More thoughts on inspiration
Sunday November 9, 2008
After I posted that article last week about inspiration, I've been thinking more about it. One commenter stated that he gets his inspiration from the blank page, the empty Web editor inspires him to create. I really wonder if that's possible. Instead, his designs are inspired by things in his head that come to the front when he is confronted by the blank page. The danger with this type of inspiration is that you don't know how much of the inspiration is incestuous as Digital Mash talks about. That's a design style that essentially copies the design of someone else. And, ironically, I would say that most designs on the Web these days are exactly that, even designs I've created.
Comments
Basically, I’m an artist. I was always confronted with a blank page in front of me, and my inspiration was things around me. People, objects, thoughts.
In web design it’s barely different, yes I have different tools but it’s easier to make a perfect shape in Illustrator or play with stock photos in phothoshop and add layers effects, etc…
My inspiration comes from pictures, shapes that I see in other websites. An exemple, if I want to build a website for a Recording Studio, I will look at alot of recording studios websites and decide wich, in my personal opinion, reach the targeted customers.
And then, playing with my photos, graphics, colors palette, making shapes in Illustrator similar to what I saw, the inspiration will come instantly, and 99% of the time, it really don’t look like any websites I looked at.
Don’t think too much, be simple! Then work around the simplicity to make things more complex.
“Simplicity is the deciding factor in the aesthetic equation.”
Steve
Hi Jennifer,
Just wanted to let you know the author of the article on Digitalmash is its creator, Rob Morris.