8 things i learned from the job hunt

I started the job hunt mid-August, less than two weeks later and I'm working a full time job that is beyond what I could have ever planned for myself. Going into applying for full time work, I mentally prepared myself for a long, tiring three months of trying to get a good fit for a job. Little did I know, it wouldn't nearly be that long. Nonetheless, these past 2 weeks have taught me loads. My blog has clearly been a side-note (I'm so sorry!), as I have spent every free waking moment scanning Job Postings, updating my LinkedIn, changing my resumes, writing cover letters... the list is never ending. Looking for full time work is hard work, it takes resilience, patience, and straight up determination. But it definitely isn't quite what everyone made it seem.

Stop listening to everyone else.
There is a long list of things people told me that they knew to be true that wasn't at all true for me. One word of advice was to apply for 100 jobs and set a realistic expectation of how many interviews to expect from that (she suggested 2 interviews as a realistic goal). If I applied for 100 jobs I would have went absolutely crazy. I would have lost my mind. Another word of advice was to apply for a broad range of related careers, to not just apply for specifically what I saw myself doing. I tried out that advice... but quickly realized if I actually got some of the jobs I applied for, I would have been miserable. Basically: hear everyone out, but follow the advice that sits well with you. You want a process that doesn't make you crazy, and you want a job in the end that you'll love- anything that leads you astray on either of those things perhaps you should reconsider listening to.

Excel is your best friend.

I never loved Excel so much in my life. I recommend keeping an Excel spreadsheet of all the jobs you are applying for and some basic information that will help you recall the job once you have applied for a ton of them. You may forget you applied for the job when a Recruiter contacts you a week later regarding the application, so preventing that kind of confusion is a good call.

Don't fear networking.
I definitely contacted a good chunk of people that had connections in the field of graphic design that I didn't ever imagine myself reconnecting with. Even if those connections don't pan out, you never know, it's worth a shot. Also, don't be too prideful to reject help or fear it. Ask advice from people in careers like the ones you are looking into, contact people you look up to and ask to hear their story. Network, network, network. At the very least, you'll learn a lot from others and open up doors for the future.

Resumes: make variations, use keywords.
I started out with one resume, and ended up with three. Make a few that vary in what the employer would be looking for in an employee. Perhaps have a really broad resume for a job a bit out of your ideal, specific field, and have one that is tailored to the exact career title you preferably want. Also, for medium to larger scale companies, add in keywords from the job posting into your resume. As you can imagine, they don't look at each individual resume but rather stick it into a database. Make sure your resume will pop up as a good fit for the job by tailoring your resume to the career.

Cover letters: Don't spend an hour writing one.
Learn from my mistakes. Make a few templates, write a couple pages that you can mix and match into cover letters, and don't spend all day long writing cover letters that people skim at most. If I learned anything, I learned that Resumes should say more than a Cover Letter does. It proves your passions right, it proves your determination and experience... a Cover Letter is all talk. Remember that.

Phone interviews: Don't over-prepare, don't dress up.
That one time I had a phone interview with a recruiter and I had 10 pages of written notes sprawled out across my bed. True story... and it did me no good. Didn't help at all. If anything, over-preparing will make you frantic and anxious. I've had phone interviews where I dressed up thinking trying to follow the articles online that suggest you dress professionally even if it's a phone interview, so that you in-turn act more professionally. I found that the phone interviews I did in my pajamas I did far better in. Take articles at face value (even this one).

Yoga.
Breathe. Take up yoga, if you are anything like me. But stop stressing, love. You'll find a job. You'll end up where you need to be. Stress will just add one some wrinkles, it won't bring you any luck.

Most importantly, stick to your gut.
Pursue the job you want, not what everyone else tells you to pursue. At the end of the day, stick to your gut. Because at the end of your life, you want to look back and be proud of the decisions you made, you want to know you made them because you knew they were right for you, not because someone told you to.

4 things to remember during the in-between seasons

I got lunch with one of my best friends today and among endless other conversations we had, we talked about this awkward gap of a season, this interim, we are both sitting in. I feel like I've had this conversation more lately with more people that completely and totally relate, than I ever have before. Seasons of waiting for the 'next big thing,' or whatnot... they are all too familiar. And this is what I am reminding myself (and all those other ladies):

You aren't defined by what you do.
If your life looks really cool on paper, great. If you have the perfect job, the perfect opportunity to serve your community, if you spend time with your family and friend regularly, if you do yoga every morning and read your Bible every night, great. But if your life doesn't look perfect on paper, if your life looked like that once but doesn't look like that now, great. Your are not defined as a human being by what you do, by how many things you do, by how great your life looks on paper. That would be an absurd way to judge people and a ridiculous way to stick a magnified glass on your own life. In the in-between seasons, remember that you are still entirely who you are. You are still growing, still being stretched, and your life is still full of purpose. Don't define yourself by what you do (or better yet, compare yourself to everyone else and what they are doing). Life is so much more than one aspect of yourself. You are the culmination of so much more.

