Inspiration and passion are a designers’ daily bread. Without them we crumble, wither and are reduced to mere pixels pushing hacks. But the problem with passion and inspiration is they’re fleeting. They come and they go. So the question you need to ask yourself is this: what happens when your passion and your inspiration run out? What do you do with that project you’ve been working on for the last 4 months when it no longer excites you?

If you have ever struggled to get a project finished then you know the pain and frustration I’m talking about. You know all too well that life gets in the way and the passion that was once your driving force can so easily fade away. So you start to look for the next design high, that next f*ck ye! moment.

Image Source: Joy and Inspiration via Shutterstock.

The masters had their muses…

If it were as simple as working when the muse sang then we’d all be artists but we’re not artists responding to the call of the muse, we’re designers and we live according to some constant realities. Food costs money. Rent can’t be fulled from thin air. The long and short of it is we have to work whether we’re inspired or not. In a perfect world we’d only take on work that excites us, but in the real world we’re not always afforded that luxury. Even if a project does initially have our design juices flowing, there’s no guarantee that in 8 weeks time the excitement will still be there.

A wise designer once said: “there are no great clients or projects, only great designers”. What does that mean, exactly? I think it means we must strive to make the best of even the most mundane projects.

That’s easy to say while I sit here writing on a Saturday morning but it’s something that I’ve come to realise as true the further down the freelance path I wander.

Personal Goals keep you moving forward

This year I had two objectives. One was to launch a SaaS app and the other was to write a book. Beyond that, anything went. They may seem like fairy tale goals but I was, and am determined to take a slight detour in my design career. These were personal goals, aimed at keeping me motivated and finding another way forward as a designer.

How many people do you know who have started to write a book or bootstrap a product? A lot, I bet. The trouble with these kinds of ventures is that most fade out after a short while. The initial buzz and passion disappears and we move on to shiny new objects. How we love shiny new objects!

I can hold my hand up and say, “I’ve done this.” And not only once or twice. Several times. I’ve binned countless projects and even a couple of started-but-never finished books.

Hands up who’s tried to write a book, blog, or diary in their adult lives? Anyone? For those of you brave enough to raise your hands – how many finished that book, or continue to blog or write a diary? I can see a lot of hands disappearing…

It’s tough, right? Things get in the way and, of course, a slowdown in the inspiration department doesn’t help either. The problem is that inspiration and passion alone aren’t enough to get us from start to finish.

From inspiration to necessity

Designing and launching my SaaS app was relatively easy. From concept to launch it took about 6 weeks, maybe a little longer. I never had time to really lose sight of the end goal, which was simply launching the app. It’s now, long after the initial inspiration struck me, that the real battle begins. I need to maintain the discipline to keep pushing forward. I need to keep promoting, to keep improving the service. I need to keep writing blog posts. It can be tough. The initial inspiration and passion has moved on and become something else, something tangibly different. Inspiration has morphed into necessity. I need to make this work.

Turn up, regardless

So, if the initial passion has withered away, why do I keep at it? Do I care any less about my project? No, I don’t think so. I keep at it because I haven’t lost sight of my original goals. I had clear, defined goals that were written down and even printed out (they’re still on my desk somewhere). So, each day, I continue to turn up, plug in and get excited about the possibilities of what could happen. The initial passion that drove me towards my goals has been replaced with a desire to reach my goals. The fact that I don’t want to sit down and push on doesn’t enter into it. The fact is, I have to turn up, regardless.

Work even if you don’t want to

Working only when inspired is for the rockstar. But note how many of them cease to work when they don’t have to. Ultimately, all of us want to get paid. We want to launch our product(s) and we want to succeed. Think of it like this: would you want to be inspired twenty four hours a day? I don’t think so. You’d never sleep. Moreover, if all we ever had were great ideas, how would we spot a bad one?

We don’t get paid to be inspired, we get paid to deliver

There is a sad truth here, and it only really pertains to client work, but it is worth mentioning. When push comes to shove, a client doesn’t care whether you’re inspired or impassioned about a project or idea (they’ll say they do); all they care about are results. As far as they’re concerned inspiration is for office posters. They want the finished product completed by the agreed date, done and dusted. There’s no getting away from it.

