Who inspires you?

Hate to harp on this…but this is a perfect example of how it is the experience, not the person or object, that truly inspires.

Inspiration vs. Experience.

These are some solid lists in a great discussion. I’m going to be busy for awhile sorting thru all the things that make the good IDers tick. At the risk of being a jonny-come-lately, I’d like to add a couple thoughts.

Ray Loewy’s Lucky Strike box - the first think that pops into my head (Ok, right after “light me up poppa”) is this must be the rosetta stone of package design.

Giugiaro’s VW Golf - brought decency & geometry to an era of vastly altered expectations. Still relevant with every passing year.

Wow… nice, I have had chronologically very similar interests and inspirations - small world.

Good thread. I look forward to researching some of these mentions that I am not very familiar with.

For me: Luis Kahn, Tadao Ando, Herzog & de Meuron, James Turrell, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Castiglioni, Rodney Mullen, Dieter Rams, …

Rodney Mullen the skater? nice


J Grey, cool, I’d be interested to hear more about your personal trajectory then…

peace
r*

Cyber Force shout out! nice, hadn’t thought about that in years!

I’m actually that no-one has mentioned them yet, but in term of approach and methods, Charles and Ray are probably the most inspiring designers I’ve come across. From keeping the learning in-house, to looking at every detail.

And Henry Dreyfuss. Seriously, his holistic approach to research and design decisions are still completly relevant.

Hans Wegner, is also one of my favorites.

To tell you the truth, I really have no inspiration. :stuck_out_tongue:

Toby Thompson, FIDSA

Toby created the ID department at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Close to the end of my freshman year at RIT, I did not know what ID was (just an art major at the time). Toured the ID department and Toby gave a presentation on what the department did. His passion, professionalism, fire, drive, childlike spirit, playfulness,fashion sense, energy, knowledge and overall character sold me right away on the correct career choice for me.

His influence is evident in my day to day life. The passion for my job. The way I describe a project or concept. My reaction to a good idea…those who were lucky enough to work with Toby know exactly what I mean. The raw excitement over having the best possible profession.



Man, I just kind of assumed the Eames’s were already listed and was intending for the above quote to capture that…it is far less clear than it seemed so late the other night…oh well

Well for me, my visual interests started when i was a little kid there was this TV show with this dude Mark Kistler called Imagination Station - I don’t rememebr it very well now but it was all about drawing 3d worlds from your imagination… for kids… i was hooked.

from there I went to comic books, not for the stories, for the illustration - shading highlights effects etc and figure drawing… I did my best to absorb it and dissect it…

then came graffiti - yeah DAIM was cool, but for me also Kem5, Totem2 Kegger, hell even Cope and those guys. Later Barry Mcgee et al. Graff started my interest in both type and composition.

then I learned about ID -
lovegrove - Newson for sure! phillip Seymore and Dick Powell, Starck (i know…) also read the book about Rowena Reed Catelow - good stuff. architects too - FLW (I visted Taliessen west), Sarinen, Bauhaus stuff too.

Still digging.

I was watching a documentary on Thomas Edison and thought that if there was anyone that has more influence on our field it would be him. Just by looking at his process the way he did things and even the way he ran his business he was amazing. He ran what he called a “think tank” in Menlow Park NJ which he employed 10 inventors and were required to create a minor invention every 10 days. This sounds like the modern design firm to me. Also if you look at the way he worked everything started with a sketch.

Of course we all learn about him in school and probably everyone of us have written a paper on him at some point in our educational career but if you take a step back and really look at it he is a real influence in ID. I wonder if there will ever be anyone out there quite like that ever again.

I know this might be obvious but this documentary made me think about this thread and his influence to ID

Its hard to define what exactly inspires design, sketching is so important, and being inspired at it is not always easy. Here are some people/drawings that inspire me to draw:

  • Leo DaVinci
  • Dalí
  • Mucha
  • Jean Giraud
  • Hergé
  • Lebbeus Woods
  • Frank Lloyd Wright
  • Shepard Fairey
  • Aitor Throup
  • Books like Koolhaas’s OMA Content
  • Anatomy and botanical illustrations

…many more but I think that sets the tone.

§

One Woman… Mother Nature.

For me it is the students and up and coming designers…(most of you who post on here)

Seeing the new talent levels always makes me want to know more and take my designs further. Thanks you all for continuously pushing the envelope! If you look at the Coroflot portfolios now, compared to the late 90’s when i began, the improvement is tremendous.