Dynamic Media

Creative block be gone - 5 ways to prevent creative drought.

By Matt Richardson | November 21, 2008

Photo by: Steve Woods

Ok, I’ll finally admit it, I have writers block…

Creative block, or even worse creative drought can be a killer for any one who relies on their creativity for work. Whether you are writing, designing, coding or any thing else, having a creative block, can ruin your day at the very least. Thankfully there are plenty of ways to work through it, and although every one has their own opinion on the best things to do, I have come up with my 5 favorite ways to help get through the creative drought.

Brain Storm/Mind Map - I am a huge advocate of mind mapping when I am working. Typically when I start a project I not only map out the ideas on the project, but I also map out what needs to be done in a linear map.
Keep an Idea Book - I happen to favor “Moleskine” and “Moleskine like” notebooks, but I keep a note book, note pad or a sketch pad with me at all times, that way I can write down ideas and sketches that I can elaborate on at a later time.
Read - I find that I like to read a lot. For me when I read it not only gets my mind working better, but I also tend to get more ideas from the things that I read. Find things that are relevant to what you are doing and things that are unrelated and get the most you can out of it.
Take a break - Some times the worst creative blocks that I get are when I either have too much on my plate, or when I start to get a little stretched out. When this happens some times the best way for me to work through the block, is to simply take a little break, and get my mind off of every thing. Find some thing to do unrelated to the project go out side, do some thing fun.
Find Things That Inspire You - Go out side and take a hike, explore a place you have never been, try a new hobby go to your local art museum or gallery, look online, the list can go on and on. Find any thing that can influence you and use it to your advantage, get ideas from it, find some thing new you never knew about that some thing rework it just find some thing.
*Bonus tip* - Just Do It! - Simply stated get to work, start drawing, writing, coding or what ever it is that you are looking to do, and just do the best you can do. When I just jump into some thing, I will try to work as long as I can on it while still being productive, if I feel its just not working out, take another break and than come back to it later.

That is typically some of the advice that really helps me to break out of my creative block. What do you do to help combat creative drought?

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Try it before you buy it !

By Matt Richardson | August 31, 2008

Error

As some of you may have seen, I ran into a small problem while updating and testing some things for this blog. Usually I would not run into any problems with a live site because I run a small test server (and quite frankly I’m a little paranoid about downtime and errors…) but some times there are things that just need to be tested live.

Some of the updates I was working on for this blog were some new plug-ins and a update of the Wordpress software in general. For some odd reason when I uploaded all of the updates on my test server every thing worked fine, but when I passed it over to my live server… well it went haywire…So I am either going to be working on some big changes to the updates, or some changes to my host.

This brings up another point all together, mainly about the importance of trying new things. I have prided my self in trying new things, new foods, new software, new technology, etc. Although not all of it ends up good, that is a great thing about trying new things is that if you smart about it the new things usually dont have permanent effects.

On anther note the software I use on my test server on my Mac is MAMP, and I know there are going to be those out there that will say “wait doesn’t Mac OSX have a server software built in to it?” well yes it does, but MAMP is super easy to set up, and has PHP and MySQL support built into it. If any one if looking for new server software or a internal server MAMP is a great software. (Even if you just want to play around with some new software.)

So when was the last time you tried some thing new ?

Topics: Other, News and updates | No Comments »

5 simple ways to drum up more business

By Matt Richardson | August 26, 2008

Drum up more business
Photo by: Niels Timmer

Recently I had a friend came to me in emergency mode and asked me for help with his business, well finding more business for that matter. As a little bit of a back ground my friend runs a cell phone repair shop and has been searching for business for a while now (with to few good results). When my friend came to me he was looking for the same thing that most other people are looking for - Simple ways to get more business.

The direction that I wanted to lead my friend to, in order to help get him more business was a few things that he can do in the more immediate time period that would help him get more business. Although there are plenty of things that could help, most of the suggestions I have brought up are suggestions that can apply to every one, and not only for people who are in emergency mode, but also even for the business on the top of their game.

