Posts Tagged ‘design’

I am not a creative snob, I don’t think it is reserved to one area of life. I love it in almost every form, the only thing I ask in creativity is that it is easily accessible to the masses. I want the world to be able to see it (even if they can’t afford to own it). I also tend to find certain pieces, designers or styles of work that I love and stick with them…so when I am looking for a creative jolt, I will look at their work, in whichever form I can, and enjoy the new focus it brings. Here are just a few of my favorites, divided by their genre.

When I want to be astonished by great websites, I always turn to Smashing Magazine. Their inspiration section is filled with designs from all over the world, and I find it so interesting to see the trends. While I would never copy someone’s work, I do often find new ideas that I can tweak to work into my clients designs. My most recent find? A new trend in fabric backgrounds…leather, silk, etc. I am looking forward to trying those out on a new clients site!

If print advertising is what I need, I love Communication Arts. It is a submission based magazine (thick enough to be a book!) of interesting pieces of work. I love their advertising series, as the photoshop work and taglines are just so incredible. I know how much effort it takes to get a design from start to finish, so to see all these completed pieces is not only inspiring creatively, but helps me to put my goals into perspective. If I get to the point where I feel that I am ‘rushing’ my designs, I can look at the work here, and realize that good design takes time…and it helps me to slow down my process to make sure it is the best. While I don’t do any print work, the freedom of expression found in many of the pieces is still motivating.

On a different side of the coin, I have many designers that I love, but only two have ever taken my breath away. In shoes, it is Christian Louboutin (his site is actually very cool as well). His designs are so clean, most are very simple, but each is so beautifully hand crafted and perfected that he has me head over heels (hahaha!) for his work. While I don’t any any of his creations (yet!), I have two pairs of his shoes that I desperately desire…a pair of simple nude pumps that make you look anything but simple (top picture) and a pair of over the top, beyond glamorous, completely impractical and oh so perfect for me, pink, sparkly pumps. Both are very simple in their structure, but their details, material and design make then anything but. Unfortunately with a combined price tag of almost $2k…I’m just dreaming right now.

In clothing, no designer for women can hold a candle to Diane von Furstenberg. I own one of her suits (in pink, of course!) and every time I put it on, I feel different. It’s powerful. Just like the rest of her designs. They are all colorful, creative, and unique (my favorite one is on that link) without being too over the top. I love to watch crazy runway fashion but it doesn’t inspire me like a piece you could actually imagine wearing. She makes women feel gorgeous without having to be scantily clad, and she never ceases to amaze me with the way she uses fabrics…

Photography amazes me. Especially because I have zero skill whatsoever when it comes to cameras. There are many great sites dedicated to photographers, but I don’t really like looking at it on the web. So when I need my photography fix, I wander into my bedroom, where this piece by Thomas Mangelson, hangs on the wall. Standing in front of the photo, you can almost feel the fur on his nose, and his eyes have about 11 different shades of colors, beautiful and intricate. The picture is so simple, but you feel something the minute you look at it. It has raw power and a cool strength that gives me motivation on a tough day.

Do you have certain places you turn for creative inspiration?

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

I often get the comment that I don’t act my age – that I carry myself with many more years – and most people are surprised when I tell them how old I am. I have been like this pretty much since the day I was born, but was never more apparent than in May of 1989. When I finished private kindergarten with the aforementioned Mrs. Gitlin, my parents thought I was ready to go to public school and start first grade. Unfortunately, state regulations required that I be 5 years old by mid September if I was to start first grade that year, and I wouldn’t be 5 until December. Rather than accept defeat and stick me in kindergarten for another year, my parents approached the principal of my school. The principal agreed to put my into one of the current kindergarten classes as they still had a couple more weeks of school before summer break. She would let the teacher gauge how I did and would determine it after that. Well, as I mentioned on Tuesday, I have always been precocious, and not afraid to be a little outspoken. The teacher quickly saw that I not only had a handle on my conversational and relationship skills, but I was already reading. It was a quick decision from that point to allow me to start first grade in the fall, despite the age thing. In 1989, this was just a little thing, but it was the first stepping stone in my maturity and ability to handle situations above my age. My one thought to anyone who has kids getting to school age? Don’t let the schools or regulations tell you what they are ready for…let it be determined by your child’s demeanor.

At the same time I was awaiting my fate of whether or not I would start first grade, Nintendo released the first Game Boy, making sure no child, teen or adult who had $179 to spend would ever go outside again (kidding)! But, in all seriousness, the release of the game boy permanently altered technology and media history – and the advances that came because of this product have changed the world as we know it. Think about where we are today with portable gaming, laptops and cell phones. I still remember my first cell phone. All it did was call and text. No pictures, no apps, no open source tools. And definitely no cool graphics. Now, I have my email, my football team and my life in the palm of my hand. Not to mention full color graphics and streaming video. All of this technology was developed out of the need to take a step above the competition and I can only imagine what the competition will come up with in the next 20 years.

The goal of today’s post from problogger about link posts is to promote link sharing and traffic. He suggests multiple types of posts that you can do with a link – expanding, taking another side, pointing out good advice, etc. One of the suggestions was to find someone that you admire, or appreciate and write a bit about them and link to their site. It gives people not only a reason to go visit them, but a glimpse into the people you associate with as well.

Today’s post is dedicated to Kyle Reddoch, the amazing gentleman that coded my incredible design for this site. He has been not only a great coder, but easy to work with. I have yet to meet him in person, but we have talked numerous times on the phone as well as through our social networks. Kyle’s web expert blog (which I have contributed to a couple of times) is alwasy full of great ideas for web design and web tools. I know that I can always expect the most up-to-date facts about the web, as well as a bit of humor. His most recent article about browser caching was not only interesting but eye-opening. Being on the graphics side, I never really thought about it – and never thought about how to stop it (definitely worth reading). Anyway, I just wanted to share a bit about Kyle and send me a link-thanks for coding my site!

Creativity is not to be taken for granted, it is not something you ‘have’ it is something that you must work at, and practice, to keep strong. I practice my creativity daily, by writing, twittering, designing and researching. I am always trying to find new, unique ways to practice my creativity. One of my favorite ways is to pick a photo from flickr, and create a marketing campaign for a product, using the image. I don’t do it for work, or because I have to, but because it helps my mind to stay sharp and think outside of the box. So, I figured I would let you all try it with me today. Here is the image that I chose:

And here are the questions you have to answer:

1. What product would you use this image for
2. What would the tagline be for the product
3. Where would you promote it (web, billboard, tv, etc)
4. What would you expect people to visualize when they saw the image
5. What other colors would you use with the image
6. What fonts would be great to use with the image

Please leave your answers to any or all of the questions in the comments. I will be interested to see what you choose to use the image for, and what you can picture!

*photo courtesy of Flickr – mandj98