While rummaging through all those design links, I ran across a great sketchbook from Ric Stultz. A highly published and featured illustrator, painter and designer, Ric is truly a talented artist. Ric’s gouache on paper is super nice as well.

Well, it’s like air – it’s all around you, everywhere you go. Problem is, just like air, it goes unnoticed on a highly regular basis. You’ve got to learn how to observe and make use of inspiration for design. For me, the point of this blog will be just that – to learn how to be aware of and utilize my surroundings to help me be inspired and become more creative.

I know I fail to notice inspiration around me all the time. Lots of times, I try the ‘wait and see’ approach and usually come up empty handed as far as any great ideas go. I lay down and try to come up with the next best idea – routinely falling asleep and having nothing to show for myself, but that’s another story.

The time I notice I’m ‘at my best’ concerning being inspired is when I’m carrying a sketchbook or camera. Then I make myself jot something down, sketch or doodle something or just snap a shot… of something. This can be anything from writing a thought, sketching a cup of coffee, designing a cool font, taking a photo of trash or whatever. Just doing something.

Bring your sketchbook and/or camera everywhere you go. Even if you don’t think you’ll ‘need’ it. You never know. Nerdily enough, I’ve taken a small sketchbook with me to bars, and jotted down some great stuff that’s pretty amusing to look back on. Crazy overheard convos, maybe some entertaining person I met that was giving me their own drunken insights to living life, my own drunken thoughts…

If you make yourself do something in a sketchbook or take at least a few photos a day, it becomes habit pretty fast. Then, just by looking through all that you’ve written, doodled, or snapped, becomes more inspiring in itself. It’s a nice little documentary of the creative process in your brain.

If you’re not into carrying a journal or diary, carry around a sketchbook. If you’re in the creative field (and even if you’re not) you should carry something around to get ideas out on paper.

Also, your sketchbook is for you. No one else has to understand it and you don’t have to explain any of it to anyone. My sketchbook has notes, lists of things to do, goals, grocery lists… lots of lists, doodles, quotes, sketches, photos taped in place, and whatever else.

Other things you can do to get inspired are screen printing, reading, writing, mixing music (as well as listening), keeping a blog, flipping through magazines or books (not just design related), walk around the city, go to the park, hang out at the coffee shop, get some new tunes from a friend, do some studio work (try a new medium), etc, etc. And any of these things, plus a sketchbook, will surely help you grow as a designer.

Let your sketchbook help you get out of creative blocks; let it bring you to your next best idea; let it inspire you to do great things.

If you’ve got any other input, be sure to leave a comment.