The Smashing Idea Book: From Inspiration to Application

Bonus Chapter: Finding Inspiration in Everyday Life

Everywhere you turn, potential sources of ideas surround you. Whether in your home or office, or traveling somewhere exotic, there’s almost certainly something you could adapt into a design. All it takes is learning to look at things the right way.

I live in northern New England, in a rural area. And yet there are things around me on a daily basis that I can draw inspiration from. All I have to do is look for them. One way I do that is to carry a camera with me all the time. (My smartphone has an excellent built-in camera, so even if I’m not carrying my DSLR, I have a camera with me. You can tell which ones are smartphone images based on the filters applied to them.) I take pictures of just about everything.

So here’s a sampling of photos I’ve taken during the past year, and some commentary on how you might adapt them into a website design. These are all just photos of the things that surround me on a daily basis, and weren’t taken with this project specifically in mind.

Figure 8-1: Color scheme: white and brown. Texture: sand, shell. Negative space: the expanse of sand around the shell. Basic layout: asymmetrical.

Figure 8-2: Mood: dark and dingy. Details: reflections.

Figure 8-3: Feeling: vintage. Color scheme: shades of greenish-blue. ...