Doesn’t Remind Me of Anything
by Andrew CrowI’ll admit that often times when I start a new design for a logo, web site, or interface, I will look for inspiration. Sometimes I’ll look to the competitors, thumb through design books or browse websites.
Often I will see a body of work that I want to “borrow” from because I like the style or it’s already solved some of the design challenges I am facing. Truthfully, there are some design solutions out there that just work with simple adaptation.
But, what happens when you are challenged to come up with something totally new? Something that has not been done before because it’s a new product, or because the technology hadn’t existed or the interaction is original? What if you want to stay uninfluenced by past design decisions or familiar things that will force the user to recall “something else that looked like that”?
What do you do or where do you go that doesn’t remind you of anything?
How can you escape being influenced by something that has already been done? What if you don’t want your logo to look like every other Web 2.0 logo, or your interaction design to be just like the iPhone?
My immediate reaction is to look at other industries. Building architecture or landscape design can sometimes give insights to balance and structure. Fashion also provides a huge escape for me. Clothing designers find amazing solutions to everyday needs for a huge variety of consumers.
Other times, physically removing myself from my normal surroundings helps rid the influences of past experiences and projects. I love getting out to open sea whenever I can – there is nothing out there to remind me of anything. Other cities and cultures can provide a much needed cloak to things that you’re used to. I love places that can be just familiar enough so that you don’t get overwhelmed. Places like Tokyo and London, or even Las Vegas provide a different take on the reality that normally guides me.
But you don’t have to travel the world, or go shopping to escape. Sometimes, just getting up from your desk, moving your chair into the sunlight, or even outside, can provide a different view of your workspace. Find a nice, warm coffee shop, or a park bench.
Shaking things up from time to time can give you just enough different perspective so that your designs continue to be unique, continue to challenge convention and continue to provide you with the creative freedom that you need.
Entries (RSS)
November 30th, 2007 at 12:05 am
Yup!
Also speaking to people outside of the industry is refreshing and doing things like seeing live theatre, walking, speaking to people etc (all helps)
Travel is great as it provides a different view.
People will find inspiration in different ways.
November 30th, 2007 at 5:41 am
This is a simple thought that I didn’t have in mind. Thanks for sharing it. It seems obvious but it’s not.
I’d love to travel to find new inspirations but money might be the problem!
November 30th, 2007 at 7:21 am
When I want to create something totally new, I mentally summon a mix of David Lynch, Ignatius J. Reilly and my grandfather and let ‘er rip. Those three give me a green light to be weird, outrageous, idiosyncratic and proud of it.
November 30th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
[...] Doesn’t Remind Me of Anything [...]
December 2nd, 2007 at 5:05 pm
I feel so sorry for your design books – they must be ruined! Unless you meant “pore”, that is! But, other than that, yes, a simple change of perspective is a great thing for finding new ideas.
December 2nd, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Francis, you’re not the only one that’s pointed the word out to me. So, I looked up “pore” vs. “pour”. Both words work for the use I have above, according to a few dictionaries. But, I’ll change it as it seems to bother some people.
December 5th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
I am here because I am not a designer but by taking a peek into the designer world, it enables me to look through other people’s eye’s and hopefully that will trigger ways to shift my own thinking when I am stuck in my own discipline.
Ultimately exposure to new places in the concrete world or different professions in the offline world simply applies polish to much more core traits, such as the relationship between pressure and developing a healthy sense of humour in order to reframe the mind, or treating mistakes as a gift rather than simply pursuing perfection – the going out therefore compliments the going in and the net result is releasing away tension, evaporating fear, allowing the mind to make connections with felt sense, with experential maturity and generally a feeling of wisdom and growth by observing life in new ways.
Earlier I took time to look at Peter Merholz’s photo’s from UX interactive and just looking at photographs that tell a story adds something to imaginative powers. I am no Paul Rand but a touch of innovative diversity and visual philosophy can serve I think to aid develop our creative thinking.
M.
December 7th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Great post, Andrew.
Here are just 10 additional approaches I use to stimulate my own creative juices.
(1) Think of a color and try to identify all the shades and tints on that hue in your surroundings. Identify everything that is yellow; robins egg blue; teal; orange.
(2) Look at objects from antiquity and think about how their form worked to support an activity and how its design evolved over time. A museum of natural history is great for this.
(3) Look for textures and patterns on various surfaces; paint peeling from an old truck; faces forming in stucco; swirls of oil on a puddle of water.
(4) Go bird watching. I kid you not. Birds often have gorgeous colors (the shimmering green of a Mallard,for example).
(5) Take 15 minutes and make quick, 1 min sketches of anything that comes into your field of vision. Save these for later and flip through them, turn them upside down, sideways, and look at them in a mirror. Now embellish them by drawing crazy appendages. Or subtract sections to devise new shapes and forms.
(7) Look at wrist watches and watch magazines. Elegant, high end watches are often incredible in providing numerous functions in a small space. It’s little wonder that watch designers are invited to design instrument displays in cars. This can help in, say, designing a media player UI.
(8) Go to a mall and watch people interacting with the environment. Where are they looking? What are they responding to? What do they pick up and touch? What do they avoid? Where to they seem to talk most? Gather?
(9) Play a game like Bejeweled for about an hour. Look for patterns that yield the best result. Then look around you in the real world. Can you see, hear, smell, or feel any patterns?
(10) Examine any environment you are in look for what is rare. In a place like Vegas, try to identify organic forms amid the largely geometric shapes of structures. In a forest, look for rectilinear elements in an sea of organic forms.
Obviously, different things will work for different people. The list can be extended to infinity. Some of these seem silly and pointless, however I’m convinced any such exercises help dissolve creative impassess. The main point is to break away from the usual and do decidedly different things to stimulate new ideas.
-Vytas