“My way to cope with blocks it to set it aside and come back to it in the morning. I find I think best with a few cups of coffee and an early morning work session.”

— Mary Flatley, Brand Manager

“[For creative inspiration,] I go through my saved or ‘liked’ Instagram posts. I find that to be very creatively stimulating, but it requires discipline in the liking and saving process, in order to end up with a very tight collection of images and ideas. Traveling [also] does wonders for my creativity. Always! Especially traveling on my own, when I keep my thoughts to myself, as opposed to immediately sharing them with a companion. If I haven't left town for a while, even taking a new route to work or going to a coffee shop/bar that I haven't been to before gives me a similar fountain of inspiration.”

— Slavka Eberhart-Garah, Brand Manager

“To get into the right space, I do a bunch of research. If I [hit] a block, I stop and go for a walk. Nothing is as bad as pushing myself when I need a walk for fresh ideas. I’ve literally spent three hours coming up with nothing because I didn’t take a break...”

— Dala Botha, Senior Designer

“My go to techniques for [finding a] creative headspace/tips for combatting blocks are:

Make sure my space is clear of distractions.
Put on music I love and dance for a song or two.
Do another creative task to clear my head and get in the creative zone. For example, if I am trying to write, I'll draw or doodle for a bit.
Sleep on it.
Go for a walk in nature.
Make a mind map of the project.”

— Thea Albright, Brand Manager

“Two strategies that I use are to take a brief exercise break (simple bodyweight stuff or jumping rope), and to start over on the project from square one. In the latter case, you're not actually starting over because you've already created significant connective tissue for the project, but ‘starting over’ allows you to discard the false starts and refine the project, [focusing on] its emerging essentials.”

— Josiah Martens, Design Fabricator

Casey Butler Harwood

The Drawn Team’s Creativity Hacks

Our team-tested methods for finding inspiration and feeding creativity.

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