You can still choose to be fulfilled.
When you are sitting there waiting for the next big opportunity, the next great job, when you are waiting to move, waiting for a specific change to happen, waiting for this certain day or even hour where you finally get where you are yearning to be... remember that even that won't ultimately fulfill you. You will always be wanting more. Once you find the perfect house, you'll want the perfect furniture. Once you have the 'perfect job,' you'll realize it's challenges and imperfections. Once you move to the perfect city, you'll realize the rent's really high. The list goes on forever, you know what I mean? You'll always be yearning for something more. We can't fool ourselves into thinking there's a point we reach in our life when we will ultimately have everything that will satisfy us. We have to be satisfied in the way we think and the way we view life, in our hope, in things that aren't materialistic and won't quickly fade, that's the only thing that will fulfill us. You can have this mindset and heart in seasons of plenty, of little, and you can even have this in the awkward in-betweens.

Re-evaluate.
Re-evaluate who you are and what you want. Also, give yourself space to be stretched and grown into whoever you want to be. In this awkward in-between season I am in, I have a lot more time on my hands than I will come a few months when I (God willing) am in a full-time consistent job. So I've taken up yoga. Because I always wanted to, and now I have the time and I know I won't have time to take gym classes once a 9-5 job rolls around. Instead of seeing weird in-between seasons as boring and frankly, just miserable. Look at the bright side. You may have time to explore new places, travel, take up a new hobby. You also, may have plenty of time commitments but you don't enjoy any of them- in that case, re-evaluate where you are at, why you aren't satisfied, and how you can remedy that lack of happiness and joy right now. Make a list of who you hope to be, the qualities you hope to grow in and learn, the things you hope to be involved in and passionate about. And pursue it. Maybe the awkward in-between is the perfect place to learn them.

It won't last forever.
It won't. Some seasons are awkward transitional ones, others are full of life and clarity and may have a far more evident purpose to you. Both are important. Don't be so sucked into how you wish your life looked a certain way right now. There is purpose in this season. So, explore, create, learn new things, and choose to see that the grass is pretty green, regardless.

"Everything is interim. Every season that I thought was stable and would be just how it was for a long time ended up being a preparation or a path to the next thing." -Shauna Niequest

Sources: 1 / 2

5 things post-grad life has taught me (so far)

You are your own motivation.
If you want to get a full time job that you love, you have to find the connections, scour the job postings, apply for the jobs. If you want to start your own business, you are the only person that can apply for the forms, ask the questions, build your business. If you want to move out of your parents house and financially support yourself, no one can do that but you and your own motivation. The sooner you kick yourself in the butt, lay out your plans and hopes for the future on some paper, and do something about it, the sooner all of that will become a reality. Sitting there and wishing your life ruled will get you no where. Putting one foot in front of the other and doing something about it, will.

Loneliness can be good.
Gosh, have I learned this lesson lately. I've cried far too many tears and been far too frustrated at the word 'lonely' the past few months. But oh boy, has it taught me more than I could have ever imagined. There are seasons for plenty: for plenty of friends around, for plenty of plans and Friday nights out, for plenty of opportunities to change lives and invest in other people. There are also seasons for not feeling like you have what you consider to be "plenty": for putting your heart into work and learning to sustain the few, real solid relationships you have. Not every second of your life needs to be rainbows and butterflies. Not every second of your life does your life have to look really cool on paper. It's okay to feel lonely, it's okay to allow yourself time to adjust to a new season, it's okay to not have it all figured out. If you are lonely in a season, allow yourself to learn from it instead of basking in the misery of it. You won't be lonely forever.

If you aren't happy, quit.
Yesterday I quit a job that just plain didn't work for me. And let me tell you something, I am not a quitter. I stick through rough situations just because my brain constantly tells me it will get better, "I will learn a life lesson out of it", the difficulty will be worth it, my giving of grace will be worth it. I probably have a heart of perseverance that outweighs the average human being. I usually want to prove things to myself mainly, but other people too. But there comes a point where you CAN choose to say no. You can choose to let go. You can choose to quit. And sometimes, it's a good thing to learn that some things don't work out, mainly so that other things can. One door closes so that another one opens. You have heard that one before, right? If you keep all the doors open so that you don't have to deal with your pride hating you for quitting, you'll never be able to see all the other possibilities.

