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4 Ways inspiration helps

This is the first of three posts on inspiration. Inspiration is a big part of my creative process. I don’t start any projects without it! I’ll explain how inspiration can help you, how you can find it, and how you can use it. Let’s take your projects from everyday crafting to sublime objet d’art.

First what exactly is inspiration?

Inspiration is anything that motivates you to imagine, think, and create. Often it’s a piece of art or something someone else has created already.

It can also be a smell, a texture, a taste, a color, or a sound—basically anything you can sense. It can be a place, a story, or a song. It can be abstract and intangible like memories and feelings.

How inspiration can help you

  1. Inspiration helps you see possibilities. Perhaps something might seem difficult or impossible, but drawing on inspiration can help you approach an issue or idea from from another angle.
  2. Inspiration increases your creativity. Each inspiration you take in combines with all your previous experiences. The more you see and experience the more uniquely creative you can be.
  3. Inspiration guides your work. It gives you a general starting point and path to follow. It helps make aesthetic decisions easier. You can always look back to your inspiration to find guidance. Decisions in design elements like colors, shapes, size, etc can take their cues from the inspiration. Maybe you want your work to look similar or completely the opposite of the inspiration. Conceptual ideas can be guided by the inspiration. Perhaps you want your work to invoke a similar feeling or work the same way as the inspiration, or perhaps you want your work to do something entirely different.
  4. Inspiration can lend history to your work. When you draw inspiration from past works it lend more weight to yours. It’s like building a house on a solid foundation. You acknowledge and draw from the thought behind past works and then extend all that knowledge with your own experiences and thought. Even if you’re just crafting in your home for yourself, family, and friends you are still very much a part of the expansive human creative history.

Check back for the second part of my series on inspiration. Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest so you don’t miss the posts.

2 replies on “4 Ways inspiration helps”

I watched your segment on the Nate Berkus show today and was inspired by YOUR designs. Thanks for sharing your talent and unique perspective on design.

I look forward to seeing more of your great ideas to come!

Hi, Melanie! Thanks for watching! I’m so glad you liked my designs. There’s a whole lot more where that came from. As long as you keep reading and commenting I’ll keep designing, writing, and filming. YOU’RE my inspiration!

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