Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Inspiration - I need it, I crave it, I want it.

Racking my brain and CSS design award winners can land me right back to the age old problem. Staring at a white paper- with no design plan. With this problem on my mind I have compiled a few websites, artists and design work that rattles my brain and gets my creative mojo back.

Break Down http://www.ianwharton.com/
The best part of this design is the design breakdowns. As an art director so much of your work relys on communication. I think this is an excellent example of communicating print, web, and design campaigns to the viewer.

Virgo it out
No sense in viewing the same websites over and over again or saying to yourself. What was that site that the client mentioned? Screen Shoot and organize your favorite inspirations for your sites. You can use them over and over again and see them at the click of an arrow rather then with load times and flash distractions. Its an amazing way to see the bones of a website and combine your inspirations into one place.


Watch
Movie Trailers and Opening Sequences - there is more to them then you might think. I am so inspired by the opening sequence of movies like Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, and Stranger then fiction. Designers like Danny Yount have a way of telling a narrative but keeping intrigue with in an opening sequence. In the end is'nt that the point of design - to tell a story?


Put Wallpaper Up
I am always amazed when i see working design professionals with a standard apple or windows desktop, i know you want to be at the beach right now, but lets be honest that palm tree is'nt giving anyone a "warm and fuzzy feeling". ::yawn:: When i have a new client or i am in a design rut the first thing i do is grab a new wallpaper or make my own. I find it important to put something on my desktop that makes me think and give me a "virtual ambiance" the more whimsical the better. I love these wallpapers from vladstudio : http://www.vladstudio.com/home/ and from desktopography : http://www.desktopography.net/

Get the Info
By Fueling my Starbucks addiction i have noticed an interesting info design series called "Good", each week there is an amazing info graphics piece breaking down everything from fuel to the economy in an compact easy to read chart. Information graphics is the hardest thing in my arsenal of things that a designer has to do (hats off to you!). So when doing info graphics i need more then a kick in the pants to get a great design completed. I am inspired by Edward Tufte yes, but more so but his protege' Megan Jaegerman her work is clever, conveyed and inspirational!

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