Hikes, sketching, a conversation with a 5 year old, and Salvador Dali’s work; these are some things that inspire us at openbox9. We thought we’d poll the office and explore how our own creative juices get fired up in the day to day.
Different strokes for different folks
Everyone experiences the world through five senses, retaining with our strongest sense. As designers, we have a strong visual sense, because, as Ashleigh points out: “the visual has to be of high importance to take up as much time as it does in our lives and thought processes.” However, these creative brains also realize the value of experiencing the world through as many of our senses as possible. This is why we play music while we work at openbox9; it interacts with a different part of our brain helping us think creatively. We believe that if we let ourselves, we can be inspired by all of our senses.
Seeing differently
As visual communicators we spend a great deal of time whetting our visual perceptiveness, understanding visual relationships, and strengthening our understanding of how we perceive the visual space. Designers don’t take things for granted. We notice the subtle, and how design reaches almost everything around us. “I see composition in most everything,” Michael states. As Ashleigh puts, “inspiration is reaching a new understanding of something I’m perceiving. That’s why I can be inspired suddenly one day by something I’ve seen, heard, etc on a daily basis.”
True Inspiration Leads to Originality
We believe you can see the results of an inspired creation because of its unique appearance. What one takes from this inspiration are never specifics, which would be considered copying, but the revelation they came to as a result of hearing or seeing their inspiration. When you’re truly inspired by something it allows you to enact change. Implementing these inspired ideas takes things a step further and produces a real product that is better: better for the environment, better at conveying a message, or just better for the wallet.
Seek new inspiration
At openbox9 we value branching out and trying new things—not just in design, but also in life. Trying food we’ve never had before, listening to a new musician, or looking at other industries to see how they problem solve are a few endeavors we undertake to broaden our views and see the world in a new light.
To see examples of what we’ve done as a result of all our inspiration, please view our portfolio page.
