Sometimes inspiration is hard to come by. Nothing feels right and valuable hours are ticking away. Don’t despair, there’s any easy solution: get your eyes off your screen.

In the summer of 2009 I began work on a new design for Ghana-based Great Andoh Orphanage. It’s an inspiring place, with almost 100 orphans and tons of smiles. But during my initial design phase, I felt that my work was not hitting the right chord one iota. So I began a desperate search for finding something that would get me back on track.

An online cul-de-sac

Through the years I’ve assembled my fair share of bookmarks, so step one was to browse my “Non-profit organisation” folder, to see what others sites do well. The general feeling from the collection of sites was murky, to say the least. Almost all of them were dark and gloomy and after trying out that look on my wireframed-based layout, I knew it was a dead end.

The search continued into offline territory, skimming through magazines and books on Africa. To my dismay nothing was helping, so I decided to switch gears and come back to the project in a few days. I figured a well needed creative rest was desperately needed.

Walk around town

The following day I strolled through Stockholm’s picturesque area of Gamla Stan (the Old Town) on my way to a client meeting. Glancing through shops and cafés, my mind was wandering when I caught myself stopping. My eyes had found their way into a tiny African shop, with a door just big enough for a young teenager to fit through. However, I didn’t need to move another inch. I’d finally found my long lost inspiration.

The store was filled with colour, coming from African artwork, clothing, sculptures — the works. In the midst of the fusion of colour was an array of African national flags. Basic in structure yet so lively in feeling, it struck me like a bolt of lightning what to base Great Andoh’s site around.

To see the flags in their natural setting was what it took to get my creative juices flowing again

Get out

I had naturally done plently of research before designing the website, and had seen the Ghanaian flag many times. Yet it hadn’t crossed my mind to base the entire website on it. It seems like an elementary idea, and one that I should of thought of from the get-go. But to see the flags in their natural setting, in their true environment, was what it took to get my creative juices flowing again.

So when in need of some well-needed inspiration of any sort, take a step back (from the computer screen), and see things in a truer, more natural setting. It’ll work like a charm.