Design Creativity Exercises

A collection of photographs that explore color and shape.

Stuck for an idea? Don't know where to start? Kickstart your brain and your desktop publishing projects with creative thinking, books, creativity exercises, sketches, and templates.

Where do you get ideas? Where do you find inspiration? Whether you come up with your design ideas by looking at the work of others, studying how other designers approach the design process, or by looking at pictures or the world around you, one of these books is sure to provide just the right type of brainstorming and creativity boost you need.

We all have some level of creativity within us. As with other activities, you can teach yourself to engage in more creative thinking. Sometimes creativity requires us to look at things from new perspectives. Learn to unleash your inventive genius by thinking backwards. Here is an appropriate acronym containing five steps to creative thinking --...

Want a little software help to get the creative juices flowing? Use Brainstorm Bungy for group brainstorming. It provides a simple, fun, and flexible means of recording a group's ideas and then evaluating them against agreed and weighted criteria. Trial version available.

Ideas just not coming? Take a deep breath... Enchanted Mind has breathing exercises to help you clear your mind then fill your mind.

You can't always trust your eyes as these examples at Enchanted Mind illustrate.

Enchanted Mind discusses techniques such as creative mathematics, creative illusions, creative chess, and the art of doodling.

Start with a scribble. JPB Creative illustrates the "fine art" of doodling. See where it can take you.

When burnout threatens to delay a project, turn to these 20 ways to find inspiration. From Ozonline.

At Creative Latitude William Johnston encourages designers to overcome career stalls, creative blocks.

Michael Flanagan tells us How to think creatively about thinking creatively.

Enchanted Mind says his work is "a perfect example of living creativity in pictoral form."

Artist or not, you can "nurture the creative process" by doodling. From Enchanted Mind.

It takes more than just "thinking about it." Learn how to brainstorm effectively at JPB Creative.

Stuck? Think opposites. Shake the tree. Ask questions. Try out some of the inspiring ideas at this site.

At Poynter Online Anne Conneen lists some ways she finds inspiration from old photos and postcards to clocks, books, and Web sites.

This editorial at Whiskey Creek Document Design explores the ways that both writers and designer's can overcome "creative block" to get started on a project.