- DimitraP
A different inspirational guide for architects and people stuck for ideas
So, I read an article a long time ago about the two different kinds of inspiration (especially in art-architecture). If I’m not completely mistaken (because I cannot find this article anymore), there is the inspiration that comes as soon as you start drawing something and working on something from scratch, and the other kind that comes from things that you see, like pictures and finished projects. Well, in this article we are going to talk about the second one, the one that I personally often have.
I would say that I have this kind of inspiration to an extremely high level, as I can get inspired by almost anything. It’s like a never-ending inspiration. But, there’s no reason to envy me: that will not always be translated into something. In the following paragraphs, we will talk about how an architecture student -or any human being really- can get inspired nowadays.
The king of all: Pinterest. I don’t think that you can even finish an architecture school and not have at least one Pinterest board. Or I hope that you will have one after reading this article! As a lot of you might already know, Pinterest is great for inspiration in lots of domains, but since we are talking about architecture, having specific boards for specific projects or design ideas is a very helpful source of inspiration. Because come on, everyone wants to do something original, but living in a digital world, that’s almost impossible to achieve. But to keep your inspiration going, let’s say you may see a great wall color and imagine it would be fantastic for a kitchen counter. Or come across an amazing lighting effect and think of a different way to achieve that. So, even if you can’t be a pioneer exactly, you can at least be creative with what you see.
A final note on my personal favorite: you’ve got to limit its use to a normal level. You can spend lots and lots of time looking and searching for something and then saving it to different boards so that you can come back to it. But be honest -you never do. You save so many pictures there that it becomes almost impossible to remember what you have. So, my advice? Use Pinterest but use it wisely. Save only what you need for a specific project and not tons of similar ideas. And finally, spend more than a second on each picture to really understand what it’s about and how it can work for your project.
So, even if you can’t be a pioneer exactly, you can at least be creative with what you see.
Not far behind Pinterest comes Instagram. If you don’t already use it, Instagram also gives you the option to save pictures, so long story short, use it with some critical thought, just like Pinterest.
YouTube
What YouTube and Architecture have in common are mainly tutorials for designing something or explaining the use of a design program. You can’t go wrong with its use, but what I struggled with was remembering which channel was the best (you know, understandable instructing voice, not too fast or too slow, etc.), or recalling a video that helped me with something but being unable to find it when I needed it. So, not promoted for this one, but there is an extension on Google Chrome (you can easily find it) that helps you organize your channels by category in the basic YouTube format, where you can set up a (let’s say ‘design’) category and save your videos there.
Vimeo
Vimeo is a lot like YouTube, but I can usually find videos with better content there. For me, even a 4K quality video can be inspirational and soothing for my soul and mind.
Tedx Talks
What’s more inspirational than a Tedx talk? Whether it’s architecturally related or not, you can listen to people talking about their ideas with passion -the kind of passion that you may be trying to find.
So far, we’ve talked about the combination of inspiration and organization. Because it’s one thing to find something you like and another not to get too overwhelmed and frustrated by all the info you can get online these days. But there are other ways to get you out of your thought dead-end.
A great way is to travel. And it doesn’t have to be somewhere far. Going for a walk to your nearby forest on the weekend can be helpful. Talking with someone can be really inspiring, or watching a movie, or listening to music…Sometimes writing or reading something can help as well. It doesn’t have to be like eye-catching inspiration, but it can be something that motivates you, that gives you the power to create something, and that something can hopefully turn out to be something architecturally related.
But being somehow stuck in the same domain is not really inspirational, is it?
You may think that when you need to design -let’s say a house- you have to search for house-related objects and images. But being somehow stuck in the same domain is not really inspirational, is it? Experience things outside your comfort zone, outside of your knowing factors, and you’ll see that inspiration will come. And make sure to always have a notebook on hand to sketch or write something down, because ideas will often come to you when you’re going to sleep or when you wake up from a dream.