Where Inspiration comes from: the definitive answer
Hint: you are a sum of your references
What’s the worst question of any creative interview? This one: So, [DeSiGnEr] where do you find your inspiration?
sigh, ok here we go…
No one answers this well. The kinda-answer will arrive in a half-hearted attempt to explain years of good taste — “I dunno, Life! Music! Movies! Friends! Mostly Pinterest! Ya know, Everything!” These answers fall flat because the question isn’t the question.
This is the real question:
“How can I (or my audience) mimic your success by looking at the same things you did?”
Even if a detailed syllabus could be provided — it still wouldn’t work.
Inspiration is Reference
Our work bursts forth into the universe as a collection of everything we’ve had a passing interest in since we were kids. As you get older and more sophisticated you add some things, lose some things, and those things turn into your voice and style.
Intake, edit, keep and discard.
This creative voice will emerge from the pool of things you’ve consumed that is uniquely yours. The ones swirling in the back of your mind for all eternity. We all see the same things, but don’t keep the same things. What you like matters, it’s what sticks.
Quality and Depth
The best designers I know have the deepest reference pools. It’s incredible what they can link together to make something new. The ones who struggle the most have the worst. It’s that simple. Intake, edit, keep and discard.
ButBut…Such-and-Such-SAID
Every so often a cool designer will tell you that references aren’t cool (and they never use them). Which means two things:
1. They are lying.
2. They recently got ripped off.
They’re mad someone copied them, happens all the time. Oh, and they’re probably so cool because they’ve been inputting cool inspiration for a very long time.
Not GETTING Inspired, What it IS
I’m not talking about getting inspired. That’s a by-product of all of this, plus anxiety. I was inspired to write this after several people told me they liked my other writing. Inspiring! But what am I writing about? The things that have stuck with, and mattered to me over a long career. Inspiration.
It’s the same answer for everyone. The quality of your filter makes all the difference.
The Bottom Line
Inspiration is a sum of your references. All of them. Choose wisely. And that, dear interviewers, is where inspiration comes from. Feel inspired to stop asking that question forever.
(PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE) is an ongoing series about presenting work, building better portfolios and being a decent creative by Andy Sheffield.