I guess the best way to sum this up is in these 5 points-

Set up a fact finding time - Simply enough, one of my favorite ways to get more work is to get in front of your local businesses if you are B2B or if you are a direct to consumer company the key is to find ways to get in front of your targets. Some simple suggestions around this is to simply start a fact finding time, get to your local library or check online to find as much info as you can about your targets. (Info like who are they, what are they looking for, what are the buzz words etc) - After you find this info use it in any way possible.
Get in front of your targets with every chance you get- Being a B2B company will make this easier for the most part (simply enough call or email every relevant business you find and get to talking to them) When it comes to direct to consumers there is a general need for innovation. Find ways to advertise to consumers with out making them feel you are pushing your product or services on them, in general be creative and find out what works for you.
Start an email push - Every one you talk to in a B2B situation not only has an email address, but most of them will be willing to give it to you, so capitalize on this. Most of the time when ever I talk to some one simply ask them “Can I get your email address so I can send you updates?” 99% of the people will say “sure”. Signing up direct consumers is a little bit of a different situation all together with out getting in to too many details I have found the best way to get subscriptions is to be innovative and let every one know about your news letters. After you get a decent subscription base simply email them at relevant periods (once a month for most of the emails I set up) and provide relevant updates or new deals.
Have some one look at your business from an outsiders perspective- By no means am I saying that every little detail needs to be micromanaged, but there are a lot of small things that most business owners will miss because they see it every day. Some simple things that outsiders can see easier, are as follows: How well do you tailor your website towards your customers? Is your corporate identity consistent and professional? Does your corporate identity match your business? Do you have a corporate identity?
Be comfortable- This may be one of the most important points that I’ll bring up. What I have seen over all is that if you are going to offer a product or service, you have to be comfortable in not only the product or service, but also in your company. One major part of being comfortable with your product or service is realizing that you are fulfilling a need or a want. Any product or service when striped down is just that some thing to satisfy a need or a want.

What are your recommendations? Do you agree with the ideas that I suggested, or is there some thing that I am missing? If you have any suggestions please feel free to add them by leaving a comment.

Topics: Other, Corperate Identity, Help and advice, Creative | No Comments »

How I work: My creative process

By Matt Richardson | August 22, 2008

Recently I worked on a poster for USO, Lockheed Martin, and Charitable Recycling and when I went back through my notes for this project, I thought I could use this poster to explain my creative process, and how I start new projects.

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Topics: Corperate Identity, Help and advice, Creative | No Comments »

Back to business…

By Matt Richardson | August 21, 2008

Ok, I know I have been out of my groove when it comes to updating this blog, but I have had quite a few looming deadlines and a semi-involuntary hiatus working on some of my own private projects. Thankfully I am back, I have finished up most of my looming deadlines and as some of you may have seen a fresh re-brand of my portfolio (if you did not see it go to www.mydynamicmedia.com). Now that all of that is out of the way I am working on some new posts and some updates to this blog to help match my identity.

So stay tuned for the upcoming posts and updates!

Topics: News and updates | No Comments »

New release - Firefox 3

By Matt Richardson | June 18, 2008

Yesterday Mozilla released the newest version of Firefox and I have to say that first impressions, its pretty nice. Some of the first things that I noticed are one, the presentation is a little more streamlined, and on OSX it looks sharp, two the set-up was a breeze, the whole install took maybe 2 minuets, super simple and three most of my current add-ons are supported with out any updates. Firefox 3 still has it’s superior CSS and web standard support so most pages that I have seen have not only loaded up with out any flaws, but also it seemed like they were loading up quicker.

So far I have not noticed any huge flaws, (thankfully) the only let down that I have had so far is that two of my favorite add-ons (Aardvark and Colorzilla) are not supported as of this time.

We will have to see what the future holds for add-on updates, but what do you think about Firefox 3 ?

To download Firefox 3 please click here.

Topics: News and updates, Firefox Friday | No Comments »

Firefox Friday (well, sort of) - Firefox 3 “Download Day 2008”

By Matt Richardson | June 4, 2008

Ok, first of all I know it’s not Friday, but regardless of that I still found this important enough to write about.

Firefox 2 has been out for a while now, and has been great, but with Firefox 3 right around the corner (well hopefully at least) there comes a fair amount of updates and new features that come with it. Some of the features include:

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Free Vector - Old Style Eagle

By Matt Richardson | May 24, 2008

I personally have been inspired by all of my fellow bloggers that have made free vectors, brushes or other freebies out there. After seeing so many different freebies out there, I decided to see if there was any thing that I could offer to the design world, and every one else. So with that being said here is the first of what I hope to be a growing list of freebies that I will be offering. The only thing that I ask in return if you would like to use any of my freebies, please drop me a note so I can see how you use them.