Stuck In Trendy Hell!!!

I've got a major mental block goin on. Lately I can't seem to create anything. It's like months already of just little photoshop use cause I can't think past this trendy crap. I was just developing my PS skills about 2yrs ago...kinda round the birth of this whole deal and now that im trying to improve my skills its all gone to hell. It's almost all I know. Everything I've been exposed up to now(books,magazines,websites,tutorials,other ppl's artwork etc.) is somehow related to all this.......my mind is so saturated that I just cant think for myself anymore. It's driving me insane!!!!!!!!! I mean I have a crap load of ideas (i save them all in a txt on my hdd) but i dont really know how to execute them to be unique.... like i can't make a good image without some kind of colordodge or retarded 3d fractal.

Anyone else in a similar situation?? Any suggestions on how to break out of this? Should I forget PS and become a proffessional clown?? (my juggling skills are really good! lol ) I just wish I could go to one website these days without hearing the words trend or whore... (xcept for porn.. the word whore is ok there). This whole scene is getting so bad that the phrase "trendwhore" is dying trend itself. where is the end of it all??

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!!

get away from the computer, just shut it down for a day, literally. go find an art museum or a natural science and bring a sketchpad and rough out little thumbnails of things that look interesting to you. go to barnes & noble but don't look at design stuff, go pick up some architecture books and look thru those. do any one of a number of other things where there's some sort of creative or structural or artistic thing you can observe and sketch. if you want to do something different you have to change your influences. hope that helps.

chris

read a book on the implementation of graphic design, then a book on typography, the placement of even the simplest things can make ideas become the best they can be.

then just wake up and realise 3d fractals take about 20 seconds, so if you've spent 2 years on developing a 3d fractals technique then i'd start thinking of a new profession, as you only made 1 post and no replies as of yet i fear for your return, but if it is not to be so then my time has been wasted,
salutations.

"if you want to do something different you have to change your influences"

I think im going to get that tatooed on my forehead!! Then I will write it on a piece of paper and tape it to my ceiling above my computer lol. Seriously though... that really just sums it all up I guess. "Go find an art museum".. that usually would sound like such a good idea.....but i hate them lol. Luckily I know some good websites for fine art...www.mfa.org (their online archive ) and www.allposters.com is great (whole bunch of odd stuff there).

"spent 2 years on developing a 3d fractals technique"...i would have killed myself a year and 10 months ago if that were true lol. Actually i've only made i think 3 "fractal" pics ever...and those were half assed at best. Its a good thing...cause i could never do anything else. I love photoshop (and flash, illustrator, premiere, dreamweaver,quark,3dmax just to name a few lol). Also Ive only made one post cause I just joined a few days ago.....(very, very bad habit of lurking!!)

Anyway thanks for the tips guys! At the moment i think anything will help. If i come up with anything good (& different ... i won't hesitate to post it )

get a mirror, take off all your clothes & explore your body!

Hmmm, Charm is makin' me horny.

thing is, no matter what it looks like, a website is a website, its still in a box on a screen. the key to the whole idea is getting away from the screen. seeing a painting or sculpture online in a picture is nice, but it can't compare to sitting in person in front of an actual dimensional object. if you're still looking at a website then you haven't changed your influences.

btw, if you do get that tatooed anywhere take a pic or something, i haven't designed my first tattoo yet so that'd be rather cool to see ;)

chris

"getting away from the screen"

I totally agree about that but at the moment my options are quite limited so im trying to do what I can. These are the websites that I usually browse
www.noiz22.com
www.coolhomepages.com
http://bestflashsites.de/
http://www.bestflashanimationsite.com/
http://www.favouritewebsiteawards.com/
http://www.mediainspiration.com/
http://www.thebestdesigns.com
http://www.wow-factor.com/

so anything other than this kind of site is a welcome change in my mind. If anything....at least I can look at technique/composition etc. between the times I can actually go see something in person.

"get a mirror, take off all your clothes & explore your body!"
Interesting......that might work for women but for a guy....well to keep it clean i'll just say we would lose focus very fast!!!!

What i foudn when i was in a rut in that i need to be myself and do your own **** kuz unconventional **** is better ****..

http://www.designex.net/gfx is what im doin now hehe

however limited your options may be i imagine you can still find a notebook, pencil, and a pair of shoes. worse comes to worse just go wander your neighborhood to a park or something and start sketching, getting out is a large part of the process.

chris