Artist Career Developement - Breakthrough

Date and Time
October 17, 2012
Event Details

FREE - Doors open at 5:30 p.m. 

All of us struggle at one time or another with creative block. Inevitably striking at the worst moment, it can leave us feeling completely paralyzed. Take solace in knowing that you are not alone. It happens to every creative person and is an unavoidable part of the creative process. So what do top creative people do when they run into a block? When all seems hopeless, how do they get the ideas flowing again?

In this panel discussion moderated by Alex Cornell, an all-star line-up of designers, writers, and entrepreneurs reveal their own terrifying experiences with creative block and share their personal strategies for overcoming it. This panel offers a rare opportunity to learn hard-won secrets from Debbie Millman and Sam Potts.

Pages 46-47 from BreakthroughPages 46-47 from BreakthroughThe book Breakthrough! is a lively compilation of strategies for combating creative block offered by a who’s who of leading designers, typographers, photographers, illustrators, musicians, writers, and other creative professionals including Paula Scher, Debbie Millman, Christoph Niemann, Douglas Rushkoff, Nicholas Felton, Jamie Lidell, Ji Lee, Experimental Jetset, and Khoi Vinh. Because every block is different, they provide 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!: Proven Strategies to Overcome Creative Block and Spark Your Imagination is rocket fuel for any creative individual in need of a catalyst to get ideas flowing again.

Copies of Breakthrough! are available for purchase and signing at the event.

Alex Cornell is the author of Breakthrough! He currently works as cofounder and designer at Firespotter Labs and Nosh, a Google Ventures–funded startup. He has also worked for IDEO, Plancast, Signpost, and many other Bay Area companies as a UI/UX and brand designer.

Pages 60-61 from BreakthroughPages 60-61 from BreakthroughDebbie Millman is a writer, educator, artist, brand consultant, and host of the radio show Design Matters.

Sam Potts is a graphic designer based in New York City.

Initiated and organized by Arezoo Moseni, Artist Career Development Series have addressed the growing needs and concerns of independent creative workforce in New York City since 2006.