Hello Readers,
This is the first issue of 2023. Let’s have a blast.
Inspiration is particularly hard to predict. As humans, we’re good at putting in the work when we have the inspiration and terrible at making sure we stay inspired. Here is advice we can all use. Curated. Unconventional. Non-privileged.
Let’s start with a poll.
We’ve all been there – that feeling of creating something, that a-ha! moment when all the ideas that we have in our head click into place after all the time spent trying to put a finger on an idea. Inspiration, when it strikes, is sweet.
While inspiration is something that happens to you and is not willed, there are plenty of ways to find it predictably. When Dribbble, Behance, Mobbin, AWWWARDS, or Pinterest don’t cut it.
1. Set a routine and keep it set
Popular advice may have it that you mix things up in your routine. But think of the many artists, writers, and other intellectuals who poured into the work they loved despite their peculiar vices. Warhol, Falkner, Tharp, Darwin, Twain, Marx, and Picasso. Most abided by these rituals, not in pursuit of merit but simply to avoid compulsive restlessness and to get things done. Predictably.
2. Move it, move it
A 2014 study by Stanford University found that walking boosted creative output by 60%.
DID YOU KNOW: Salvador Dali slept with a key
This surrealist master … [whose] work explored the subconscious and dream imagery. His secret? ‘Slumber with a key’ – an afternoon siesta of less than a second. Dali would sit in a chair holding a heavy metal key above a plate. The instant he dozed off, he would drop the key onto the plate and wake up. He felt that this allowed him to utilize the fluid space between wake and sleep, where mysterious images occur.
3. Diversify Your Creative Pool
Re-reading your favorite book, baking, napping, gardening, making happy hormones with people you love—anything that makes you feel at ease works. Or as the Italians would tell you, dolce far niente, the sweetness of doing nothing. Go shoot a movie or bake an inedible cake. But do something unrelated to design.
Explore OMGlord for a ton of resources on everything from DEI in design to different types of foundries and city maps.
4. Connect With Other Creatives
Principal designer Rasmus Andersson at Figma mentions, “At all costs, avoid looking at work by others that are solving that specific thing. Either it becomes a bad influence (you end up with a copy-paste) or your creativity is herded into a narrow mindset…Instead, I seek out stuff people have done in neighboring fields or similar-but-different problems.”
Artstation website with hundreds of concept art for movies, shows, games, and exclusive illustrations from the best digital artists.
5. Free Journaling
Seeing your problems and limitations regarding the project would, along with putting it all in one place, help you revisit it and find a solution when you keep going back to it. While it could be tempting to mood board ideas or make lists, sometimes what helps is seeing your ideas and trains of thought down on a paper as well.
Here’s one place you could get started at the Isolation Journals
6. Visit a Museum or Gallery
Take a cold hard look at other finished artworks from a variety of cultures, or learning new concepts and methods, can all spark new ideas, especially when trying to do fine art.
Objectified examines the people and ideas behind the hundreds of objects humans use each day, from the toothbrush and the razor to the alarm clock and the light switch.
7. Remix, Mashup, Curate
Mashup work from people you admire.
Watch: Everything is a Remix Remastered (2015 HD)
8. The Inspiration Folder
If you’re a graphic designer, make a folder or section full of your favorite styles and designers, font combinations, colors, etc. Your past work and memories about it can offer much-needed perspective: “I tend to sit on my phone and look through photos I’ve taken over the years,” says Tori Hinn, Creative Director at Figma in a post. “Photography is one of my biggest personal passions and I’ll get re-energized from looking at photos I took in (literally) different times.”
The designer’s guide to Netflix: 12 must-watch shows and movies
9. Practice for Fun
Creating compositions for fun or for the sake of social media - to scratch that itch. Keeping that alive can define and retain your ikigai.
DID YOU KNOW: Paula Scher, the designer behemoth who made the logo for Windows 8, started off designing 150 album covers a year at CBS. She would design things that were contemporary and well-liked at the time, and much of the inspiration for her typographic album covers came from things like a Buckingham Pipe Tobacco tin. Scher would also make a hobby of buying old sheet music and copying the typography.
10. Break it up
When a project feels too large and overwhelming, take a step back, draw out patterns, and split them into smaller pieces of work. This can also help appreciate the intricate pieces that make the final work whole.
Read: Bobby Berk On Designing With Empathy, And Finding Inspiration During Self-Isolation
In toto ~
Most people throw in the towel because inspiration comes disguised in methodical work. But it really is as simple as keeping your head in the clouds, your feet on the ground, your heart wide open, and your hands at work. A series of mental, physical, emotional, and epiphanic wires that work together.
Opportunities on IndieFolio
Scaler is on the lookout for a full-time Graphic Designer to join their Brand Marketing Team. Someone with a deep understanding of human insights and a flair for turning them into persuasive ideas for brand impact. The scope of work includes creative statics, motion graphics, and character illustration.
An award-winning woman entrepreneur and private investor in tech and capital markets is looking for a UI designer on a retainer basis. The project includes building an LMS for a Yoga institute and upgrading a mobile application and website. Figma pros, please apply!
Wunderman Thompson has a full-time opening for a Motion Graphics Designer on retainer.
Closing thoughts
Every day is fraught with noise and ideas that compete for our attention.
Stepping away from the places you normally visit or seek inspiration from can be a portal to unlikely solutions. And if you want to stay in a state of creative state of ebb and flow, finding habits that stick is your best bet.
We hope that sometime in the new year, you surprise yourself.
Thanks for reading!