A concept is your general idea for solving a problem, but you can’t solve a problem until you know what the problem is.
A concept is your general idea for solving a problem, but you can’t solve a problem until you know what the problem is.
One of the reasons we ask others where they get ideas or where they find inspiration is because we don’t have the confidence to trust in our own ideas or our own sources of inspiration. We often grant authority to others because we don’t have the confidence to grant it to ourselves and to trust our own judgement.
The real trick to finding inspiration is realizing you don’t have to go out looking for it. It’s all around you and it’s ready to share itself with you. The thing is most of us don’t know how to see it.
A couple of months ago I received an email from Jenny Lanier, a grad student working on her masters thesis in graphic design. She read something I had written here a few years back about finding inspiration without plagiarizing the ideas of other designers and asked if I wouldn’t mind responding to a few additional questions.
What do you do when the passion for your work isn’t there? What do you do when you don’t like working on any of your ideas? When designing a website or writing an article is drudgery and the last thing in the world you want to do?