Rain + Grease = Inspiration

Unless you’ve been away from your computer and on a beach in Hawaii for the last week, you’ve probably seen a tweet or two showing how poorly Southern California handles “weather”. It’s true, us Southern Californian’s are pretty pathetic when it comes to wet and windy.  We are avoiding the roads, staying inside, and have been complaining about how awful all this wind/rain/etc is for days. While I agree that the rain does make driving a little precarious, and I would definitely prefer the sun, the rain does provide some interesting inspiration.

Normally, I reserve phone photos for Friday’s, but these two, sent to me by my husband were my motivation for this post. Each photo is of a grease spot on the ground of his shop (he’s a Volkswagen Tech), untouched by humans and manipulated only by the rain.

At first glance, while these are very cool images – they’re only that, just images. But, if you take some deeper analysis, you start to uncover some new opinions.

The first image is not just a “spot”, it s a flying meteor aiming towards earth, the edges slowly burning up as it enters the atmosphere. And the second picture – an young Phoenix, its head facing down, tail plumage beginning to show the colors of adulthood, and growing in strength.

Or, for those of us in the design world, we can can look at the images and pull out some colors.

(image 1 colors)

(image 2 colors)

What could you do with these colors? Website design? Email advertisement? Twitter background? New bedroom theme? A clothing line? Office decor? The usage of color is unlimited, and with unique palettes, you know it will turn out beautifully.

One of the most important things I try to remember when working on a new project is that we are only limited by our own creativity – if you looked at the photos and saw grease spots, that would be all they ever were. But, if you could separate yourself from what they are and instead, figure out what they could be, you have opened an entirely new world for you to play with.

What can you be inspired by today?

Related posts:

1. Creative inspiration from Nebraska
2. Where does the water go?
3. Rain drops keep falling on my head…