Also, your sanity and peace of mind and joy about life is worth more than a few bucks. Don't forget that. Money may rule the world, but it doesn't have to rule every ounce of your life.

Have fun (for free).
I have never in my life appreciated free things so much. I mean, I thought I appreciated free meals during college, but now that I not only pay for my life, but have to save up ample money for my life, I so appreciate a good free activity. Basically, I treat myself to spending money on myself rarely. Free things have never been more applauded and appreciated, and quite honestly, I've realized how friendships sustain themselves without needing to spend any money on things. A night with my best friend is just as fun whipping up chocolate chip cookies from what ingredients you already have and throwing on a movie, as it is going out to dinner and spending an arm and a leg on the movie theater (and honestly, maybe it's even more fun that way).

Life isn't college.
Clearly, right? But the second I graduated college I had this absurd impression that once you graduated things stayed pretty similar. Life slapped me in the face though. In college, friends are handed to you. Now, it takes time to establish new friendships, to meet new people, to grow accustomed to living in a new place. In college, my life was balanced for the most part. I had a massive social life, classes where I learned, work and internships where I learned even more, I had church and college group and small groups and leadership positions. I had coffee and lunch dates with mentors and mentees weekly, I had ample time for reading and soul care... and I even could fit naps into my schedule on the reg. Now a-days, I work a lot, go to church, and spend two hours playing with toddlers on Sundays. I spend free time running my own business, blogging, going to the gym when my schedule allots for it, and once in blue moon I get to have dinner with a friend or sit down and read a bit. My life is 90% working. Life sure as heck isn't college. But you learn like you do in college, oh my, do you learn.

Sources: 1 / 2

5 things being a design major didn't teach me

How to be a pro at Illustrator.

You can learn the pen tool all day long, you can learn clipping masks and how to live trace and how to apply different Pantone colors. You can have a ton of head knowledge, but to be honest, you'll never know it all. The programs will always change, you'll never be able to keep up with it all. The best way to learn design is to just keep designing. Learn as you go, ask questions, read the manuals, read design blogs, try some new tutorials. Be the person that stretches yourself. Don't expect someone else (even the best professors) to do that for you. I quite honestly, learned very little about how to work specific tools on design programs from my education. I learned it from experience, from jobs, from my own choice in my free time to learn instead of just skim Facebook. I made a lot of mistakes, and created a lot of designs I look back on with horror, but I've come a long ways with being my own motivation.

What style you should stick with.
When I first started pursuing graphic design, I was all about this clean, simplistic, contemporary-inspired look. I thought employers were looking for modern designers, so I fit my design style with what I thought I should be like. Lets just say that didn't last very long (clearly). It does take a while to find your voice, and for sure our voices are always changing and growing as designers, but we should never be told (or even try and tell ourselves) what box and style we need to fit ourselves into. Good design can go a lot of different directions, your voice can and should be unique. You'll be more successful because of it. Seek that uniqueness, listen to your inklings, no one should ever tell you what style you need stick with. People want designers that love what they do and stand by their work. You can't stand by a style and aesthetic that even you, yourself, aren't in love with. Find those projects and clients that have a style that you mesh with, and build your portfolio around those, not around a bunch of projects you don't even like.

How to organize your design process.
I never took a class on establishing your own design process. I had to learn it myself (and I still am learning a lot about it). Figuring out how to organize my sketches and drafts, my invoices, my design proposals. How to organize notes during client consultations, and what way works best to organize my endless lists. Also, when it comes to organizing the final product... I used to know nothing about it. I had all my designs on my computer, but the print versions were just thrown around, or lost, or ended up ripped and tattered. I wish I took a Design Process 101 class, but since such a thing doesn't exist I'm teaching myself that day by day. For designers, it's all about organization, it saves time and money and frustration, trust me. Find a system that works for you, you'll thank yourself later for it.

It takes time.
You won't be a successful, full-time self-employed designer right out of college. (And if you are, teach me your ways). It takes time. You'll work some jobs you don't love and some jobs that you absolutely adore. They seemed to forget to tell me that a college degree doesn't make things happen overnight. And you have to do what feels right for you, turn down the jobs that make no sense. Say yes to the things that make sense in your gut. But most of all, give yourself grace. Designers are their own toughest critics. Breathe a little.

