Hello everyone and welcome to another week at Shabby Art Boutique.
Today I thought I’d address a question I’m asked quite often. . . ‘where do I get my inspiration from?’
I guess the honest answer is . . . from a great many sources. . . pictures, magazines, colour combinations, and of course online.
I like to make inspiration boards that tell a story. . . usually with a theme, a colour palette and photos.
I find this particularly useful when designing a new pattern collection. . . it keeps me focused and on track.
Creative people and designers often have actual mounted inspiration boards.
An inspiration board can be as simple as a collection of things kept in a notebook
. . . or pegged to a notice board.
. . . but probably the biggest and now most popular inspiration board is Pinterest.
I have a real Love/Hate relationship with Pinterest. . . I have a Pinterest account that I pin photos to and yes, I do love to browse through the boards and pins. . . but as a designer I also experience the flip side with people pinning my original copyright protected designs to their DIY Pinterest boards without making sure they link back to the source. . . but hey, this is a whole different issue to today’s post, so I’ll slay this dragon another day!!
I’m a visual person, so when I find inspiration I like to put it all together in one place, so I can build on it and expand my ideas. Most often I use a large notebook for story boards. . . this is partly because my studio is also a classroom so can look a bit cluttered with too many things hanging around. . . also, as a designer I like to keep new ideas under wraps until I have fully thought them out.
At the moment I’m working on my 2012 Christmas Collection. I’ve started with a colour palette and theme. . . the next step will involve playing around with some sketches, doing some research and sourcing materials. If that all goes well I move onto actually designing prototypes, but sometimes I can’t get the right supplies or I find someone else has a similar idea. . . and then it is back to the inspiration board to play around with ideas again.
Where do you find your inspiration and how do you store your ideas?
I’m looking forward to hearing about your inspiration, so please don’t be shy. . .
if you haven’t left a comment for awhile I’d love to hear from you.
Hugs ~ Kerryanne
