Legend has it that Pablo Picasso was sketching in the park when a bold woman approached him.

“It’s you — Picasso, the great artist! Oh, you must sketch my portrait! I insist.”

So Picasso agreed to sketch her. After studying her for a moment, he used a single pencil stroke to create her portrait. He handed the women his work of art. “It’s perfect!” she gushed. “You managed to capture my essence with one stroke, in one moment. Thank you! How much do I owe you?”

“Five thousand dollars,” the artist replied. “B-b-but, what?” the woman sputtered. “How could you want so much money for this picture? It only took you a second to draw it!”

To which Picasso responded, “Madame, it took me my entire life.”

(cited on various sources online, including this one)

Aaaahhh the creative process.

Sometimes the solution is so “there” it almost seems too easily obtained.

Other times (like with a project I worked on this past week), it takes a lot longer. The yellow trace started to mount up around my office!

This, in my opinion, is why you can’t pay per hour for design work.

Because even the solutions that arrive “simply” have taken years of pre-work, practise and study. It’s not something that you can quote a number of hours on – instead you’re quoting the finished product, the value you’ve added and the expertise you bring to the process.

I generally work very quickly to get results – it’s one ingredient in my special sauce (one that’s taken 20 years to create) but sometimes the ideas don’t flow just because it’s time for them to.

It can be frustrating … And then I’ll be outside, or cooking dinner, hanging out with the kids, or in the shower, and the design will be there, right before my eyes (well, actually, behind them!!)

Or other times I’ll be in total flow … all brain cells firing and the design work just happening so well – and I’ll have to stop so I can pick the kids up from school. I can get so absorbed sometimes, I’ve learnt (the hard way) to set alarms on my phone so I ‘remember’ to pick up the children!

It was a big relief when this one finally clicked, and I came up with three options for this client.

Of course, the last option I discovered was the one I was trying to get to all along! Design is often circular like that. You work through all sorts of options, to return to the original one you were seeking to solve. (These clients were using my How to Get it Right service).

I love this video for explaining simply how creativity works … CLICK HERE