Resilience.
Sometimes, just stop listening. Designers have a million voices all around them, some people love what you do. Some people hate designs you've done. There will be people praising you all the time, and people providing totally non-constructive criticism all the time as well. Sometimes, you have to shut your sensitivity off. Sometimes you just have to silence the people that's opinions aren't getting you anywhere. Even professors have their fair share of opinions, sometimes you take what they say and listen to every word, and sometimes you take what they say with a grain of salt. Listening to your gut usually goes further than listening to everyone else around you.

9 things college taught me

To follow my gut.
My heart's not always right that's for sure, but my gut is. I followed my gut when I felt led to apply for an Internship off Craigslist that seemed right up my alley... and it ended up totally changing my life and giving me a whole slew of work experience. I learned to follow my gut when it told me to spend a summer in Tanzania... and the year after when it told me to spend a summer in Texas. Even when those summers made no sense to my career path. I think we undervalue our gut sometimes. I've learned to listen, and it's gotten me pretty far I'd say.

To stop making life about useless, temporary things.
Life is about people. More specifically, loving people well. All this studying and all these papers and all this work and money to get a piece of paper that gives you some sort of educational superiority and I wind up just realizing, life is so not about this. Money won't bring you happiness and neither will a college degree. But serving people, helping humanity out by using the giftings and passions you have, making life about people, that's what this whole gig is about.

To soak up every single moment with family.
Senior year this slapped me across the face. Once you move out and get a full-time job, you're gone for good. I realized throughout college that family is so crucial. In most cases, at the end of the day, I'm there with my faith and love of Jesus and my family. They kept me rooted and encouraged throughout these years and throughout my life, and college made my heart grow fonder (even when I didn't know I could) with not being around them as much.

To lead out of who I am.

A huge chunk of my college journey has been about leadership. (Which I would have never predicted had you told me that 5 years ago). The biggest lesson I learned during college was that the world needs leaders that lead out of the uniqueness they have to offer. Leadership fails when all we are trying to do is mimic someone else who we feel did a decent (or good) job. The minute this realization clicked in my head, my whole foundation of leadership was strengthened.

To learn the things I want to learn, and toss aside the things I'm wasting my time on.
College should teach you to learn everything and soak up as much knowledge as you can, right? Well, maybe by the end of it it taught me quite differently. I no longer finish books that don't interest me. There are books on my Kindle that are 18% read that will likely never be finished. I no longer take classes that bore me or spend time in situations that absolutely don't interest me. I leave. I say no. I've learned who I am and I've stop apologizing for it. I prefer not to get to the end of my life and realize I spent endless hours doing things I didn't enjoy just because I felt like I had to. Life's too short for that. Which brings me to my next point:

To say no to things.
It's that easy. One word. Once it rolls around on our tongue a bit and we get used to saying it, it gets a whole lot easier. We should be able to say no without fear or guilt. How miserable to commit to a million things and never be able to invest fully in something. Being spread thin is no joke, it's draining and just plain miserable.

To know my worth, and to not sell myself short.
I used to tell people I'd do design work for free. (I still do it every once in a blue moon, but for the most part, I stick to charging what I should.) I also used to allow friends and other people to give me worth and value. My worth was once wrapped around pleasing everyone else. And well, that's an unsuccessful goal to say the least. I'll never please everyone, and one my worth was not attached to pleasing people, my life got a whole lot easier and more freeing.

To stop making excuses.
Excuses are fun when you're 10 years old. Why you didn't make your bed or brush your hair or set the table. Then you grow up and your excuses hold you back. They rob you of joy or bravery or valuable life-experiences or relationships or peace of mind. College and the people in it, well, they taught me excuses are life ruiners. Tell the truth, live fully, pursue your dreams, and stop stressing.

To never be afraid to be the one who loves more.
As Anne Lamott once said, "tell your stories, if people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better." Well, my story includes a brief relationship with a dude that faulted me for caring too much. Sear that in the brain of a chick that has definitely been the one that 'cared more' in the past, and you have a recipe for her starting to believe it's a huge fault. So I began to be paralyzed that any guy I'd fall for would dump me once again because I cared too much. That's no way to live and definitely no way to perceive myself. I don't think any conviction has more deeply flipped my life around than the realization that being the one who tries to care deeper and love more, well, it's not a fault at all. It's beautiful. Some people can't put their hearts out there with the risk of heartbreak looming in the back of their head. So the people that deeply care and love more despite the risk, well, I think we're the brave ones after all.

thoughts on dreams and red lipstick

I used to only wear red lipstick on special occasions. I used to bypass buying trends that others may not perceive as being 'my style'. I used to order the same exact thing at any restaurant I had ever been to. I used to live in this predictability bubble. I did what I had always done because I thought it was expected of me. 

