artists block

[mops]

oh guys - help!!!!!!!
how do you guys get around problems like this - i have a rough to make up for a new client and only have a few days - but i have 'artists block' so to speak :rolleyes: .......for the life of me, nothing is coming to me - i've spent 2 days sketching different ideas, i've searched the net and magazines for some sort of inspiration but nothing is happening - i've walked away from my pc for a few hours and done other work, but it's driving me crazy - i just cant come up with a design or even an idea

the client has left it totally to me - the problem is - it's a new business and i've never created this sort of design before - and maybe this is the trouble - i guess i'm trying to come up with something that's politically correct and everything i sketch or put together makes me question whether it would be giving the wrong impression

the clients new business is a new g8y & l8s8!@n club - i have just no idea what to put into the design - everything i've roughed up gets me wondering if it's sending out the right message or will it offend

i'm usually confident about my designs but this is a new one to me and i'm really stuck

have any of you had a 'block' like this? what do you do if youre stuck? there's just no ideas flowing for this one

arrrgggg - it's driving me crazy

[Paul C]

My usual process involves really understanding the words that are going to be involved.

For example with an advertisement, I spend a lot more time working out a headline and tagline than I do with the image once I'm done. I think that's probably because working on the copy is something concrete (words are far less abstract than images) and while I'm doing it the incubation process about the image is going on.

Is the name of the club all you have to work with? If that is the case I would type it out several ways (upper case, lower case, mixed case, etc.) and separate these so you can really look at it. Try to divorce yourself from the fact that these are letters and look at the shapes - for example a k or K has arms and legs, etc…

Then really look at the negative space still looking for shapes. The Fedex logo is a good example of this.

N has the upper and lower half of two arrows pointing different directions in it. Things like that.

This is really an approach I use for logos, but it seems like you don't have much to go on and I thought it might help…

Final question is does a dance club (if that is what it is) really care that much about political correctness? I guess it depends on what kind of club it is. It seems like they might just want to be a least a little provocative. I don't think it would be so tragic if you rang the person up and clarified some parameters about how they want to represent themselves.

It sounds to me like you don't understand the problem fully enough to come up with a solution. Anything you can do to clarify exactly what the problem is will help you.

peace

[mops]

hey you - good to hear from you - hope it's sunny there!
now how did i know you'd come up with something clever ?;)
youre right - they've just given me the title and what the business is to go on
yeah it's a dance club/pub - nothing raunchy or way out - i think i'm just having an issue myself designing it because i havent designed this type of thing before and i'm worried the design could look like i'm taking the p (which i'm definetly not) - i'm really not wording this right am i?

from meeting the owners - they want to put a clear message out - i think it's me worrying too much - so i've just sketched out a rough and i'm starting working on it now - so i think i'll take a gamble and if i'm happy with it see what they think

youre really right though paul - i usually work from either the logo or the caption before anything else - i guess with this one though, it's been a bit tricky for me

youre've been great - thanks for all your help, mops ;)