Inspiration just ... happens.

I never know where I’m going to find inspiration. And it usually comes when I’m not looking for it. I saw a weathered piece of typography on a mailbox as I was driving in the country a couple of days ago. It was beautiful. I watched my son’s varsity baseball game last week. The determination they showed was exhilarating. The lilacs lining my property are blooming right now. The color and smell is amazing. I met a talented undergraduate design student in the Mac lab several months ago. His story was triumphant. All of these events inspired me. I find that inspiration happens to me mostly when I’m not searching for it. It just happens. That’s not to say that I don’t search for inspiration, it just seems to be all around me in the different aspects of my life waiting to be discovered at the right moment.

When it comes to my creative work, I read all the design magazines and annuals that I can get my hands on looking for inspiration. That’s great for following trends, but after I put them down, I don’t always feel inspired. In fact, I’m not too inspired by very many new aesthetic trends happening right now. When I look at the magazines and annuals, I’m more inspired by the exciting new ideas and thought processes that creatives are applying to their world using unusual methods.

I came across an article in Communication Arts several months ago about an ad agency in Toronto that implemented an idea to separate themselves from their competitors. It is an online documentary of a day-long event titled “Think.” The site includes the documentary film, images, and text from the project and explores everything that happened that day. Their contention is that the hundreds of ad agencies in Canada tout themselves as unconventional, but don’t follow through on that promise. The project consisted of eight interdisciplinary thinkers from Zulu Alpha Kilo crammed into a box in downtown Toronto where they asked passersby for creative challenges and then proceeded to solve them on the spot while “thinking inside the box.” This Web site is an online extension of the live event:

www.thinkinginsidethebox.ca

The “box” was equipped with all the technical requirements of an agency (fast internet, printer, etc.) and fed live animations to all the video billboards surrounding the square to inform pedestrians of what was happening inside the box. No question or problem to solve was off limits. This collaborative project is fascinating because there was no way to predict what types of problems people would bring to them, it allowed them to show their creative problem solving capabilities, and showed potential clients that they truly are willing to take risks to prove what they are capable of producing. This project is truly inspirational to me.

I believe that finding inspiration can be elusive. Therefore, I keep my radar up for that opportunity where it presents itself to me. For me, it comes from people, nature, groups, objects, books ... essentially everything and everywhere. I just have to recognize it. Earlier today I was inspired by my dog Scot. He loves to play ... and playing inside our environment is a great way to discover inspiration.