I don't think I was the only one though.

I think often, we revolve so much of who we are around who we think we have to be. At first I was going to say this falls into the realm of a mentality that women have more so than men, but most of me thinks gender is irrelevant here. We all don't like to let others down, we don't want to be embarrassed, and we do all that we can to not fall short of whoever we think we have to be. To please our parents, to please our friends, to please God. It's maybe not the worst way to live. But it's definitely not the best way to live either.

I don't know when exactly I took a stance in my own life to stop this mindset that eventually became normal to me. But it stopped. It all came to a halt, a dead end stop, and my life is refreshing and filled with freedom and joy and a strength that I never knew. It sounds cliche. But everything changed. Maybe it's part of growing up, but part of me thinks I could have learned this 5 years ago if I knew it would make so much of a difference in my life.

I began to wear whatever color lipstick whenever I wanted, because I like bright colors and I think it's fun and vibrant and a little bit sassy. I also bought some pretty floral pants the other day. I would have never done that back then. Floral pants were for people that worked at Urban Outfitters, not for people like me. I started ordering new things at restaurants that I had been to a thousand times, not because I was sick of my 'usual' but because if I took a step out to try something new, it might be even better. I started actually saying how I felt in situations that usually I would never speak up in, I realized my opinions and feelings are valid and I should stop neglecting them. I stopped hiding from awkwardness and stopped being afraid of messing up. I became more concerned with being genuine and authentic, being who I was inherently made to me. I began to believe in myself, and in the validity of my dreams and my thoughts and my ideas.

In some weird way, through all of these little instances that may seem unconnected to an outsider, I became way less afraid of my dreams. Less afraid that they were insignificant or unreachable.

I realized that there comes a point in which we question who we are and who we want to be. But in the middle of those two things lies a huge gap. A gap that's filled with our perceived notions of who others tell us we can't be. A gap that's filled with us telling ourselves who we can't be. I wonder how many people miss out on dreams because they think they weren't built for that dream. Or that school. Or that job. Or whatever it may be.

I came up with this conclusion. We don't just wake up day after day to dreams and hopes and longings that aren't our own. The things that we feel strongly about, passionate about, sure of, those things are perhaps ingrained into the core of our being. They aren't a mistake. If you weren't made to love hiking, you wouldn't crave trekking in hiking boots up to waterfalls in the middle of no where. If you weren't made to serve the homeless, you wouldn't have this crazy yearning to be a part of a community and a church in which the homeless are served and valued and cared for and loved. If you weren't made to design, you wouldn't give a crap about the pen tool or the difference between 60 pound and 80 pound paper or the most popular Pantone colors.

Sometimes we forget the simple fact that you are who you are. That we need to stop apologizing for it and stop hiding from our potential. We don't need to care about pleasing the world. It is a uphill battle that you will never win. You will never please the world. We weren't made to please the world.

I was talking to my best friend on the phone about this whole idea last night. The best way to explain it was to say "I would never wake up and think 'I SHOULD BE A SCIENTIST', it just would never happen. I wasn't created to be a scientist. So why would I seek out being one? That would make no sense."

I think some visions and some hopes for our own lives are instilled in us because they are meant to be lived out. Regardless of who others perceive you to be, regardless of your insecurities about pursuing those things. If you wake up every morning and really want to paint, then you should probably learn to paint. If you hate screamo music, you should probably not listen to it. If you dreamed about making a blog, then make a blog already. Stop creating your perfect life in your head and live it instead.

7 things non-designers should probably know

1. Symmetry is boring. Being playful and pushing the boundaries with asymmetry is much more likely to grab people and please the eye than symmetry can. When it comes to even designing the most basic of things, like a resume or a greeting card for a friend, play with asymmetry, don't just stick to "centered" images and type all day long.

2. Don't try and use Photoshop to create everything. Photoshop is not the ideal program for everything that graphic designers create. As a matter of fact, for most designers, it's used rather rarely unless photography is in their repertoire. Photoshop obviously works brilliantly for photographs, as it's created to do, but for vectors it just isn't the right program. If you want to create a poster or something based off of typography and graphics, try using Adobe Illustrator. If you want to create a layout, or something more in lines of a magazine or book, use Adobe InDesign undoubtedly. Those two programs grace the screen of graphic designers a heck of a lot more often than Photoshop does. The key is to know the differences between what program is used for what, it will save you time, downright look better, and it'll save you many frustrations.

