20 Grams… One Idea

One day, my manager, **“Abu Hala,”** said to me:

“Ahmed, how can you be a graphic designer and not smoke?!”

He said it in his usual way while complimenting a few designs he liked at the time — almost as if everything happening behind that screen needed something else to explain it.

I laughed, but the question stayed with me.

If every designer has something that gets them into the right headspace for those long hours of designing, I think I know what mine is:

Just 20 grams of coffee.

I don’t believe coffee makes you a better designer, and I certainly don’t think the first sip suddenly gives you a brilliant idea.

But for me, it has become part of the design ritual itself.

A cup beside my computer.

The screen in front of me.

And an idea in my head that hasn’t quite found its shape yet.

Then I begin.

I try things. Delete them. Go back. Make something bigger, then smaller. Move an element slightly, only to put it right back where it started. I change something I was completely convinced about, then return to it half an hour later as if nothing happened.

And sometimes, after an entire hour of experimenting, I realize that the simplest solution was actually the very first option I tried.

And between one decision and the next… a sip.

That’s why I’m genuinely surprised when a designer tells me they don’t drink coffee.

Not because coffee is a requirement for creativity, but because I honestly wonder:

How do you survive all those decisions without a cup beside you?

Especially when you finally reach a result you’re completely happy with, only to hear that famous line:

**“This is amazing. Seriously, great work… but can we just try one more option?”**

So you turn back to the screen and start all over again.

That’s usually when I let go of the mouse, lean back for a moment, take a sip, and look at the design again.

And sometimes, suddenly, I see something that had been right in front of me the whole time.

Of course, the coffee didn’t create the solution.

Maybe it just gave me the small pause I needed to finally see it.

In the end, creativity doesn’t come from a cup of coffee.

It comes from years of observing and experimenting. From the attempts that worked and the ones that didn’t. From thousands of little details we store in our minds without even realizing it — until one day, at exactly the right moment, we bring them back.

And the coffee?

Maybe it’s simply the ritual I like to have beside me through all of it.

And if Abu Hala asked me the same question today, my answer would be much simpler:

**I don’t know where all the ideas come from, Abu Hala…**

**but the story usually begins with 20 grams of coffee.**