Creative Reverse Osmosis

Maybe it is a result of the rule-following-repression from twelve years of Catholic School, but I have found Reverse Osmosis an essential part of my creative process. Myself as a maker being the water, and all rules being the solutes.

Originality is not born from comfort, prescription, or rules. And what better way to fuel inspiration, than working to make different rather than more of the same? Creating the new, instead of more of the prescribed?

Once I have the genesis of an inspired idea, there are different filters I pass my approach to what I am creating through. These filters include: What rule can be broken? What perception challenged? Or what personal self-concocted-rules can I break?

These filters are the gateways to newness.

As a creator, maker, designer, and color slinger, setting fire to rules also helps fuel my inspiration. The moment I am told I can’t do something, that is the very moment I know exactly what I want to do. Being told something (an element, composition, or material) cannot be used successfully? Guess what problem I have to solve.

The third filter of breaking self-concocted-rules is important not just for making something inspired and new, but critical in continuing to grow as a designer.

For example, asking myself: “what color do I least like?” I used this very question last year as a way to use Reverse Osmosis to inject newness in my color work, and grow as a color slinger.

Sage was my color nemesis for many many years. I disliked it so much, it induced quite an emotional reaction. I am so hippy dippy about color, that I “feel” it, and these feelings are critical for my gut-check when creating palettes.

And Sage? It made me feel sad and imprisoned. Now that’s one emo reaction for a seemingly innocuous color. But the truth is, if a person wanted to drive me to batty … they just had to lock me in a sage painted room.

Being a Reverse Osmosis Creator, I had to give myself a sit-down and dissect what is it that made Sage “Color Enemy Number One?”

My dislike for Sage came from a few reasons. Firstly, it is often not used all that awesomely or successfully in palettes. The second is that can execute as a dead dull color.

So I took this analysis as a challenge. Last year, I pushed myself to create palettes to inspire a love for my color nemesis. I found it had indeed challenged my notions of Sage, and grew my abilities by tackling a hue I had discounted for so long. I also found that I actually love certain offspring hues of Sage.

Now back to the creative Bunsen burner. Here’s to fueling creative processes and zapping the world of a few less rules.

If my musings on color and inspiration are of interest to you, you can follow me on Twitter at @designseeds or show it by clicking that little heart below

~ Jessica

Jessica Colaluca is the creator of Design Seeds, a color and inspiration site which receives over two million pageviews per month.