Archie Lee Coates, Playlab
"It took awhile to realize this, but writers block for me doesn’t happen as a result of not having ideas or some lack of creativity, but from a series of distractions that stand between me and those ideas. It almost always has everything to do with clearing space and time to be free."

Rotenda Gene Nevhutalu, Rolls Royce / Benjamin Edgar
"Honestly, I just stop, discover something else and take a long shower. In doing that, the trick for me is to try not to think about it or the solution, not as an avoidance practice, but as a way to allow myself to move past the block naturally. The very ideas I may be blocked over, came naturally."

Ron Louis, Ron Louis
"Man, it’s been a while since I’ve had writers block or felt some type of slump to be completely transparent. I won’t front like I’ve got it all figured out but I think early on I really had an issue with having an idea I thought was great and just accepting the fact that I didn’t have the resources. Those times prepared me to just accept when the trap slow and lean into faith that something will spark inspiration again. I also take it as a sign that I need to just enjoy life in whatever capacity that is to download what I want to say or do within reason. I’ll watch some shows, fashion related or design. Read that book I got recommended when things were fast and I never got to. Watch some boxing, travel, hang out with family and friends, buy some jewelry, hit the strip club and legit enjoy life. I trust that something will come up!"

Chuck Anderson, NoPattern
"I've found there is only one way to the other side of my creative slumps: to work right through it until I get that small but significant feeling of "that's why I loved doing this in the first place." It's sort of the classic visual of a writer or artist at their desk crumpling up sheets of paper and tossing them in the trash can until they're piled up on the floor. Those aren't failed attempts - they're free throws after a bad game when everyone else has left the gym. You're building up confidence, digging around in your brain until you hear yourself involuntarily say "alright, there we go" in a sort of satisfied exasperation. I feel like these slumps are really just lost momentum. We're looking for new creative waves to ride when we're the ones responsible for creating the waves in the first place."

Chris Bain, Feature Studio
"I mostly just stew in it or say yes to something I’m not super interested in just to get the momentum going again."

Drew Stevens, Margin Global
"Three not-so-surefire methods, ranked from most practical to least. In all cases, distractions have got to go. No phone nearby, email closed, notifications muted on all screens. Writing this has to be the most important thing in that moment, and if it can’t be, then it’s not writing time.

1. Stare at the screen and start typing and re-typing the first sentence. Its always a brutal negotiation with myself for the first 5-10 minutes, and then it *usually* clicks.

2. Put it off until the last possible second, probably starting in the evening. I’ll be delirious when done, and I’ll probably finish at an ungodly hour (2-4am) but the pressure of needing it done and the “freedom” of it being late (no distractions) make it work. Expect the next day to be creatively barren.

3. Schedule it for early Saturday morning. Good sleep? Check. Quiet world? Check. Caffeine coursing through my veins? Quadruple check. A productivity (and feelings-of-invincibility) trifecta."

Tyrrell Winston, Artist
"When I’m in a creative slump I make a playlist. I find some song that I wouldn’t typically listen to and build a world around it. Then I listen to that playlist on repeat and that tends to help me loosen up in the studio. It’s a new type of energy."

Max Arkin, INDEX 123456789 INC.
"Writers block fix - I just text Ben Edgar a photo and it sparks a conversation that leads us down a path."

Andrew Raine, W&K
"For me, getting out of a creative slump or any slump for that matter means getting out of my mind and getting back into my body.  I do this either by taking a very long walk or spending time w loved ones. For me creativity extends out of connection, with yourself and others, so when I'm in a rut, those are the things I reach for.”

Reese Cooper, Reese Cooper Inc. / RCOS
"I work on something that’s completely unrelated.  Either admin tasks or as simple as cleaning the house or office just to keep my hands busy / full so my brain can wander.  If that doesn’t work it’s time to go to bed."

Tawanda Chiweshe, YY
"Last year, Bafics showed me Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies deck. I pulled a card that read: “Gardening, not architecture.” It’s been my guiding light ever since, planting seeds without preconceived notions and letting nature take its course. That’s the MO."

Jeff Franklin, Playlab
"When I get stuck, I tend to go through a list of things to see what might get a spark:

- Start drawing something unrelated
- Aimlessly look through a favorite book
- Have a conversation
- Go on a walk or drive
- Make a list"

Francisco Gaspar, YY
"The concept is irrelevant. If the the intention comes across, we can build a world."

Zac Boswell, Ceremony of Roses
"Routine. Trust. Patience.

Let it marinate.

Bus rides, train rides, bike rides.

Diverge, then converge.

Asymmetrical thought patterns.

Reliable partners. One to listen and reflect back the frustration. One to dive straight into practical solutions.

Have a real deadline."

Jason Stewart, How Long Gone
"Take an edible and go for a walk. Avoid super busy places like malls and downtowns. Instead, walk around mostly alone, then stop into a small store where you can interact with a few people. Say whatever comes to mind to these strangers; it will help remind you that nothing you say really matters. Then walk home and start sending yourself speech-to-text notes as ideas begin to bubble up."

Joseph Evans, Artist
"I think for me, acknowledging it head on and recognizing it for what it is, is super helpful when I’m overthinking about a particular thing I’m working  on.  But also being mindful of the right time to circle back in order to not lose any creative momentum is deeply impactful throughout the process…"

Trey White, ARC
"With the amount of things I ship a week I can’t have a lull. Planned “downtime” is extremely helpful in maintaining the quality, balance, peace, etc. Travel, a visual movie, dinner with a friend, daily workouts, researching my niche interests, and really loud music in my car are all seen as downtime."

Quinner Baird, Caliper
"I don’t have them. I never felt like I have a lull in the flow of ideas or creative solutions. The balance comes with technical solutions for other people’s projects and new creations under my own studio and work which balance each out in a way that there’s a constant flow. When you just feel positive and exited about everything coming you can’t lose."