 3. Color acts like a tool, use it right and intentionally, or don't use it at all. When using a color, there should be purpose behind it, it should inform something that you want communicated to your viewer. If you use a bright pink in a poster based on a pool party, it makes no sense. Color isn't just meant to make a design stand out, it's meant to make a design make sense. Think wisely before picking the color you want to use to convey your ideas. It makes a heap of a difference.

4. You don't have to use Times New Roman or Arial for everything. With the exception of professors wanting certain typefaces to be used for papers, expand your horizon when you are able to. If you want to replace Times New Roman try using the typefaces Baskerville, Didot, or Garamond for a still very simple serif typeface but with a little twist. If you want to replace a typeface like Arial, try using the sans-serif fonts Quicksand, GeosansLight, or Nexa Light... or good ol' Helvetica is always a good option. Those four typefaces are the ones that frequent my work perhaps more than anything else, and all of them you can find for free to download online.

5. Using more than three typefaces in one project is completely unnecessary. Pick one typeface that comes in italic, bold, thin, etc. for all of your body text, then pick one to two typefaces that are more interesting looking for headings and for very small areas of text. That's all you need. Projects that consist of tons of different typefaces turn out messy and cheesy.

6. Gradients aren't mean to look like gradients. In other words, if you are using a gradient to make something look bright and stand out, you're using a gradient wrong. I personally hate gradients altogether and never use them myself, but I consider a gradient to be useful and successful if it brings depth and volume to a design... and if you may not even be able to tell there is a gradient being used at first sight. If in doubt though, just skip the whole gradient thing altogether.

7. When in doubt, keep it simple. Complexity can work against a design much more quickly than simplicity ever could. If your eye doesn't know where to begin on a piece of work, that's a bad sign. If you look at something and feel overwhelmed by colors and a million different typefaces and graphics, you probably should re-think how much you're putting on a page.

6 ways to stay creative

1. Carry a Sketchbook in Your Bag. One word: moleskins. I swear by them. Just merely carrying around a sketchbook will (fingers crossed) inspire you to write down notes you had no materials to jot down before or to sketch out an idea you had while you were out at lunch that you may have forgotten before you got home. Even if you know you'll never be Van Gogh or Picasso, sketchbooks are a huge way to allow yourself the option to be creative at all hours of the day, wherever you are. Also, how much cooler do you feel when you have a sketchbook in your bag... amiright?

2. Hit the Gym. May sound strange, but if getting your endorphins doesn't make you feel super productive, accomplished, and enthusiastic, I don't know what will. I have come to realize that working out makes me a better designer just as much as it makes me more athletic. It gives me a kick start to filling my day with accomplishing that never ending to-do list we all seem to have. Also, the days I have design work that needs to get done, it's a solid hour of my day to think and brainstorm on ideas for those projects.

3. Spend an Hour in the Design Section of the Bookstore. Grab a stack of books that look interesting, read what you can, perhaps take pictures with your phone of inspirational things, and don't forget to write down book titles that you want to come back to (or even buy later). This same philosophy goes for any other major as well. I have sat cross-legged at the cookbook section, history section, fiction section, among endless other rows, depending on what I need to get done and what kind of inspiration will get me there. It works miracles.

4. Stay up Late. Unless you are the type that is alert and highly-productive at what I consider to be obnoxious hours in the morning, I encourage you to stay up until 2AM every once in a blue moon doing something you consider to be creative. Whether that's sketching or making a collage or water coloring or creating a poster on Adobe Illustrator, whatever it is that gets you excited creatively, do it late at night. If you are anything like me, you'll get some of your best ideas that way. (Seriously... my best ideas come from 11PM-2AM.)

5. Get off Pinterest for a While. We tend to think that Pinterest and scrolling through design blogs and websites makes us more creative, but sometimes it does just stifles us and leaves us overwhelmed and in a huge slump creatively. Turn off Pinterest. Shut down your computer even. Just think and doodle and write down ideas and just be. I'm sure this will help your well being just as much as it'll help you as a creative.

6. Change your Surroundings. You'll be surprised how much trying to get stuff done at a new coffee shop or a local Panera Bread will inspire you and get your creative brain rolling. Sometimes we are just distracted or uninspired by being in the same place we are always in. This gives you a reason to get away and go somewhere fun or try something new.