The Two Phases of Inspiration

QUESTION

Joey, I love your idea of assimilating creative inspirations. In terms of inputs, do you have priority sources?

For example, do you troll Behance or go to a performance? Do you seek out specific art exhibitions or stick to digital inspiration?

—Gregory

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ANSWER

Gregory, how I go about finding inspiration is different depending on the stage of the process I’m at. There are two distinct phases:

1. Concept Inspiration

When I’m first looking for an idea, the world is my source of inspiration. No exaggeration here. I pay attention to my surroundings, explore the things I come across—ask a lot of questions—and pull from my unfiltered environment. If you’re familiar with essay writing, you can look at this stage as pulling from primary sources.

Baronfig, for example, was born from my observation that fellow design students all used two tools, a laptop and a notebook, but the laptops were always the same (MacBooks) while the notebooks were all different brands and types.

2. Execution Inspiration

Once I have a concept that I’m looking to execute, then it’s time to see what other people have done. If I got my concept inspiration on Behance, Pinterest, or at a performance or art exhibit, I’d be looking at the world through other people’s interpretations—through secondary sources. Doing so would greatly limit my exposure to the primary source, limiting the variables I can interpret and use as building blocks, and ultimately reduce my ability to be original.

After figuring out the Baronfig concept, only then did I head to Pinterest and go to stores to see what types of brands were out there, how they spoke about their mission, how they packaged their products, and how they presented their companies.

Summary

Use the world as your inspiration for original concepts. Once you know what you’d like to make, see what others have done to accumulate building blocks that you can rearrange to create something new and interesting.

—Joey

Creator of Baronfig
Author of The Laws of Creativity

Earth—the ultimate primary source. (Actual photo from space!)