What’s Inspiring Me Now

I have this old habit of sticking things to a board when I like them. For many years it has served me well for moments of inspiration. I fill it with reminders. Of good times, a cool font, a beautiful photo, a weird trinket I found, whatever. Sometimes the board gets so overwhelmed with ideas it becomes an anti-idea. Too many things to look at. I tear everything off and start over. Sometimes it fills up quick, sometimes it takes weeks to cover the metal magnet boards. It’s getting close to that time for me to tear it down but I decided to document it with a photo first. Then I thought, what the heck, I’ll stick it up here and have a little show and tell about what’s inspiring me now.

1. Tear sheets from misc. magazines of work I like. The tear of Clive Owen is by Marc Hom for Esquire. I dig Marc.

2. A few prints from my little Holga toy camera that I love so much.

3. A visual wishlist of Nikkor glass.

4. Name tag from some APA / Ad Club event.

5. Rental price list from Georges Camera. Sometimes you need stuff you don’t have but you don’t need to own it (See #3).

6. 120 film negs (more stuff from the Holga)

7. REI membership card (I think Chase Jarvis probably shot the photo that’s on it).

8. More tear sheets I like.

9. Misc. hotel card keys from Hard Rock Hotel, W Seattle, W NYC. They remind me of good times in great cities. They may also have my credit info embedded…

10. A post card from my 3rd grade teacher from her trip to Philly on July 4th 1976. It has the bicentennial stamp series on it. Not sure what to do with it. I don’t collect stamps but I think they’re worth something…

11. More processed negs & scans from Nelson Photo, the nicest camera folks in San Diego.

12. A couple stray prints of my work.

13. My favorite motto: “You Never Know” It says it all to me.

You’ll probably see some other stuff in there too. 3-D glasses (in case I suddenly lose my depth perception), some hang tags I liked (still a graphic design junkie at heart) a flash drive (I think my portfolio is on that), a weird little magnetic kayaker dude that my sister gave me.

Now it’s time to tear it down and find new inspiration. You Never Know where it will come from.

~ by Gary Allard on April 24, 2009.