4 ways to tell that a designer has mental block

Inside:This month we focus

on a designer’s worst nightmare...

THE Mental block!

WALLPAPER MAGAZINE, ISSUE #27 December 16 2012

INSIDE:FOUR PRIME EXAMPLES OF MENTAL BLOCK.

➢

VISCOMM.THE MORE YOU SEE, THE MORE YOU KNOW

W hether you’re trying to solve a

tough problem, start a business,

get attention for that business

or write an interesting article, creative

thinking is crucial. The process boils

down to changing your perspective

and seeing things differently than you

currently do.

People like to call this “thinking outside

of the box,” which is the wrong way

to look at it. Just like Neo needed to

understand that “there is no spoon” in

the film The Matrix, you need to realize

“there is no box” to step outside of.

You create your own imaginary boxes

simply by living life and accepting certain

things as “real” when they are just

as illusory as the beliefs of a paranoid

delusional. The difference is, enough

people agree that certain man-made

concepts are “real,” so you’re viewed

as “normal.” This is good for society

overall, but it’s that sort of unquestioning

consensus that inhibits your natural

creative abilities.

So, rather than looking for ways to

inspire creativity, you should just realize

the truth. You’re already capable of

creative thinking at all times, but you

have to strip away the imaginary mental

blocks (or boxes) that you’ve picked up

along the way to wherever you are today.

I like to keep this list of 10 common ways

we suppress our natural creative abilities

nearby when I get stuck. It helps me

realize that the barriers to a good idea

are truly all in my head.

- Brian Clark

BR I A N C L A RK

3

‘VISCOMM’ | ‘Wallpaper*’ MagazineIssue #27

What ’ s a l l t h i s a b o ut?

4

As individuals we all lead different walks

of life, some of us are adventures,

some of us are cautious, a lot of us

like indulgence and decadent luxuries

whilst many of us base our lifestyle on

creating a bodily temple for the world to

envy, but what does tie all those walks of

life together is a shared passion, a passion

that craves creativity and impact, yes this

passion can be found in a designer.

Whilst enthusiasm, grit, determination

and dedication are all required for a

designer to be successful, even us clever,

under-rated puppeteers of todays visual

world have a kryptonite, and so in this

insert of ‘Wallpaper’ magazine, Includes

a ‘VISCOMM’ article that is based on

the body language shown and sometimes

unappreciated by even the very well-

rounded designers and those who work

along side the offender/victim of a certain

thought-seizing parasite.

In this article we will try to determine and

diagnose just 4 examples that you as a

designer can both look out for in fellow

designers, and most importantly in your

self.

You may not know you have it. It sneaks

up on you when you least expect it, and

when does strike it can mean breaking

point for both your creative gene and

your sanity, and some may say this is to

raise paranoia amongst the elite that

are ‘designers‘ but it is like that bacteria

that lives with in all of us, you may not

feel, think or acknowledge this inevitable

plague, but let me reassure you...

We are all at one time or another victims

of ‘Mental block‘.

‘VISCOMM’ | ‘Wallpaper*’ Magazine Issue #27

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‘ ThePencil tap’.1

7

It’s well known that ‘The pencil tap’ is one of the most common of

the body language defaults when it comes to exploiting a mental

block. The progressive beat of the (at the time) useless wooden

lead stick is as frustrated as the designer holding it, its almost as

if the nerve endings and pencil collaborate with what starts of as

just a few beats per minute onto whatever surface is closest. After

a while the constant beating of the pencil formulates an orchestra

which is normally accompanied by the monotone grumble of the

obsessive and in-tolerable composer or the drum pedal beat of the

size 10 brogue against the stained office carpet.

After a while you come out of this solitary state of time wasting

and wake-up to the fact that tapping a pencil 75 times a minute

accomplices’ nothing other than a hardly-recognizable chorus to

the Bee Gees hit ‘staying alive’ which then stays in your hollow tin

dome, and a severely beaten pencil that is probably well on it’s way

to breaking into four different segments of lead. This is not good

for the pencil and it certainly is no good for you as a designer.

And thats just you as an individual, if your in the room with multiple

co-workers, partners or regular Starbucks go-ers working on a

screenplay you can bet that your negative working process will

eventually rub off on them, that is of course presuming non of

them stood up, walked furiously up to you and told you where to

shove your yellow and black HB-2 Soft lead.

We have all done it in the past and we are probably going to be

offenders in the future but if we can find a way to channel the

built-up frustration and anger, then hopefully we can provide an

alternate method of coming up with creative and constructive

design and help prevent a truly annoying and disgusting habit.

