Where do you find inspiration for a creative job? How do you become individual as a designer?

This was probably the hardest aspect of graphic design that I had to teach myself, but in the end the answer was the simplest. It ended up being right in front of my eyes.

When I first began designing in the late 1990’s, and in college (for economics of course), I was stuck on pastels and dark ugly colors that took away from what was I trying to convey with each specific piece. I would scour the net and magazines and pretty much see something I liked, and rather than adapt it to my style, just copy as much as I can and move on. I failed to see the necessity of evolution in my design and that’s how it remained until the early parts of the new millennium.

Finally I was given a project that was beyond what I could create. There I was thinking, “How the @#$% do I get inspiration to take my skill to the next level?” Well I looked everywhere for some type of starting point but in the end what inspired me was a blank piece of paper. That’s when I realized that what I needed to create, hasn’t been designed. Its been created in some form or another, but I wont find what I want to create out there. So I got on photoshop and started mocking up several different samples. From there I took what I liked from each and started to merge them together.

Then I started adding the details to make it a final piece. Over time I have lost that piece and would love to have an image to put up here. But I can tell you this, that looking back today at that final product, that even though the process took me days, I can today do that in a couple hours. I can also tell you that what made me so proud of that final piece is that the effort that went into it and me realizing that I need to have my own style. Over time it will evolve and change to meet current trends but now I find inspiration everywhere.

I just adapt that inspiration to fit my style and what I like to do. That’s what makes a designer a professional and that’s what drives him to push the envelope with his talent. Individual style!