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Breakthrough!: Proven Strategies to Overcome Creative Block and Spark Your Imagination Paperback – September 12, 2012

by Alex Cornell (Author)
3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars 35 ratings
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All of us struggle at one time or another with creative block. Always striking at the worst moment, it can leave you feeling completely paralyzed. Take solace in knowing that you are not alone. It happens to everyone and is actually an inevitable part of the creative process. Breakthrough!is a lively compilation of strategies for combating creative block offered by a who's who of leading graphic designers, typographers, cartoonists, photographers, illustrators, musicians, writers, and other creative professionals. Because every block is different, they offer a wide variety of solutions—from cleaning the house and eating spicy food to making a plaster cast of your hands and feet—that are surprising, amusing, at times weird, but always inspiring. Breakthrough! is rocket fuel for any creative individual in need of a catalyst to get ideas flowing again.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    176 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Princeton Architectural Press
  4. Publication date
    September 12, 2012
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.5 x 7 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9781616890391
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1616890391
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A small but potent compendium of field-tested, life-approved insight on optimizing the creative process from some of today's most exciting artists, designers, illustrators, writers, and thinkers. At once practical and philosophical, Breakthrough! promises to help you burst through your own creative plateaus. Whether or not it succeeds, one thing it's guaranteed to do is make you feel less alone in your mental struggles -- and what greater reassurance than that could there be?" -- Brain Pickings

"When color-coding your pens finally loses its appeal and the blank computer screen continues to mock you, borrow a tip from Alex Cornell's new book, Breakthrough! 90 Proven Strategies to Overcome Creative Block and Spark Your Imagination. He surveyed creative leaders, who have plenty of tricks." -- Fast Company

"We can all relate to the frustration that ensues when we run up against creative block. Well, no need to fret. Alex Cornell has compiled '90 Proven Strategies to Overcome Creative Block and Spark Your Imagination' from a line-up of stellar creatives. Christian Helms, Alexandra Lange, Debbie Millman, and others share what works for them to get over the block." -- Communication Arts

About the Author

Alex Cornell is a San Francisco-based designer and musician. He currently works as cofounder and designer at Firespotter Labs and ÜberConference, an Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures-funded startup. Recently he passed over three million views on YouTube, where he maintains a periodic online musical presence.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1616890398
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton Architectural Press (September 12, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781616890391
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1616890391
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.1 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.5 x 7 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars 35 ratings

About the author

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Alex Cornell

Alex Cornell

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Alex Cornell is a San Francisco-based Designer and Musician. A graduate of Duke University, Alex cofounded Firespotter Labs in 2010 and has designed and launched Nosh, Jotly, NoshList and ÜberConference. Recently Firespotter raised $15M from Google Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz.

Prior to Firespotter, he spent three years studying design as apprentice to Scott Hansen (ISO50), as well as writing for the blog and running the studio. He has also worked for IDEO, Plancast, Signpost, and many other Bay Area companies as a UI/UX and brand designer.

His work has been featured in many international magazines, publications, and blogs - most recently in The Modernist (Gestalten 2011). Recently he passed over 3 million views on YouTube where he maintains a periodic online musical presence.

Customer reviews

3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5 out of 5
35 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Pechez
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2016
Verified Purchase
Enlightening
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Debra
4.0 out of 5 stars Very fun to read
Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2013
Verified Purchase
This is a light read but good advice and wonderfully produced. Did it help? Not at all---but I do trust many of the approaches it suggests. And if I wasn't so stressed out and over-committed, I'm sure it would be enormously helpful!
2 people found this helpful
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David V
1.0 out of 5 stars Seriously?
Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2013
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
As a part time graphic designer and copywriter, I sometimes find myself hitting a roadblock. When this happens to me I take a break or search the web for inspiration. When I received this book I expected there to be mental exercises but all I found were other people's solutions for breaking their creative blocks. So I suppose MY page in that book would read something like this, "I take a break or search the web for inspiration".

