Do you guys have anything in particular that you look at to refocus or regain inspiration?
Some of this is close to my heart. I did a study in 2004 on preferred design tools and found expert CAD users preferred pencil and paper for concept design (probably no surprise here). The conclusionw were as follows, a bit geeky and dated but here it is (Ask, T. “Motivating Creative Designs,” Proceedings American Society of Engineering Education, St. Lawrence Section, 2005.):
The review of creativity studies indicates the importance of self identification in both individuals and groups. Additionally, the research of Amabile, Perkins and Weber cited previously, provides insight into organizational environments that promote creative design. This study offers some insights into the preferred medium, time and environment for optimizing creative designs. The findings can be summarized as follows:
More than half (54%) of the Product Design students, who are expert CAD users, preferred the “paper and pencil” medium for developing design concepts. The HVAC students, who are casual CAD users at best, preferred using paper and pencil 62% of the time and CAD 38% of the time. This suggests that CAD is an intrinsically attractive medium for some designers while even expert CAD users prefer paper and pencil for their initial design work. etc…
If there was a facebook style “like” I would “like” the tanning bed customers comment!
the desire for clear directions and useful feedback also cracked me up. I actually have those things at the moment for the first time in my career, so I can pretty much deal with whatever else.
I would say I need:
- Music: specifically “the replacements” or “arcade fire” for normal time lines, and “bouncing souls”, “dead kennedys” or something about that speed for time crunched projects
A good assortment of pens in different line weights, and colors
A razor knife and cutting mat and an enormous steel ruler
some CS4 or 5 action
coffee
kneaded eraser for fidgeting, not erasing, as we never actually make mistakes
pushpins with a binder clip hung over them for quick, non destructive post-up.
Excellent idea sometimes. I just used legos for testing out a mechanism the other day.
Other than that… besides the usual pen/paper/3d program/etc. a workshop and basic powertools are really important for me.
I believe that hands-on approach results in better products than going digital only.
Reading design magazines, blogs and discussions. Looking at great design/products thinking about them.
Or going jogging, bike riding etc.
Besides the obvious people have said,
Coffee - I am one of those people who is dead until my first cup.
A/C - Who can work when the office is hot? Not me.
Music - One day I forgot my headphones, it was the worst work I have ever done.