The harder you work, the luckier you get

I can bear witness to the truth of this statement (is it a statement or a motto? Not sure!) There’s no doubt about it: the harder you work, the luckier you get. Now, if there was ever an inspirational office poster, there you have it (I’ll have two please). By hanging on to my goals and by continuing to write and design, I’ve found I’m getting luckier by the day. Good things seem to be happening and they’re happening because I keep pushing. All of a sudden, people are finding their way to help me out. I’m even receiving emails of support from complete strangers… If that isn’t reason to get inspired all over again then I don’t know what is.

It’s pushing through when you least feel like it that helps to bring another round of inspiration (and luck!) without you even asking for it. It’s working hard on the client project just so you can get the time to work on the ideas that you want to work on that helps you cross the bridge from despair to hope. Wake up an hour earlier if you have to and make sure you work on things that are important to you. Inspiration is fickle. Working on a personal project can help you see through those dull projects where every hour seems to take an eternity to pass. Just remember that the more you move and shake, the more the movers and shakers will see you, the more you’ll feel like pushing on and, crucially, the luckier you’ll get.

Turn up, plug in and tune out

The best way to get started is to start and the best way to finish is to finish, regardless of your lack of passion or enthusiasm. Please don’t confuse the turn up and tune out method for continuing with a project you really ought to have binned a long time ago. Clearly not all projects were meant to be. Realising that an idea, or project is material for the design graveyard is for another post. I’m talking about working on things that should and need to be finished.

I’ll leave you with a quote from a recent James Clear post. James was talking to a famous athletics coach who’s trained Olympians, and he asked him: “what’s the difference between the best athletes and everyone else? What do the really successful people do that most people don’t?”

“At some point,” the coach replied, “it comes down to who can handle the boredom of training every day and doing the same lifts over and over and over again.”

Beautiful!

Last weeks Divine Elemente Giveaway ended today and it is now time to announce the winners.

Instead of spending hours coding your themes, why not just use Divine Elemente? This Photoshop plugin (for Windows only) can save you more than 90% of the time you would normally spend for theme creation, by letting you create PSD templates with all necessary WP elements, or converting existing PSD templates into ready-made WP themes.

You can design more themes in less time (and make more money)!

the Winners

Congratulations to our winners! Could all winners get in touch with us @ mail@speckyboy.com and we will send your prize straight away.

Here are the winners:

@michancio

@breckay

@jaytuduri

Artistic expression does not always need state of the art equipment and the latest technology. In fact, true creative genius can sometimes be best witnessed in things that we otherwise discard as trash.

Meet Mark Powell, a London-based artist best known for his work with repurposed ephemera — old, tattered and stamped envelopes that serve as his canvas and a Bic Biro pen. Using just ink and old paper, Powell can create striking, captivating and life-like drawings.

A neo-expressionist by ideology, Mark Powell generally draws portraits of elderly faces (and yes, he uses the crumbled form of the old envelope paper as wrinkles on the elderly faces). Using a simple run-of-the-mill Bic Biro pen, Powell’s artwork shows traditional portraits on a non-traditional canvas.

To put it in the artist’s own words, “The idea behind my work is the mystery of each individual, we all try to portray instead of express something much of the time but the face can always hint at something else. Its one of the reasons i use an envelope.”

We now leave you with some of the representative drawings of Mark Powell. Do share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Biro drawing on a Salvation Army 1932 document.

Biro drawing on a vintage Icelandic program.

Drawing on a 1950s music sheet.

Drawing on a 1943 war ration book.

Drawing on an antique map of London.

Biro drawing on a 1912 newspaper.

Drawing on a 1914 bank overdraft letter.

Drawing on a 1950s music sheet.

Drawing on a 1878 newspaper.

Drawing on a 1927 document.

It is that time of the week again, a chance for you to sit back and enjoy some of our favorite web and mobile designs from this past week.

You may also like to browse the Web & Mobile Creativity Archives.

Google Glass Experiment

Geox – Amphibiox

Google Ventures

Present Plus

New Love New Korando

The Great Discontent: Invisible Creature

FM Radio UI Concept (Mobile App)

My Day (iOS App)

We’re thrilled to bring you another amazing giveaway of free web development services from our friends at Markup-Service. The first prize is $300 worth of their services, the runner-up prize is $200 worth of their services. Plus, everyone who enters the contest will get a special bonus from Markup-Service!