Jakob Hetzer, Artist
"I have a strict “no phone in the gym” rule. This creates a sacred time for stillness and a daily mental reset. Creativity bubbles up in non creative efforts."

Noel Bronson, Savior Worldwide
"I played zero sports growing up (I think it’s a bit corny when creatives say what we do is a sport) probably shot my self in the foot when I’m someone calls me out for doing it later.

Anyway I read the only way to get over a slump in basketball is to keep shooting. Just keep trying till you’re hot again. That’s how I get over it. I just don’t stop till I’m out again."

Adam Wrublowsky, The Den
"Such a timely question, it’s something I find my self dealing with more and more these days. When I do get to stop and think about what’s causing my creative block it’s almost always my own self-judgement, the moment I can detach my ego from the work, it tends to flow from there. How I do that it depends on the day and how I'm feeling. I’ll first start by taking a moment to think about the beauty in my surroundings, the art, the objects, who designed them, what they were thinking about, where they drew their inspiration from. If that doesn’t work i'm getting outside and interacting with the world. The sights, sounds, smells, that usually grounds me in the human experience and triggers some sort of feeling or memory that ends up feeding directly into whatever I'm working on."

Adeshola Makinde, Artist
"When I am hitting a road block and need a spark of inspiration, I typically will go read some sort of publication or listen to music. Those things are the essence for me and getting back to them always does the trick."

Simon Merz, ABC Dinamo
"At that point, I’m usually just way in too deep. So if I can, I step away from it and do something else. Hobbies!! Or a day with the homies… Anything just for the sake of it helps. If I have to push through a project, I tend to revisit the initial idea/concept since it often remains the purest. That often clears the fog."

Chris Black, How Long Gone
"When I am in a slump, I like to sit on a bench outside in New York somewhere. If the weather prevents that, I will read a chapter of a book or maybe a long magazine article. Anything to take my mind off the task at hand. It usually works!"

David Cho, Lobby Partners
The short answer is: I just keep pushing, pushing to find what I want, pushing to find a feeling, pushing to find the dimmest glimmer of a path to the solution.

But really, these days, I find myself interpreting everything through the prism of "Before (I Got Older)" and "After (I Got Older)" - the latter being a real black hole of a problem that reveals new layers of complexities and challenges that continuously surprise me (neutral).

So "B(IGO)" I would have just Kool-Aid Man'd my way through any hurdle, a brute force approach that comes with the boundless energy of youth. Just continuously churning your legs until you find a little bit of a foothold (sorry for the metaphor pivot) and then once you find it, just doubling, tripling down to pull yourself out of the hole (a perfect mixed metaphor).

Now, A(IGO), with a more fixed (read: limited) amount of energy, I'm forced to be more thoughtful, because there’s no real alternative. Which is complicated because it’s a delicate balance with the other reality that there's just significantly diminishing returns if I try to do anything while running on fumes.

So I guess the conclusion to the long answer is that it’s really about intentionality. About creating a state (rested, focused, etc.) that allows me to have enough in the tank to find an answer/the belief that a solution is in reach (there’s a whole other thing about joyous delusion that comes with B[IGO], but I’ve already gone over Ben’s allotted space)."

James Langford, Harvard GSD
"Getting up for a walk is always the go-to reset; If at home I take the dog out. If I’m at school I do a lap of the trays, not always looking for but almost always finding a fellow students work that inspires me to take a different approach."

Bogdan “Chilldays” Plakov, Artist
"The way I have escaped from the “writers block” as a whole is by defining myself as an artist and not as a writer.”

Ian Shiver, Photographer
"I hit slumps all the time, especially when my commercial work is slow. But overtime I’ve realized that my ideas come from a place of momentum, particularly when I’m already halfway through a project. So rather than focusing on trying to be creative when I’m blocked, I focus on re-building that momentum. Things like to-do lists that have small wins on them like “brush teeth” to trick myself into feeling like I’ve accomplished something. Or attempting new projects outside of my normal world, like making a comic book or building a stem robot arm. I find that the universe rewards change, not sitting around waiting for a “Eureka!” moment."

Joe Holder, Nike / Ocho System
"You just have to keep pushing and get to the other side of it. Sit down, put in the work, and let the outcome be what it is. What works will work, what doesn’t won’t. Then give yourself a bit of space and let things come to you.

That’s usually when the ideas start to show up in my opinion.

But the key is to keep chipping away. The ideas come through the process, not before it. And a lot of the time, what you think is good isn’t what the market responds to anyway.

So you just have to keep showing up and getting at-bats."

Larry Tchogninou, Ruptur / Points Of Sale
"I often compare a creative slump to a moment in sail racing known as the 'Pot-au-Noir'.

In the Vendée Globe (world tour sail racing), it’s one of the most psychologically brutal passages. The wind suddenly disappears. The sails lose their form, flap for a while, then fall still. The boat slows… and stops. You’re left drifting on a glassy, almost oily sea, with no visible force to carry you forward.

It’s an invisible trap.

So what do sailors do in that moment of calm where the elements anchor them?

They don’t fight it. They adapt. They read. They clean the boat. They call their parents. They sit with themselves. They wait. Patiently. Until a narrow breeze returns—and with it, movement.

I approach creative slumps the same way.

I don’t force it. I can’t control it. So I step away. I go to the movies, watch documentaries, pick up a book, share dinners, live a little—until the spark finds its way back to me."

Benjamin Edgar, Benjamin Edgar
"I get really frustrated with myself. Then I text all my friends about how they deal with it and turn it into an advertisement for Benjamin Edgar in the form of an Extended Exchange."