I’ve been thinking about creative method and inspiration recently, mainly because I’m finally tackling a big project, but also due to my recent induction into Dribbble.
To be clear, I think Dribbble is wonderful, for many of the same reasons Twitter is wonderful; it provides a wee goon such as myself an opportunity to share ideas and interact with people I would never have met, or heard of, for that matter.
My problem, in short, is that the Internet is completely overloaded with inspiration, between social networking, Zootool, Flickr sets, the Top 500 Lists of Top 500 Design Awesomes, countless CSS galleries, etc. Mindy Wagner explains this well in an inspiration overload lament.
Not only is it impossible to keep up, but these sites tend to emphasize glitz and trends over substance (with some exceptions.) For example, my site was featured on some CSS galleries, then its menu was hacked apart for another gallery as a navigation example. “Hey, that button is a circle! Please RT!”
Compounding this, looking at pretty designs and then fiddling with Photoshop or Firebug is fun. Creating and loading content? Building a theme? Debugging IE? No way, let’s goof around with drop shadows and the Add Noise filter. On the downside, this fiddling goes on for about 3 years until one discovers an untapped mine of self-discipline.
So what’s a goon to do? Ignoring the New Awesomeness can be dangerous, in the same way pigeonholing your technical skills can reduce your marketability. Nevertheless, I’m going to try what The Denver Egotist suggests and turn off the Mac, drafting everything out in advance on paper. Though, having already replaced all paper with trackpads and iPhones, I’ll have to make a run to an office supply store.
Worst of all? True inspiration comes from your life, not a screen — but it’s pretty hard to get away from screens. I used to believe computers were the answer, not the problem. Now I’m not so sure.
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