A bit of inspiration

I often hear people say: “I only need some inspiration” or “This designer is really inspired”. What they actually mean is that suddenly an idea falls from the sky and by using it they manage to solve all of their problems no matter what.

I don’t believe in this. It took me years and some meditation to have a structured opinion about inspiration. Inspiration is not an abstract matter which springs from the void. Inspiration has nothing to do with our beliefs. There is no super creature (you may call it god) who sends it.

Inspiration is a result. Let me clarify this. Suppose you design things. What do you need in order to design? What do you need in order to design well? You need:

• knowledge (such as color theory, geometry etc)
• skills (which means you have to do a lot of practice among others)
• sources (something to start from and a pile of ideas already used by someone else)
• to work hard (enough said)

So you start creating things. Mixing ideas. Putting all of your knowledge in action. You do and you don’t. You carry on and you withdraw. All at the same time time. And one day you are stuck. You are left high and dry. You think you can’t go on. You need a bit of inspiration.

Then you go to bed. And at 4:00 am you wake up with the perfect design in your head. This vital bit of inspiration emerged at last. Who made it come? You. It’s only you who did it. You just gave yourself some space. The critical piece of the puzzle came out of your mind. It is the result of the previously done work.

There ‘s no metaphysics or abstractness here. Inspiration is you.

I wish we only had the proper amount of time to give ourselves a break in order to gain the indispensable space mentioned above. Because it often makes the difference.