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On the subject of overcoming inspiration overload
My comment on Viget’s most recent article: Overcoming Inspiration Overload
I don’t visit design galleries. I start drawing; and then I put my ideas on the screen. Every design is designed for the client, but there’s always a good bit of Wolf inside there.
I like to think that separates the men from the boys - a clear mark. I strive not to take cues and bits from others [on purpose]. That is, random cues and bits. I will gladly listen to a well formulated design critique about one of my designs.
Of course what I end up designing is largely influenced by what I see and discover, but I don’t go out hunting for visual interestingness on purpose before I start designing.
Then again, I barely do brochure sites, where moodboards and the like are helpful at least.
I like to be inspired all the time, but listening to music, surfing the web, looking outside the window - that’s inspiring too. Just like you, you won’t see me visiting design gallery’s before I start working on a new design - doing that tends you to push in a certain direction…
November 6th, 2008 at 12:14 ∞Being inspired all the time gives you a much more solid base while designing.
The greatest architechts drew influence from great architecture of the past. Michelangelo was a genius not just because of creativity, but because it was combined with knowledge and mastery of the classical form. The greatest musicians of the last few hundred years, from Chopin and Schumann to Herbie Hancock, were also made great by the lessons they learned from the work of their peers.
I agree that it’s important to have your own source of ideas, but no man is an island. To purposefully shut yourself off from other sources of influence is to miss out on the things that other people are doing and discovering that can make your own work better.
November 29th, 2008 at 10:01 ∞