Inspiration is much like passion. Both are experiences that are difficult to describe but it’s somehow trendy to work these words and feelings into conversations. And some claim that it’s the very lifeblood of the creative industry.
The dictionary defines inspiration as, among other things, “a sudden feeling of enthusiasm”, or “a new idea that helps you to do or create something”. So while inspiration is no exact science, BIS Publishers’s colourful coffee table book, Inspired, tries to pin down and visually represent the things that inspire certain creative people.
Subtitled “How creative people think, work and find inspiration”, the book highlights that the source of inspiration can be anything from music and people to nature, the human body, graffiti, the supermarket or even a childhood memory.
In Inspired, compiled by Dorte Nielsen and Kiki Hartmann, some 36 creatives talk about what inspiration means to them, their working environment and process, what they’re reading and who they find inspiring. The visuals are rather a treat with photographs of some often-chaotic workspaces, a glimpse into creatives’s notebooks or a selection of their collections of random things (anything from stickers to sunglasses to actually collecting collections).
Some great quotes are also highlighted like Martin Galton’s “trust your intuition” to a more fun “I do my best thinking on the toilet” (Vicki Maquire) to the more risky “I get my best ideas when submerged in water. The hotter the water, the better the ideas” (Anders Lund Madsen).
Interestingly, Inspired is actually inspiring. It makes you want to design something new. Or redecorate your home or make something beautiful. If all else fails, go and sit on the bog until the inspiration happens.
