DAY 053 – DESIGNING DANGEROUSLY

Coral

I was thinking this week about how to talk about design inspiration, where it comes from, how maybe to stack the deck in our favor, how to prime the engine. The most apt metaphor didn’t hit me until I was actually in class.

We need to be like coral. Wherever we are, we have these tides of stimulus and information continually washing over us, moving through us. Whether it be Netflix, class, Spotify, nature, or silly memes (see below), all of us are submerged, awash in a glut of stimuli. The things that are of use to us, the organic material of inspiration, is all around us. We need to sift through the majority of it, the dull popular consumer culture that permeates everything, and extract the bits that are of value to us, those things in which we see the potential for beauty and meaning. We don’t need to yet know the how or end result. We just need to collect and trust that it’ll be valuable.

So what’s our responsibility? Stick ourselves somewhere nourishing, right in the middle of the current, and grab ahold of what floats by. Feed on it, nourish yourself with it, convert it into energy, expand your reach, deepen your hue. Surround yourself with others who may look different, feed on different things, but are kindred in the pursuit. Diversify your creative biome. The design metabolism has the potential to start cannibalizing if we leave it too hungry. Go where you can be fed and grab it!

 (Inserted gif of Coral!)