If you are a DEFCON one pencil tapper then don’t worry, this kind

of mental block behavior is very treatable with just a break from

your funk, a hot cup of tea and maybe a 10-15 minute breather

away from anything design based (unless you are on your deadline

day and very short on ideas, in this case you might want to hurry

things along a little.) Once you have got out of that stressful mind

frame its a lot more probable to come back to the drawing board

with more than a broken pencil and loss of will to live.

If you come back from a break and this has made you too relaxed

and left you in a state of laziness then sorry but the metaphorical

hill just got steeper. You need not be afraid of your possibilities and

try taking on a mentality of ‘there are no stupid ideas‘ and see if

you can come up with maybe something out of the box better than

originally planned, however if you start cooking up ideas for what

to have for dinner tonight then you’ve gone to far, and is probably

the product the 10-15 minute break that we recommended earlier.

Stress Levels:You can spend hours amongst hours in the waiting room of

your GP with force-in-juiced stress and boiling blood but if your

constantly pencil tapping then you can bet your bottom dollar that

the elevation in stress is down to work. Now like we said before

being a pencil tapper is a very mild side-effect of mental block and

so the mental process that your in (or not in) traditionally doesn’t

cause to much stress and is normally kept to a safe reading.


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8 2 ‘ The

No-Pointer ’.

92T

he second example of common body language behavior

shown the cancer of mental block is named ‘The No-Pointer‘

and this comes from the fact that whilst Michael Jordan gets

payed heaps of money for throwing a ball into a net about 23.9ft

feet away, however you throwing a scrunched up ball of failure into

a (earth-saving) recycling bin doesn’t help you or cleaning lady and

it sure does not pay like the NBA teams in fact quite often if your

not coming up with ideas then you don’t get payed at all!.

It may seem harsh but this approach to design can come across as

plain lazy, and whilst you think your biding your time with bad ideas

until one turns good, another designer is polishing his pitch to the

same client. With feet up and morale down this can often but you

in to a further mental slump as well as a physical one.

Now this rather lethargic and laid back approach is all in all lazy,

arrogant and bad for your soon to be scuffed desk, but how does

it look to the people that surround you? Imagine your boss walks

in and your sat disappointment and refined at your desk starring

at a computer screen, at least you have time to minimize the

game of mine-sweeper (which is also beating you) and answer

any interrogation with ‘Just thinking of that one in a million idea

boss‘ which is by no means going to work but if you compare that

with your body reclined like a deck chair in Malaga and a bin over-

flowing with company paper... I know which one I’d rather have

happen.

So how do you counter that problem of mental block when

you look like deflated tire at the side of the M6? Well first of

all your body position needed to drastically converted into a

positive and solid frame where the blood can move freely around

your body allowing both you and your muscles to work functionally

and efficiently.

After being in such a sloppy and unprofessional sate you may feel

light headed when you finally remember this article and come to

your senses so its best to get one or two minutes of fresh air. Straight

after the breather you need to be right back in to ‘The Zone‘, maybe

pull some paper balls out of the bin, analyze and perhaps you see

(amongst the doodles of Simpson’s characters) a problem in the

way you were organizing your ideas and maybe this will alter your

whole though-pattern for the better. Its true that a clean slate is

a clean mind and that could be represented by your surroundings

so after those quick few minutes analyzing and correcting your

failures of the past why not have a spring clean around your work

environment and help save the earths environment. The more you

screw up the more trees are paying for it.

Stress Levels:Now it seems to get your self into ‘the no-pointer’ state anyway

that your probably a bit of a ‘chiller’ so when it comes to stress the

readings aren’t going to be radical however come deadline day you

can be sure they will have increased, so why let it get to that state?

Make sure your preprepared and better than the you that you that

2 weeks prior had nothing to show for actual potential.


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MENTALBLOCK

MENTALBLOCK

12 3 ‘ The

Head Rush.’

133 ‘ The

Head Rush.’

Whilst its true that we all have little tells when it comes to

mental block, the closer you are to a client’s deadline,

whether that be for an advertising company, fashion shoot

or house showing no matter what type of designer you are we can

all become captive to ‘The Head Rush’.

Whilst this method is extreme and radical, and you may look at

the example and think “how could someone get to this point” it

is actually quite common. Maybe the frustration of mentally being

restrained is too painful for the victim to ensure and so physically

getting blood and oxygen to the brain can be seen as a catalyst and

a in-genius solution to waking up any non-functioning brain cells?

(Although were pretty much sure thats not scientifically proven).

