Cross-discipline inspiration

Note: This post is over a year and a half old. You may want to check later in this blog to see if there is new information.

Well, according to my internal clock, it’s time for a new look on our website, and probably on the blog as well. I’ve been knocking around with a few designs in Photoshop, but I want to do something truly different and not end up feeling like I ripped off another CSS showcase. I’m trying to look for inspiration in places other than the web. There’s something to be said for fitting into a paradigm, as far as usability and recognizable interfaces go, but I’ve decided it’s of the utmost importance to just get away from the computer and the internet before creating something FOR the internet.

I’ve been out hiking lately, and now that the weather just took a major turn for the cold I’ll probably be reading more. There’s not a lot of visual inspiration in most books, but I’m certain that among the design and architecture magazines I get I’ll find inspiration through the winter. Of course, Minnesota can be downright beautiful in the winter. It’s just that if I have to look at one more picture of snow covered pine trees or close-ups of frozen berries I’m just going to bury myself in a snowdrift and let the gods of frozen tundra have their way with me.

Today I got stuck on a design and decided to lift weights. Strangely enough, there’s a home gym next to my home office, yet the two seem to coincide so infrequently that there might as well be a cross-town drive between them. Not surprisingly though, a 30 minute lifting session cleared my head and at least gave me the good sense to scrap the design I was working on. And the clarity to realize that if I was going to get anything done, I needed to get away from the computer for a bit. It seems odd that as I’m saying this I’m typing a blog entry. But I wanted to get the thoughts out before I wandered off, physically and mentally.

I’m already looking around my room and seeing usable design inspiration in the curve of a lilly, and Eames chair, Pier 1 woven baskets… oh man, we had a logo for our wedding carved in wood and painted silver and mounted on top of our cake (my father’s work). He recently framed the piece in a shadow box and gifted it to us… they’re silver letters in a black background reflecting in glass. How very web 2.0 ala Apple. I’ll skip that inspiration, although the piece itself is a veritable tribute to the web 2.0 logo and quite beautiful as a mantle piece. Anyway, I’m off to seek inspiration without looking, to see the world through different eyes. And to get my time away from the retinal burn that is clouding my judgement.

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  1. Ross Johnson 10.14.06 / 12pm

    Good luck, I know you can do it!

    I also have grown sick of the “CSS Gallery” plethura of sites that have been vomitted out at rapid pace. That is one of the reasons I loved this current design so much, it really didn’t fall pray to any of the current “trends” and still was very visually simulating and communicative.

    I have been featuring “new ideas in design” on my blog under a new section the past few days, and through that it has really shown me how hard it is to find people who are trying new ideas/inspuration these days.

    Good luck, looking forward to seeing what you come up with!