Routine and regular inspiration is essential to staying creative. Todd Henry, author of the book Accidental Creative, talks about how we creative professionals need to be “brilliant at a moment’s notice” and the only way we can achieve that is to be gathering inspiration all the time. So today I want to share with you some of the sources of creative inspiration I get value from every day. I hope you’ll find them valuable too. Today I’m only going to share three sources with you… I have many, many more, but I’ll save them for another day.
Fabien Barral is Mr. Cup
Fabien’s blog is an delicious buffet of graphic design and travel eye candy. He curates some of the most amazing examples of branding I’ve ever seen in one place. Plus, he travels a lot and shares beautiful photographs of design and inspiration he encounters along the way. There’s a store where he sells things he’s made and things he’s found. Whenever I open my browser window I have a few key sites open for my daily productivity – email, calendar, Woot! (OK that’s not for productivity, it’s for shopping), and Mr. Cup’s blog. It’s my daily shot in the arm of inspiration.
Seanwes Podcast & Community
Sean McCabe is a hand lettering artist, business expert, teacher, inspiration and creative genius. Honestly, I don’t even know how to explain him – you have to experience the brand for yourself. It all started when I bought a new car and it came with a nice sound system that could connect to my smartphone through bluetooth. So I figured it was time to get back to listening to podcasts while I commuted to work (nearly 90 minutes each day). I remember searching for podcasts about graphic design and business and his was one that came up on the list. After just a dozen or so episodes I realized the instruction and inspiration here was beyond compare and I needed to gather as much of it as I could, so I went back and listened from the beginning. I’ve learned SO much from Sean, Ben and Aaron in the past few months of binge listening and I’m inspired to take my graphic design business to the next level – to really live my passion and achieve goals beyond my imagination. Sean also has a membersship-only online community with a chatroom, forums, live video hangouts, and member-only resources. I’ve only been a member for a few weeks, but the value I’m receiving there is worth the price of admission (and more).
Todd Henry at Accidental Creative
As I mentioned earlier, Todd Henry is all about putting out your best work, but making sure that you have enough inspirational stores in place in order to do that great work. I love the premise of his message. You aren’t really creative accidentally, it only seems that way because you’ve been filling up your creative tank with daily inspiration, routines, and practices that help you remain creative in a brilliant and healthy way. He’s written two books – The Accidental Creative and his most recently, Die Empty. I own them both and devoured them as soon as I bought them. In fact, it’s about time for me to reread them, I think. His podcasts are great nuggets of inspiration and advice. Just like with the Seanwes Podcast, when I first discovered Accidental Creative podcast, I also went back and listened to the backlog (did that a couple summers ago when I was on a camping vacation). Sometimes he has guests on the episode, sometimes it’s just Todd taking about what’s on his mind.
Do you have a favorite website or resource that brings you daily inspiration? Please leave a comment and tell us about it.