To succeed as a designer, you must be "creative on demand."

I'm a consultant and business co-founder, leading creative strategy and design for 25+ years. I also teach graduate and undergrad design students at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago one day a week. 

I see 7 blocks that limit students and young designers from being creative on demand. Do you recognize these traits in yourself? 

1. Perfectionist 

Perfectionists have a hard time starting. They often put off developing ideas and prefer to wait for pressure to build or thoughts to emerge. They often critique ideas in their head before putting them down on paper. Perfectionists usually don't finish on time.

2. Production-oriented

These designers think about technical details, software tools, process hacks, style, and details before digging into strategy, content, and ideas. Production keeps them from thinking and seeing.

3. Articulate but not visual

Articulate designers think clearly, outline processes and direction, connect ideas, and provide valuable insights and suggestions. But when putting ideas down on paper, they falter, second guess, and don't translate valuable insights into vibrant and engaging visual artifacts. These designers frequently change direction and often don't realize the potential of their good ideas.

4. Visual but not articulate 

Some designers have a gift for creating. They are good mimics and have a voracious appetite for visual form and style. Solutions are often dynamic and visually engaging, but they struggle with articulating their thought process, shaping content, and supporting ideas with logic and reasoning.

5. One idea only

One-idea designers create multiple versions of the same idea with subtle variations in style, composition, color, form, image, or typeface. Their vision narrows because they haven't immersed themselves in the subject at hand and haven't learned habits and techniques to expand their range.

6. "No" instead of "yes, and..."

These designers cut off options early in the creative process because of how they feel and what they like. As clients often do, they put constraints on each project at every step along the way. They don't recognize that these constraints continually shrink the space they work in—leaving them stuck in a very narrow box in which to create solutions.

7. Indecisive 

These designers may have created several ideas but have trouble choosing a direction or picking out good ideas from bad ones. They haven't developed the analytical skill or experience to break down a problem and establish criteria—to know how to eliminate options and choose the best direction.

Did I miss anything?