Creativity from Without

What does this have to do with design??

Designers...artists...people...everyone eventually hit a point when they are in need of some sort of inspiration or motivation--you know, that extra boost to send them flying. It's only natural. Sometimes, when people do things for so long, their drive runs dry; when that happens, they seek a refresher to keep them going.

So where do I go for inspiration? How do I become "creative"?

The simple answer: Artbooks

Yes, I am one of those people. If the topic isn't directly related to art or design, I do start to question "What does this have to do with anything?"--or better yet "Can we starting talking some sense?" Hahaha It could be because I'm naive, but I like to think it's because I'm still in my developmental stage with art and design.  Whenever I look at artbooks, curiosity sparks up, since I'll see things in ways I've never seen them before, or it'll interest me to try something, artistically, that I wouldn't have dared done before.

To some extent, it's a way that I share ideas with artists--in this case, artists that have themselves artbooks.  It's as if I'm having a conversation with the artists as I'm looking through their works.

To another extent, I'm still exploring this realm of art and design.  So whenever I look for creativity, I like to look at what other artists and designers and have, and through their works, I can see where their inspiration for creativity came from.  From there, I can attempt to find my own inspiration for creativity. This works as a discover and learn from previous artists and designers.  If I see some cool, crazy, exotic creation, I'd be inspired to be a cool, crazy and exotic creator myself; it's as though I'm feeding off their creativity in hopes of finding that crazy creator within me.

Artbooks aren't the only things that sparks my creativity. Traveling to new places excites the creative creature in me; along with children books and anything related to childhood, in general.