Taking inspiration seriously
What happens to a creative process once you stop flooding it with other people's photos
Imagine how your creative concept would be without any influence from the internet. We tend to flood the start of concept phases with photo sourcing, sometimes ones that are not realistic or relative at all. The thing about a published photo is that it is the best shot. It doesn’t show the imperfections, how users interact, what doesn’t work. Getting sucked into Pinterest boards from the get go is something I’ve recently been avoiding, and I have noticed a difference in my creative process through the stages. I’m taking inspiration seriously. These are the approaches I have found more powerful.
Memory.
Memory is already edited by what mattered to you, so it’s a kind of pre-filtered material, closer to instinct than reference. Sitting still with a memory is a powerful source for inspiration because it draws on your experience with a remembered occasion, focusing on what it felt like, rather than what it looked like.
Scrolling through my own photos of what I’ve stopped to notice lately. Walking down the street, going to galleries, museums, in nature, helps the process. But sitting still is what actually draws the memory out. Looking at a photo retrieves an image; sitting with a memory retrieves a feeling. This might be why you lie awake at night thinking about an idea because it’s the only time the mind feels quiet enough to have that space. Giving your memory a chance during the day could look like going for a walk, eating without your phone in hand, doing a household task without a podcast, or sitting quietly on a commute.
Conversation.
Not being scared to talk about a half-baked idea. Conversation forces you to articulate an idea out loud. I’ve been surprised what comes out when I’m put on the spot; an idea I’d only briefly considered sometimes overpowering the one I thought was actually driving the concept. Saying it out loud exposes what’s structural and what’s decoration, in a way that thinking privately never quite does.
Partly it’s because you have to make the idea sound convincing, since you’ll receive questions. Partly because the personable aspect of the conversation does something your own head can’t, it reacts in real time, and you adjust the idea to meet that reaction, live. A short conversation can often outshine hours of solitary brainstorming, because brainstorming alone lets a weak idea sit unchallenged for as long as you’re willing to keep circling it.
Your own creativity.
Set a space with no agenda for making, not producing. This could look like flicking through design books or magazines with no project in mind. Sitting in a quiet space and sketching without a brief. Walking through nature and noticing the way tree roots weave into the ground; not for a moodboard, just to notice. Meditating. None of these are input-gathering in the usual sense; there’s nothing to save, nothing to pin. The point isn’t to collect anything from the hour; it’s to remind your own mind that it’s capable of generating something without being fed a reference first.
This is a process that benefits both creative wellness and your relationship to the next project, because it protects the part of the process that’s actually yours, before outside influence gets a say.
Collecting these sources and experiences, rather than relying on one digital board, has changed both my motivation on a project and its outcome. I hope this inspires you to draw from more than one method for your own creative inspiration.