses that I could find across the web. That is when I came across The Interaction Design Foundation. A platform that appeared to have many benefits to someone new to UX or wanting to transition. In this article, I will review my experience of the IxDF.

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What makes a good therapist website?

Are you a therapist wondering what makes a good therapist website? It can be difficult to know where to start when you are building your online presence and knowing how to improve it. Perhaps you don’t have a website but are considering building it yourself through a drag and drop builder, or maybe you are considering hiring a professional? Whatever your situation, in this article we discuss ten of the top tips to build an amazing website that helps you and your users! Continue “What makes a good therapist website?”

The importance of sketching & wireframing

It’s great, you have a vision in your mind of how you would like your website to look, maybe you’ve got a mood board and some examples of other people’s websites and a list of pages you need to create in order to develop the perfect website but have you considered just how important it is to sketch out and mock up a layout for your masterpiece? In this blog post, we discuss the importance of sketching and wireframing.

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The website grid, a digital frontier that makes the web beautiful

Beautiful web design doesn’t just come out of thin air, great web design comes from a carefully planned and thought out process that not only communicates a product or service but is functional, easy to navigate, communicates the right message and is as enjoyable as possible. To help make a website beautiful it is usually the case that a web designer will ( and should ) use an invisible grid system. In this blog post, we are going to discuss three ways you can use the grid system to create beautiful web experiences.

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Monaco Datacentre Cloud Event 2015 Flash Animation

Working in-house for MigSolv data centre & Migration Solutions consultancy I was required to design a large welcome screen digital advert that could be either still or animated. Realising that I had some time to create this design I decided to challenge myself to create a flash animation rather than a still image due to its ability to be more compelling to view than a still image. Continue “Monaco Datacentre Cloud Event 2015 Flash Animation”

Great Design Requires Great Hosting

You may have designed the best website in the world, but it may not benefit you or your business at all unless you have a great web host, too. With all of the options that are available, it can be difficult to figure out what web hosting service will meet your needs. There are several different characteristics that you should look for when you are choosing the best web host for your website.

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BlackArt Album Cover and the design process

I recently acquired some freelance work via Twitter from across the Atlantic where a Philadephia up and comping rapper required a digital painting for his new album. It was the first time I had really considered using Photoshop for digital painting and I knew how difficult painting faces can be using normal acrylics or oils but always up for a challenge and with nothing to lose I gladly accepted the challenge and began discussing the design brief that Max required.

Conversing over Twitter

Being in different countries and a few thousand miles apart separated by an ocean communicating through Twitter and email was a breeze. Max knew exactly the style of album cover he wanted, he had a vision and he explained to me what it was. Continue “BlackArt Album Cover and the design process”

How to write a blog post that has longevity

To write a blog post that has longevity can seem difficult. How come you get a lot of traffic at the start and then less new audience members appear? Blogging is not a new thing, anyone who is anyone and any business who takes their digital marketing strategy seriously will be blogging at least once per week but why are some blogs more successful than others? Why aren’t you getting much traffic and why are other blogs gaining lots of comments when you aren’t? In this blog post, I discuss several ways in which to improve your blog writing skills performance. Continue “How to write a blog post that has longevity”

Build a genuine Twitter following using Twiends

As a regular blogger about all things graphics, web, brand and digital marketing I realise the importance of social media in expanding your reach to a larger audience. Problem is, if you only have a small following then you are only shouting your message to a few hundred at most. If you have bought followers all I can say is… silly you! Bought followers tend to be fake followers and as about as useful as a zombified headless chicken. In this blog post, I am going to discuss, in a very honest way, the benefits and drawbacks of a program I have stumbled across called Twiends. Take a quick look at their promo video below and you too can build a genuine Twitter following.

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