Time for another inspiration post! I always find it interesting the places I find myself inspired in finding new and great ideas. I will grace you with sharing my experience with these places, or times that I find myself most inspired to discover fresh creative ideas, but also want to hear where others find their inspiring moments! Shall We?

I think most everybody can agree that the times or places that we find ourselves most inspired or capable of being focused in finding new ideas is placed where we are relaxed. These are environments where we can actually free out brains of daily clutter so to let it be filled with new things. It only makes sense right!

There are two places or times that I find myself at when my brain seems to effortlessly be pumping out some great ideas. Unfortunately both of these places seem to not be the most convenient place in terms of access for jotting down or recording these great ideas. The first place is the shower. I find this very strange for multiple reasons but mostly because I am usually in the shower in the morning. I am not exactly what you would call a morning person, However, like most of us find, a nice hot shower can get you started for the day. The challenge however is how to quickly record these things that come to me? I guess I need to invent water proof note paper! Thanks to steam on the glass I am not left without any means of jotting down sketches or notes if I feel my memory wont serve me well enough.
The second place is when I have my eyes close and am close to dozing off. This seems not so bad as you can easily make sure to have a note book by your bed for these crazy inspiring times. The challenge is making sure your dozing doesn’t go all the way before you have a chance to record your ideas.
The good thing for me is that I usually find that my memory serves me well enough that I am able to remember my great ideas that are birth during these circumstances long enough to record them in a safer place.

Now how about you? When do you find yourself most inspired. Dont be shy! Heck I just admitted that I am a shower thinker.

The New year is finally here and I cannot express how excited I am. I am very optimistic about 2010 and have many exciting hopes and goals. What are yours?

I am excited to continue in working hard to offer my passion and love through creative problem solving. I want to meet new people and form new relationships. I am ready to explore new ideas and watch them come to life and full fill their purpose. A Whole new year, a clean slate, ready for something big.

2009 holds a special place. I am so thankful because I can come out of 2009 feeling good. I met the goals that I set for myself and for Link Creative. All within a very challenging time. In fact, I look back and see what I accomplished and wonder how!? I am certainly not tooting my own horn here. I’m counting my blessings from above.

Goodbye 2009, Thank you for the opportunities and growth you brought. Hello 2010, I’m ready to Rock!

Happy New Year everyone. A special thanks goes out to all of my wonderful client, friends and family.
 

I have learned recently that an incredible amount of inspiration, among other things, can be found in having a nice work space. A work space should work for your personally on many levels. It should be comfortable and visually pleasing. For me It also needs to be well organized. With all of this I have found I am more relaxed, focused, inspired, and ready to rock each day!
 

 
I found that my desk set up was not only incredibly uncomfortable but very ugly as well. I was trying to hold off on buying a desk as I thought it was going to cost more than I was willing to drop at the time. I was quickly reminded by a friend of the wonder that is IKEA. We are lucky that the only IKEA in Ohio is only 30 min away! Off I went to purchase my new desk (IKEA Galant system). It fulfilled my needs in a desk beyond what I could imagine. Not only did I get a desk that is comfortable to sit at but I was also able to arrange my office in a much more space efficient manner.
 

 
Here are my key ingredients to an inspiring stress free workspace. Organization system, visual stimulation (pictures, collections, a good view out a window), good lighting, proper color scheme, and of course comfort! With working at home I have also found value in arranging and decorating my office in a manner that separates it visually from the rest of the house. All in efforts of making working from home more pleasing than every before! My office is however not complete. As you can see my walls are a bit bare and need something! Oh and as a pet/dog lover I would have to ad to the list that having a wonderful friend to be with me during the day is the icing on the cake!
 

 

You can find inspiration in a diverse range of things from nature to objects. I keep my eyes open soaking in all the little details of things that I find inspiring. I find huge inspiration for looking at old objects and antiques. When I found out that my neighbor “Crazy Ed” was a huge collector of radios I was very intrigued. Crazy Ed’s Radio Emporium is what he calls his radio hobby/business. Ed is a retired engineer and saying he has a collection is a huge understatement. His house is filled to the brim with mostly radios but other objects like record, clocks, old light bulbs and even a turn of the century Edison Phonograph. Some of these radios are as old as late 1800s.

When I got the first tour of Ed’s collection I wished more than anything I had my camera with me and thankfully he was nice enough to let me come back another day and take a few pictures. I really got pumped looking at all the details of these radios. The knobs, carvings, embellishments, ornate graphics, the list goes on. Observing the art found in these radios can give you great inspiration for your next design piece. From the curves and flourishes of the old fashion turn of the century style radios to the art deco style radios from the 30s. There is such beautiful line work in these radios and the craftsmanship is mind blowing. What quality. I am not only inspired by these radio because of their aesthetic appearance but also by what they did and still do. Radios are, and especially back then, were a huge deal. I can look at these a radios and almost start to hear sound coming out of them as I think of the time frame they are from. My mind goes nuts thinking of all the music they have played, the history they have reported, where they have been, and who listened to them. My curiosity gets the best of me as I imagine this stuff. It is like a fairy tale but then I realize it is real. If these radios could have recorded what came through them in their life time and be played now, it would be incredible.

When I first met Ed and he shared with me about his unique interest and collection, I quickly learned he shared this interest with a decent sized group of men making it not as unique as I thought. Every Wednesday evening our street is filled with cars because Ed is having his weekly Radio meeting. He and his buddies get together every week to talk, share, swap, and work on their Radio collections. What a great hobby and great collection full of inspiration.

I have been wanting to start a series of blog posts about where and in what I find inspiration. There are so many things that inspire us designer and artists. Sometimes I think we don’t even realize the things that are inspiring us. I am exciting to share these things and to also sit down and force myself to realize the things that inspire me that aren’t as apparent.

This post is on a general subject that most of the time I am very aware of it’s inspiration. There are so many elements to this inspiration so I am sure it will lead to more specific posts down the road. This inspiration is Nature. As most of us know, there is so much visual beauty in nature. The colors, textures, line work. Think of the ways it has inspired so many artists and designers through history. It is truly amazing.
Not only does nature give us so much to be in awe of, but it also brings such a fresh feel to things. It is unpredictable and original. I love working the organic elements of nature into my design work as much as I can. Flowing lines, organic textures, beautiful colors that work perfectly with each other.

Whenever I go on a hike or anywhere outdoors I almost always bring my camera to catch the inspirations I see. This i a wonderful way to be able to reference them later. I have a huge collection of pictures on my computer broken down into categories. Clouds, wood textures, leaves, you name it. This is a practice I highly recommend. You may not use the photos in pieces themselves or you may but to just have that archive to flip through for stimulation is wonderful.

Next time you are out for a walk look close. pay attention to the patterns in leaves, what images you can find in the clouds, what color palettes you can pull for a new project. I promise you want be disappointed.