I love that picture that Erin posted. My process seems so much to involve negotiating with ego and expectations and procrastination and flailing and euphoric flashes of accomplishment. It's not all that dissimilar from how I approach writing, and I find that tweaking the small elements of a design is similar to figuring out (and re-re-re-figuring out) line breaks and stanzas and whatnot. I find that the concept phase is a wide open one for me, but I am still struggling through some of the more basic elements of Creative Suite so I often trend back into my known strengths. I don't feel as if I've flatlined, though, and I do experience (and have experiences already!) some a-ha moments as I force myself to work with new elements/techniques.
I also take heart knowing that even if I have a wheelhouse of sorts, there is always going to be new ground to discover inside that comfort zone. That's not to say that I want to stay inside a work of minimalist/geometric design, but every time I think I "get" something I find someone else doing four million times better. It's hard on the nerves,but keeping my ego squirrely and impatient is important for my process. It keeps me from sitting still.
