studio inspiration board

Sometimes I think I picked it up from reading a myriad of creative inspiration blogs, but really I believe that in my case it's a leftover from my fashion coordinating days. Back in the day I designed inspiration boards of the color trend that the company I worked for would start their next collection from. Thinking about this I went digging through my old portfolios. I found a bunch of photos of these color boards, they were fun to look at and I thought I'd share a few of my favorites. 

Baroque and New Frontiers

I vividly remember piles and piles of magazines all over the floor of my tiny office, my fingers hurting from the exacto knife blades and sticky with glue. I am sure that these boards have found their way into the dumpster a long time ago.... Glad I have these pictures.

Sundrenched Spices and Blues

Now I have an inspiration board in the studio. No glue, no foamcore. Just a large cork board and lots of pins or old sewing needles. I also don't have as many fashion magazines any more either. I do occasionally splurge on one, but more often they are art magazines, postcards, bits of fabric. I am not looking for any trends either any more, I just take the photos that speak to me in some way. Maybe it's the color or the texture in the photograph, but more often it is just a feeling that it evokes. A feeling that speaks to my esthetic, the esthetic that I want to project with my work.

I enjoy cutting out the photo and finding a way to fit it in with the existing images. I rarely remove old images, eventually they just get covered up with the new. Someday perhaps I will "excavate" and see what's been hiding, but for now I'll keep layering. It's slow process, far removed from the fast paced fashion world, but I enjoy it just as much.

These are just a few detail shots from my inspiration board. Unfortunately I cannot get a good full image as the paper is just too shiny. But I think you get the idea.