Seeing from an onlookers point of view is one of those one in a blue

moon opportunities so obviously the subject is most probably going

to find themselves on the wrong end of a few snigger’s and finger

points but actually as the poor soul demonstrating this unorthodox

the case of mental block, it is anything but a laughing matter so if

you ever find yourself to be one of the on-lookers, I would make

sure that your at least 20 feet away and clear of any sharp office

stationary. It wouldn’t seem so funny with a blood stained Hugo

Boss suit and missing pinky.

Finding yourself in this unnatural, unflattering and lets face

it inhumane predicament is defiantly a cry for help so here

at ‘VISCOMM’ we want to let you know that yes this is an

intervention but no your not beyond gaining back some creative

knowledge, clear perspective and a little shred of dignity so pay

close attention.

First of all congratulations on physically making that position

possible and second of all snap out of it. Physically sitting 90o on

a backless chair is not just foolish in the way it looks but is also a

bigger threat to your well-being, say you by some miracle have an

idea whilst mid-’Head Rush’ the chances are your going to be so

excited to join the rest of us on this planet, that you will force your

body sideways which either see your tip the chair and you along

side it or forcing the chair to move leaving you to hit a wall with

an unprotected head. The main safety risk actually comes from the

amount of blood being allowed to the brain therefore building the

pressure that will either give you a noggin that feels like its been

injected with a pressure valve or you will pass out, leaving you with

no brace of impact and more importantly less time once you’ve

come round to your deadline.

Stress Levels:This could see a huge increase in stress levels as well as blood

pressure, so now whenever you feel like you need to get a different

angle on your surrounding environment make a beverage go

outside and see the sky as your blank canvas. Good luck!

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14 4 All- Nighter.’

‘ The . . .

154 All- Nighter.’

The dreaded ‘All-Nighter‘, possibly the worst side-effect of

mental block. Designers who endure this mental torture don’t

have nightmares about deadline misses, sloppy punctuation

and loss or refusal of jobs only because they can’t close their eyes

to allow for a nightmare.

The constant light of the alarm clock normally puts a reality-

checking stop to any hope that you had of getting seven, six or

even just five hours of rest, your mind thinks (or more like wishes) it

was twelve-hundred hours yet the time keeper heavily reminds you

its three-hundred hours.

Now as a spouse to a designer suffering from mental block it is

unspoken duty to try and make the victim as comfortable and

relaxed as possible and this can only be done by taking their mind of

work. To tell a designer suffering from mental block apart from your

average insomniac-Joe is very precise and calculated, for example

wide open eyes are prominent. This is normally an indication that

they are physically trying to see something that just isn’t there

mentally. A lack of warming sheets are abandoned flesh that feels

claustrophobic and contained by the sheets as if that is the reason

for lack of ideas but where here to tell you to stop making things

worse and in-fact embrace the 98% Egyptian cotton sheets, lay

your head in a cool, comfortable sate of meditation and get your

head right for the next day of battle. Who knows, the war could be

won with just a good 40 winks under your belt.

As designers we are naturally determined and motivated beings

however if you start to take your problems to bed then you

need to realise that the resting of your body and mind is the

right thing to do. When you are obsessing about an idea that could

{or most probably couldn’t) be ground breaking when its late into

the afternoon, it would defiantly be helpful to jot down a note and

thumbnail or two and then be excited tor the next day of designing

and go to bed full of hope and optimism, if this is then not the case

the next day when you realise the concept is about as useful as

de-icer in the summer then you have a new day and a fresh start.

Now for anyone suffering from the ‘All-Nighter’

they won’t actually remember something like this that they read

three weeks ago however like we said earlier if they can’t listen

to us then they always have there spouse, Some of the more

obvious techniques need be reminded however anyway of getting

that person laid beside to fall sleep in preparation for there future

is priceless. And remember “in sickness and in health” well this

people is the sickness of an otherwise immortal such as a designer

Stress Levels:Now we all now the side effects of ‘All-Nighters’, low attention

span, drowsiness horrendously looking blood shot eyes with heavy

carrier bag-like qualities but what is most defiantly dangerous is

the levels in which stress can reach when the body physically can’t

rest. There is a reason why this is left till last and its because the

health threat through stress is far greater than the other examples.

Hopefully that motivates you on its own! And by the way... don’t

stay up worrying about that last statement. Stay fresh in your mind

and you can bet you’ll have much better chance of staying fresh as

a designer.


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21 3

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2 43 Warning!In the case of any symptoms

w in this article becoming reality remember to stay calm,

Remember that as a designer... ‘ You are better than the block.’


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19Issue #27


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This insert has been the result of mental block.

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4 ways to tell that a designer has mental block