There are so many over-arching ideas and schools of thoughts that are taught in design classes. But one lesson that really stuck with me along the way is how to find inspiration. More importantly, how to find inspiration outside of the web. As designers, we’re constantly looking at our screens for work and for leisure. I’ve learned that some of my best ideas came from leaving my desktop and taking a stroll wherever I can. So here’s some photos of things that sparked something inside me!
An obvious one at first, but company logos! Walking around in our normal daily lives we see so many logos that we might be desensitized to them. Here are some that caught my eye. I especially love the really old logos from the early-to-mid 1900s like the middle example. Modern ones like the left example are also very nice to look at, extremely nice kerning. Which is something that is surprisingly similar between old and new logos/ads: they always have really nice kerning.
Walls! I actually LOVE looking at old decrepit walls. They always have such a good texture to them that you can only get with age and neglect haha. Chipped paint, scratches, holes. All of these things can be thought of as shapes, these shapes are organic and form extremely interesting textures. Getting a handheld scanner and scanning these walls is also awesome.
Old clothing tags, and some modern ones, are really good inspiration too. A lot of the really old ones are especially ornate and usually feature some sort of illustration. Tags like these are so good since they have such a small and limited space they were forced to design an intriguing tag to set themselves apart. And some of these were just born out of necessity so those really heavily on different weight and style combinations to convey what they wanted to the consumer.
I’m such a sucker for taking photos or screenshots of things that i personally think is cool or interesting.