Perhaps you can reuse the design, perhaps not. I am not trying to say it was wasted effort, unless of course you get shafted on the money side. I rarely think anything I do (work-related) is a waste of time. Leisure activities are, of course, an entirely different beast however. I also don’t ever really reuse a design as all my jobs are from scratch, with only other sites used as a reference point to jump off from.

I was just wondering how other designers handle this type of work–do they archive the comps, as I do, or do they just get rid of them and move on? Do they add them to a ‘portfolio’ section of non-finished work? Or do you reuse them for future work? Or, even cooler, do you give them sort of Viking burial to pass them? I think that would be kind of cool.

Anywho, here’s one I worked on recently that was for naught. (Click for larger view)

This comp was for a small book site for the former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles and Flyers. It would / could have been a very cool project with some cool social media strategies involved with it, but it just kind of ran out of steam. Jerry got rich, then lost most of his wealth in some sour real estate deals. He does sound like quite an interesting chap, but he did own the Flyers–boo.

If anyone has need of a sports-based book site with green / grey color scheme, you know who to call, right?

I think this idea is not only important in fine arts, but I also see a huge amount of benefit in my web design. During a normal day I spend upwards of 10 to 11 hours in front of a computer working on some sort of design or social media funzie. To some people, I’m sure this sounds ridiculous and a waste of time, but I love it, and it does pay the bills.

I’m able to engross myself into all sorts of web-goodness during this time, and most of the other time during a day, I’m usually thinking of how I could be doing something on the web better, or at least differently. However, with this sort of schedule it’s very easy of me to get web-tunnel vision. Even though it may sound cool (sarcasm), this can be quite a creative / project de-railer.

Give your eyes a break

This is perhaps the most important part of stepping back from a project. After a while of looking at the same thing over and over, it’s easy for me to begin to write run-on sentences, use poor grammar, and make silly spelling mistakes. Even if this is your own project, things tend to blend together, and I find it begins to get tough to make critical, usable design decisions if I’ve been working on the same project non-stop.

Give your brain a break, as well

Not only can your eyes play tricks on you, so can your mind. Without taking an adequate break from time to time, I might easily misread a project brief and go off in a tangent that’s quite the opposite that the client might want. Or, if I’m working in code, after a while I notice that I have trouble keeping track of where I am in the code–this is a tell-tale sign to me that it’s time to break.

Step away, refresh, and reload

Besides the benefits noted above, stepping back gives me a chance to rethink my creative approach to the project. Something that I might have thought was awesome at first may not seem so awesome upon a second glance. If it makes it through this secondary review, then I usually know this is something good enough to stick around longer. But, I also find many things that are not so great, and with my new fresh approach, it’s easy to spot these and redo or remove them. When I take a break, I also get my mind into something other than what I’m working on. This helps to maybe give me direction, or new inspiration to incorporate into my work. Or, thankfully not often, it gives me time to realize that what I’d been working on is not working, and it’s time to cut my losses.

And if I can’t step away for a while?

We’ve all had projects that kept us glued to our computers and up late at night. In these situations, we can’t afford to come back in the morning, or in a day or two. Even still, stepping away for only a few minutes, and distracting myself with something non-computer related can help make my project much less error prone. Plus, by not focusing on that project 110% for a bit, my brain gets to relax, and thus I find, usually thinks about the project in a different, and often better way.

It’s not always apparent that I need to back away, but it’s something I’ve ingrained into my design / development process. After a while, forcing myself to stay focused just doesn’t bring anything good to the table.

How often do you step away from your work? And, does it benefit you the way it benefits me?

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I am one of those designers who as soon I get the okay on the go-ahead, I am into it full speed ahead. I even declined a New Years party as I was too engrossed in a current project, and also I just didn’t feel like boozing. I’ve found I’ve always been like this, sometimes to a fault. With the decent amount of work I’ve had over the last year or so, I’ve learned a lot about just jumping in head first without knowing which way was up really. But I’ve never been one to be short on new, exciting ideas I can bring to any project. Ultimately most of these ideas never make it anywhere outside my head, but they’re at least there competing for a spot outside.

And while at first I’m 110% into the project (even though 100% is the most amount physically possible, thanks to The Simpsons I know this) and I can’t wait to keep it rolling along, eventually something slows it down. Whether it the creative not being exactly as desired (and the ensuing back and forth), or other priorities from the client, something eventually comes up.

But how do we as designers keep our initial excitement and our brains fresh on the project? I have a few ways that I always follow to keep myself as fresh as I can for any and all kinds of work, so check ‘em out.

Work on personal web projects

This is one of my favorite things to do, and as I noted in my first #p52 post, something that I often don’t see through to the end (d’oh, maybe in ’10 though). I have as many as 10 personal projects that I’m working on at any given time. I may not be actively working on them, but I’m always thinking about them, and taking in what I see and then how this can be applied to them. Ideally, I’ll get around to finishing them (as there are some good ideas), but more importantly it helps to keep me creatively inspired. It also gives me a lab for testing new technologies, strategies, layouts and more–something I wouldn’t normally want to do much of for clients without having tried them before.

Work on print projects

My wife is a marketer and a print designer, so I get to see often what she’s working on (and sometimes I give some unwanted feedback as well). I also try to incorporate print design into as many freelance jobs as I can. I started out in print, but have come fully to the dark side. Or the light side, depending on your stance. Either way, I like getting into a print project because it’s different from a web project in so many different way, plus it helps me to re-evaluate my creative process as a whole. And, it’s very cool to have a final piece that you can hold in your hands–this adds the human element back into design for me.

Find inspiration everywhere

I also like to view and [try to] absorb as much inspiration as I can from everywhere. Not just in blogs and resource round-ups (though they do have merit), but from newspaper ads, billboards, and other printed pieces. I also happen to find inspiration just from the environment I happen to be in. This may sound cliche, but as a designer, as best I can, I try to be always on. From this inspiration, it is important for me to not just regurgitate things I find, but use them in my designs to push myself to where I never would have gone before.

Listen to my favorite tunes

This is probably the most important thing for me to keep focused and creative. Perhaps I’ve become a creature of habit, but when I have music playing, I find that my mind is freed up and the creative juices really start to flow. This is not to say that without music, I cannot be creative, but it just helps me keep going and stay focused.

Want to be better

If I don’t want to be better, then the work I produce won’t ever get any better. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t ever want to reach a point where I feel like I’m good enough at anything. I’m always reading as much about web design, SEO, and social media as I can without my head implode. This helps me to become more comfortable discussing new topics, it also helps to give me a different perspective on these topics, and I often come across new inspiration in this process. I’ve also noted that I try to write cleaner code on every project, and thus not re-make any of my past mistakes.

Literature

This is one’s simple–read a book. There are infinite ways in which this can help stimulate my creativity–from the vivid descriptions authors use to imagining yourself in a different situation in life or even in a different world (nerd alert!).

While I often hope that a project goes smoothly and without many pauses, these are inevitable. So how we deal with these breaks to keep the project at the highest level is almost as important as all the steps outside these pauses.

How do you deal with keeping your projects fresh?

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