This is a great chance to see what outsourcing of PSD to HTML conversion is like, as well as test the quality of the work Markup-Service delivers. You can use your gift to save on any services they provide, including but not limited to responsive websites, WordPress, Drupal, Joomla! implementation, and PSD to Email Template services. All you have to do is leave a comment below!

Good Reasons to Participate

Save Time. With Markup-Service you get the job done in half the time. Their standard turnaround time is up to 8 business hours for the first web page. Need it faster? Express delivery is always an option.

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Complete More Projects. These guys are easy to work with and simplify the website creation process. They let you free up more of your own time, so you can focus on other projects.

To get a better idea of the quality of PSD to HTML coding by Markup-Service, check out examples of the markup they delivered to their clients.

The Details

To enter the giveaway, all you need to do is leave a comment to this post. Only one entry per person. The winners will be selected at random on the 24th of January 2014. Everyone who enters the giveaway will be emailed a gift from Markup-Service, so please use a valid email address while leaving your comment.

Remember that the contest will be available for only one week, so be sure to grab your prize while it lasts.

Good luck to everyone!

We’ve all seen examples of ‘classic’ design – work that gets talked about for months, years, and even decades after it has served its initial purpose. Even people who have no idea what the original design was even used for will discuss its beauty, simplicity, and timelessness. What goes into creating work of that caliber? Today, we’re going to explore some possible explanations and try to get an idea of how a designer might go about creating a timeless design.

Images Source: Flat Design Illustration

Will It Be Timeless?

Some things might seem as though they will be instant classics. Then, without warning, they fade into obscurity and no one ever mentions them again. Why does this happen? No one really knows for certain, but there are some possible explanations. The most important, in my opinion, is that the general public – not just the design community – either stopped caring about the design, or never cared enough in the first place. Design is meant to change the way people interact with one another in the world, not just designers, but everyone. If it fails to do so and generate influence beyond the scope of the original brief, it will never become the classic it could be.

Design Marketing Problems

Public opinion is fickle, but it can be greatly influenced by the right advertisement. Brands like Coca-Cola and Microsoft didn’t get to their current level of market dominance by chance. Even great art like the Mona Lisa has been heavily promoted to be recognizable to a modern audience. There were plenty of contemporary works that were just as popular in their day, and even some that were more so. But it was marketing that propelled the Mona Lisa, the Sistine Chapel, the statue of David, and other iconic works of the Renaissance to last as long in the public memory as they have.

To Trendy To Be True?

As I’ve said in the past, if something feels like a trend, it probably is. I’m not simply talking about phenomena that are currently all the rage, like authentic or responsive design. I’m talking about things that merely look cool without any underlying fundamentals to ground them. Such trends are destined to be one hit wonders, fading as the design world moves on to more solid ideas.

A good way to spot a trend that’s being milked purely for profit is to determine what the most respected members of the design community have to say about it. If the ‘movers and shakers’ of design are constantly lambasting the trend, there’s a good chance it’s simply a throwaway fad. However, if they don’t have much to say or are even incorporating it into their own work, it’s probably a winner.

No Good Designers Left?

A lot of designers complain that the current crop of design professionals are too caught up in trends and technology and are ignoring the fundamental principles of good design. These designers tend to be older and may even feel a bit left out as the world seems to be embracing a completely foreign approach to design. This happens every generation, with the old timers complaining about ‘today’s kids’ and their apparent lack of respect for the profession. I’m sure the designers from the 1940s and 50s griped about ‘whippersnappers’ in the 70s and 80s with their Rapidographs and floppy disks or…whatever.

It’s true that there are lot more designers actively working now than there ever have been in the past. But the number of talented designers who have a solid understanding of the fundamentals has not diminished. If anything, it has increased due to the larger pool of designers out there. The likelihood that at least a handful of these designers will produce something lasting is very high, even though one might have to wade through a lot of junk to find it.

Timeless Doesn’t Equal Boring

Think that classic design is boring and behind the times? Think again. Every single designer is influenced by those who have come before them. If you choose only recent, contemporary designers to be influenced by, you’ll only be regurgitating the most recent trends, which could hasten their demise and make all of your work look horribly dated. Try heading to the library and flipping through examples of classic designs by the greats of the 20th century. You might be surprised at how often (and how badly) those designers were ripped off by later copycats.

What Do You Think?

What makes a design timeless in your opinion? Have any examples of timeless designs that particularly influenced you as a designer? We’d love to hear about them below.