How to Come Up With 15+ New Sweater Design Ideas in 15 Minutes
Have you ever sat down to design something new, but struggled to come up with any ideas? You’ve got pen and paper in hand and the desire to come up with something beautiful, yet as soon as you try to sketch something, your mind goes blank!
Sound familiar?
I used to know this frustration only too well! More often than not, it was usually thanks to my old nemesis, creative block. Thankfully, creative block doesn’t plague me quite as often as it used to and it’s all because I use a few tried and tested exercises that stop it in its tracks - one of which I am going to share with you today!
Overcome Perfectionism with the 15-Minute Timer Method
This exercise was inspired by the many life drawings classes I have taken over the years. Often, the classes would begin with a series of short, 1-minute poses where you’d try to capture the pose as quickly as possible.
Whilst most of those initial sketches would come out pretty rough, it stopped you from agonising over starting your sketches by jumping right in! There was no time to fuss over your work.
By the time we eventually moved on to longer poses, we’d already broken the seal! We weren’t afraid to start drawing because we’d already drawn a bunch of imperfect sketches and we had nothing to lose! The creative juices were already flowing.
The 15-Minute Timer Method works in a very similar way, eliminating most of the perfectionism and anxiety that can cause creative block, whilst loosening you up and allowing you to design instinctually from a more relaxed and imaginative place.
How to Get Started
This short and sweet exercise will destroy your creative block and kickstart the design process, resulting in at least 15 new sweater ideas for you to explore. Sounds good? Here’s how you do it…
You won’t need much to get started right away; just a pen, paper and something to set a timer on, such as a smartphone. You may also want some kind of inspirational reference, such as a photo or moodboard, although that is entirely optional!
Set your timer for 15 minutes and right away, start drawing sweaters - using your inspirational reference, if you’d like. Try to spend no more than one minute on each design idea.
Don’t pause to think; just sketch without stopping. There is no need to mentally process what you’ve drawn or edit any of your ideas. There will be time for that later! This exercise is all about getting as many ideas out of your head as quickly as possible in a completely judgement-free zone.
Now, before you start telling me that this won’t work for you because you’re a “terrible artist”, I’m going to stop you. The 15-Minute Timer Method is not about drawing something beautiful. It’s simply a way of loosening you up and getting your creative juices flowing. In the end, you’re the only one who needs to understand what your sketches mean, anyway!
Once the timer’s up, take a look back at what you’ve drawn. You likely won’t love (or even like!) most of your sketches, however, there is usually at least one that will spark inspiration inside of you. These are the designs you can explore further, editing, refining and swatching them until you’re really excited by them.
Sketching is Only Part of the Design Process
So there you have it: my go-to tactic for overcoming perfectionism and stopping creative block in its tracks.
Next time you start working on a new sweater design and find yourself staring at a blank page, make sure you give the 15-Minute Timer Method a try! You’ll have a page full of fledgling ideas in no time.
Now that you’ve got a handle on how to loosen up and start generating ideas, it’s time to start thinking about your next step. After all, sketching is just one part of the overall sweater design process.
