Design inspiration

Where do you get your inspiration? For me, it's travel, nature, packaging, magazines, blogs, walking, reading, gardening, daily studio work, listening to and recording family stories, cleaning the house and more. Inspiration is everywhere if you slow down and look for it. For years I've gathered inspiration into notebooks, sketchbooks, and books of commonplace. Now I do all of the above plus I write this blog. This week I reviewed a sketchbook (#6) from 2008 and recorded the salient bits in my current sketchbook (#13). Looking back and then forward is like mental yoga: a spinal twist for the brain to keep it supple and young.


The above image was from tasty chocolate in great packaging. Naturally I think about how to recreate these designs in Adobe Illustrator when I look at it. Most of the motifs are beyond my current skill level, but they are something to think about.