Not kidding. Don't expect exercises, only a bunch of people giving their input as to how THEY overcome creative block. I'm sorry, but I just don't think this is a valuable book worth spending your money on. What's funny is that I bought a book a while back that had about 100 blank pages and the front cover said "What Men Know About Women" (or something to that effect) and I felt that was more valuable than this!

Not Recommended.
6 people found this helpful
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Brad4d
3.0 out of 5 stars Not A Breakthrough, But Fairly Good Nonetheless
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2012
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
Writer's block, creativity vacuum, the murkies -- whatever you call it, anyone who has been in any profession, done any meditation, or needed to rouse the imagination has had "it." To help manage "it", this book neatly collects some short essays by dozens of different artists and designers to give you many blog-style suggestions, rather than a systematic (but probably more boring and less versatile) methodology written by a single person. The author creatively illustrates the book with imaginative graphic designs to illustrate main points.

The author seems to have done us a good service and it was encouraging, although most suggestions seemed more like brainstorming results rather than well-thought-out ideas, and I didn't find any revolutionary new methods for relieving creative block. Most of the book's contributors seemed to be in some aspect of music or tech design (technical or creative writing seemed conspicuous by their absence but the book's suggestions seemed universal enough). Many suggestions were variations of: 1.) Take a walk away from your desk, 2.) Do something completely different, 3.) Grit your teeth and just sit down until something comes out and then revise it later, 4.) Bombard yourself with adaptive ideas (yours and other people's), 5.) Have some more chocolate/beer/TV/whatever.

Other than some annoying whining about things like the commercialization of art (as if that were anything new or insurmountable), the book seemed to have no really bad suggestions, but it did leave out a lot. For example, I don't recall seeing anything other than self-centered ideas -- no one suggested doing something to help others, volunteering for an afternoon, or the like. The contributors seemed to neglect another useful method validated by modern psychology -- sleeping on an idea, or letting your subconscious mind process your ideas in peace.

In short, an interesting variety of ideas but the dreaded Creative Blockosaurus doesn't need to worry about going extinct after this book is published, alas.
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LindaT
5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful and encouraging
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2012
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
I read the book from front to back for review purposes. And in doing so I found out that you can take it, let it fall openanywhere, and find good, sound advice for when you feel "stuck" and "blocked."

Many of the writers wer artistic designers, graphic artists and writers. For my own part, I am a teacher, writer, and musician. I also like to knit teddy bears and paint pictures (although I haven't done it for quite a while). And sometimes it seems like in all of these endeavors, I feel "stuck" and I fiund this book to be a greaet place to go for ideas -- not for my projects, but for ways to handle this feeling of dryness and feeling like I'm gettting nowhere.

A lot of the ideas are surprising. Some people find deadlines to be scary, but Ben Barry, Grapic Designer at Facebook says that sometimes creating an artificial constraints as quickly as possible on a projecct -- especially open-ended ones where there'sno particular time to have the project fnished -- "A deadline is always the best cure." While this may not work for everything, it certainly is an option. Page 86 says to allow for error. The discusision by "Experimental Jetset" about the difference between a "bloc" and an "block" is worth the price of the whole book. And get this -- the writer on page 72 tells you to "enjoy" your depresion!

This book goes with me a lot. It's fun to read when I want to enjoy my MacDonald's vanilla ied coffee and get good ideas to keep on moving on.

It's many, MANY times the price of the book.
6 people found this helpful
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JD Allen
3.0 out of 5 stars I was expecting more...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 18, 2013
Verified Purchase
It's okay, interesting I guess, but it's fairly thin, and seems to have comments from the same creative industries. It's not varied enough I guess. Fine for keeping next to the bed for occasional bedtime reading I suppose.
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Susanne D.
5.0 out of 5 stars Die Mischung macht's....
Reviewed in Germany on December 11, 2012
Verified Purchase
Die Vielzahl der Autoren, die in diesem Buch versammelt sind, geben einen sehr schönen "Querschnitt" über die unterschiedlichsten Arten von Kreativität...
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