5 Sources for Creative Inspiration

Rodin had Camille Claudel, Fitzgerald had Zelda, and in this modern age, a lot of us resort to Pinterest for inspiration. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, there’s some good stuff there, but sometimes finding original inspiration is challenging. And then there’s the rapidly approaching deadline that can either foster that inspiration or lock it up nice and tight.

So, besides the usual stops of Pinterest, Instagram and Behance on the interwebs, this is where can you get creative inspiration.

1. Travel

My number one passion in life, besides design, is travel. I live to travel the world, and I find it’s my greatest source of inspiration. Being exposed to other cultures and other settings really heightens your awareness of what is around you. That awareness spawns new ideas and gets the creative juices flowing. Furthermore, making yourself take a break and take a vacation is so much better for your creative flow too. When you travel, take pictures of the little things—an interesting street a sign, a menu at a cafe, what people are wearing and file it away. When you’re stumped for an idea, they may trigger a new concept.

My favorite travel spots: Kenya, Paris, Venice and San Francisco

2. Quotes

I love the written word. I’ve always been an avid reader, and before I went to design school, I was an English major. I’m constantly inspired by beautiful language. Often, a great quote will inspire a great design with me. Whether it’s a typographic poster or something completely unrelated, that rush and high of hearing something inspiring will get your designy self moving. I keep an ongoing Word file where I paste in great quotes I hear. When I need a pick-me-up or a great idea, my first love of words is there.

A few of my favorite strings of language:

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” —Steve Jobs

“You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart will always be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.” -Wayfaring.me

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“Miss Jean Louise, stand up, your father’s passin’.” —Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

3. Target

It doesn’t necessarily have to be Target, but the idea of going into a big store that sells a wide variety of merchandise, is a great place to gain inspiration. A great package design, a label, a pattern on a dress, going out to a store can really help trigger ideas. It’s easy and it’s convenient—sometimes going on an around the world adventure isn’t logical with a looming deadline, so just take a quick trip to your neighborhood store.

4. Magazines

Long before digital portfolio sites, there were magazines. Thankfully, there still ARE magazines. To me, magazines can be more inspiring than combing the web. When I get really stuck, I pull out my old issues of HOW, Communication Arts and my latest obsession, Uppercase. There’s something more thought-provoking to my process with a tangible thing than a phantom image online. Design magazines are great in that they have a lot of annuals that are filled with the best in the industry. It’s a great way to get inspired and push yourself harder with your own concepts.

Favorite Magazines: HOW, Communication Arts, Uppercase, Computer Arts, HGTV Magazine, Food Network Magazine

5. Your Design Community

Designers help inspire each other. I’ve found that our industry has a great amount of camraderie. Yeah, we’re all technically in competition with each other, but I’ve never seen such a tight bond among a profession as in design. We can talk ampersands for hours, help each other out with a constructive critique and love feeding off of each other’s creative energy. Find your local chapter of AIGA and get involved by attending events and meeting other designers. Network online through social media to meet other designers. If funds allow, try to attend a big design conference like HOW Live or AdobeMAX. Besides potential networking opportunities, your fellow designers are a fantastic resource to help get ideas flowing and listen to you vent when the client asks you to make the logo bigger. It’s awesome being part of a creative community and it will make you better at your craft.

Small Bites: March 16, 2015

Get your weekly dose of design inspiration with small bites on this fine Monday.

I am all about creative business card designs. They’re one of my favorite things to design, and I love how much versatility they have in terms of materials, shape and design. This week InspirationFeed published 20 of their favorite designs using plastic.

Becoming Steve Jobs, a new biography on the founder of Apple is coming out soon. This past week, in anticipation of its’ release, Fast Company has been publishing interest excerpts. Apparently, when Jobs was on his deathbed desperately needing a liver transplant, Tim Cook offered his and Jobs refused. It’s an interesting article, and I’m anxious for the book release.

Design Taxi published an interesting video this week outlining exactly how Apple stores are designed to make you spend more money. Yes, all stores are designed for optimal profits, but Apple’s relatively small storefronts generate more money per square foot than any other retailer.

Graphic designers and advertisers can face serious creative challenges at times, including how to make a dull product seem appealing and interesting. AdWeek featured the new campaign for visiting the state of Nebraska this week. Rather than trying to build up attractions and excitement they don’t have, the Nebraska tourism office is marketing the Cornhusker state as “Visit Nice.” It won the Best in Show for the Nebraska Addys and it’s a really well done campaign.

Want to see a graphic designer twitch? Use Comic Sans, ask them to use internet images for print and ask them to work for free. Enjoy this playful list from BuzzFeed.

Do What You Love

Do what you love seems to be a popular saying these days, especially with the millenials. It’s all about the passion for what you do and not the paycheck. Sometimes it gets annoying, especially when that loathsome phrase “YOLO” is thrown in there too, but overall, I think it’s a great mentality. After all, you spend more time at your job than you do anywhere else, so if you hate it, that makes for some long years until retirement.

I feel so lucky that I am doing what I love. I love design. It’s my passion. Sometimes I daydream and wonder what would I become if I had any career option available to me, but I can never think of anything other than being a designer. The closest I get is chef, because I love to cook and it’s creative, but I’d never want to work in a restaurant—the hours would drive me nuts. Otherwise, I really can’t think of anything. I’m home as a designer.

Friday night, I went to Denver to go to an information meeting about volunteering to work at TypeCon, which is the the big yearly typography conference. Last year, it was in Washington, DC, but this year, it’s in Denver. So I went up with a fellow designer to check it out. It was an awesome experience in that it was great to be around other designers. We talked about type and fonts and checked out the amazing letterpresses that were in the agency where the meeting was held. I met someone who named her dog Ampersand. As an in-house designer, where you’re not surrounded by too many other creatives, sometimes it’s overwhelming to be in a large group of your own kind.

It’s what made me realize even more that I love what I do. If you handed me a million dollars right now, I’d still do graphic design. I can’t imagine giving up my passion for type and color and layout. I can’t imagine crunching numbers as an accountant or cleaning up blood as a doctor. I’ve been bogged down the last few weeks with freelance projects, and it’s a lot for sure in terms of my schedule, but I love it. I really don’t mind working on projects when I’m home on a Saturday.

Doing what you love isn’t just a silly phrase by overeager millenials, it’s finding your passion. Watch the famous Stanford University commencement speech by Steve Jobs and get inspired.