Apr 22, 2008

300% Cotton - 100% Inspiration

A good friend of mine, Private Dave McDonald, hooked me up with a gift card to Indigo. I'm not a book guy - at all. But the gift card gave me an opportunity to do something I should have done years ago. I needed to expose myself to some new, fresh and creative design influences.

There's a difference between a designer and a creative designer - and I want to be the later. A designer may know how to pair colors or how to layout a page. They may also know how to pump out lifeless templates and designs. But a creative designer should have the ability to CREATE - hence CREATive. Each creation should be a unique manifestation of the design's purpose and should in turn induce emotion - exactly the same way music does. Although each design may contain a designer's common fingerprint elements, it should, for the most part, be a unique creation. And in order to be creative, you need inspiration.

For me, inspiration has come in the form of this book. I randomly grabbed this book off the shelf (one of many) at Indigo. Hats off to Helen Walters on publishing an excellent collection of graphic art. It's entitled 300% Cotton and features 934 color illustrations from some of the most creative graphic-tee designers from across the globe.

I'm making a commitment to pick up books similar to this on a regular basis. This one book alone has freed my creativity from the dreaded "plateau".

300% Cotton at Indigo.Chapters.ca

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