Finding Design Inspiration Everywhere
From the DDM blog …
The latest panel at SxSw is After the Brief: A Field Guide to Design Inspiration, presented by Jason Santa Maria and Rob Weychert of Happy Cog Studios. Cameron Moll was also supposed to present but he was sick. =(
The first thing Jason said that I found interesting was to look not at other web sites to find inspiration for website designs because that creates cliché, which quickly gets old. I’m not sure how much I agree or not. I do think it’s true that new ideas in web design get quickly adapted and ubiquitized (ok, I made up that word – but it should be able to be a verb, I think) – take the web 2.0 badge, for example, that “wicked worn look,” and just about anything else that’s cool … all too fast it becomes overdone and then passé. Yes, I agree that the ideal is to be among the first to come up with those ideas, rather than constantly chasing what’s hip. However, I also think that it’s important to be aware of those trends. I also think that looking at designs that really inspire you can lead you to riff off those concepts and often take them to new levels, or morph them into something else entirely.
“Design is not a thing you do. It’s a way of life.” This is a quote by Alan Fletcher, who wrote The Art of Looking Sideways. Jason says that real inspiration is about recognizing the value and the beauty of everything around you. That is absolutely true, but everything around you does include other websites. ;~)
Jason also encourages us to turn keep a visual collection of things that inspire you – take photos of anything you find inspiring and organize them so that they are at your disposal at any time. I really like this idea and have long thought of always carrying my camera around and shooting whatever catches my eye. Actually doing this however has proven a bit more challenging – I’ve often found that being behind the lens keeps me from feeling fully participatory, but maybe I’ll give it another try.
Other design inspiration ideas are to carry a sketchbook, become a Design Vigilante (redesign things that offend your design sensibilities … lost dog posters were offered as one possibility: go replace them in your neighborhood under cover of darkness), and become a great puzzle solver (we’re told that if you become adept at solving puzzles you will improve your ability to solve design challenges … crossword puzzles were offered as an example). This led to s mention of the crossword puzzle documentary Wordplay (which was actually great, by the way) in which a crossword puzzle designer casually mentions to his interviewer, which driving past a Dunkin Donuts that if you simply moved the D of Dunkin to the end of the word you would get “Unkind Donuts.” Rob says that these are the kind of observations that designers need to be making, which I thought was actually a great statement.
Jason and Rob went on to talk extensively about extracurricular design activities that they do to keep their creative juices flowing and to have fun. Something that Rob does daily is to write a Haiku poem using dictionary.com’s word of the day. He uses this example to demonstrate that design constraints can actually be really helpful when it comes to design. Often we designers feel frustrated by the constraints of our client projects and when we do “our own” projects we give ourselves no restraints at all, which can actually hinder our design in that we aren’t forced to stretch and problem-solve. Other cool things they do include participating in The 48-hour Film Project, throwing yearly parties that were fully branded and marketed, creating virtual alter egos and branding your own wedding, among other things.
All in all in was a fun, informative, and inspirational presentation.
