How Far Do You Look for Inspiration?

By Greg | Category: Business Management, Designer Tips |

Today’s Tip from DSD-Pro Member Greg:  When you are fixed for an idea use what’s around you inspire you to create.

Whether you are a designer, a professional creating scrapbooks for others, a technician creating digi-scrap websites, or a consultant/trainer - there are times when your mojo seems drained dry.  When you are up against the wall and stuck for ideas look no further than your own backyard, your kitchen table, or the roads around your house.  Inspiration is everywhere.

Maybe the billboard you pass everyday has the perfect shapes and style for a scrappy layout or color scheme.  Did your monthly fashion or fishing magazine provide you with some ideas for titles or word art?  Look to the textures in mother nature for ideas too.  Put a thought in your mind that you need ideas for a design.  Then just sit back and let things happen.  Before you know it, you’ll see inspiration in things and places you never thought would give you ideas.

Greg’s Mini-Tasker: Carry with you for a full day a notebook or idea journal.  Everytime an idea presents itself, write it down.  Jot a note to yourself about the phrase you heard someone say, or sketch that LO idea that showed up on a magazine cover, or the color combination you saw in a TV commercial that seemed to just pop.

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3 comments
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  1. Rachel September 19th, 2007 3:32 pm :

    Great tips for finding inpiration! I’m pretty good at following Gregg’s suggestion. I almost always write things down. The problem however was I didn’t write them all in one place. I had several notebooks and pieces of paper. Of course I couldn’t find the one I wanted when I needed it. I finally have one notebook divided into sections. This makes it so much easier. Now when the light bulb goes off i make sure I put it in this one notebook so I can actually get some use out of it!

  2. David September 20th, 2007 6:04 am :

    Tip for Day 18: Don’t forget your cell-phone!
    For recording ideas, this is about the best thing to happen since the pencil.

    Most phones today have cameras - certainly not good enough to make a 12×12 photo, but good enough to make a visual reminder.

    Also most phones have a voice memo function - one of those often unused functions that get easily forgotten. Record a noise to trigger a memory, or leave yourself a verbal message.

    And of course you can always phone someone and tell them about your inspiration!

  3. PChip September 25th, 2007 7:37 am :

    Rachel, I’m with you. I’m pretty good about writing down my inspirations and MOST of the time I have my sketch book with me. But there are those ocassions when I’m needing to jot down a thought or sketch a format elsewhere too. The back of reciepts shuffed down in my purse seems to be a popular second choice for me. ROFLOL

    David, I’ve never even thought about using the voice memo on my cell phone for this purpose. I rarely use my phone for anything other than just making calls. I’m going to have to pull out my instruction manual again and figure out the voice memo thing. That’s a handy feature I’ve not taken advantage of.

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