Poynter Online - Visual Voice

Are you feeling uninspired? Maybe your work has become routine and doesn't hold your interest. It may be time to get back in touch with the things that first inspired you. The life you build and things you do outside the newsroom are key to being creatively charged in your job.

I find inspiration in building my own archives. I've done a lot of different things over the years. I've made paper and hand-made books, painted, designed spaces, refinished furniture, mosaic tiling, collage, linoleum prints, and on and on. And when I find "artifacts" that inspire me, I add them to the file (or pile). Oh how I wish I still had the Flintsones lunch box I carried in third grade.

I'm not an avid collector of any one thing. At least anything I'm willing to admit. A friend of mine bought a little ceramic shoe and now she can't get people to stop giving her little ceramic shoes. But, collections can be a great creative resource.

Here are a few of my favorite things:

Old Photos
Never underestimate the power of an old photo. Your library archive is probably filled with them, and if you are lucky, you might have a collection of old family photos. Another good resource is the National Archives. Many of their resources are copyright free, but be sure to include the appropriate credits. I have used old photos many times as illustration elements.

Old Postcards
I'm fortunate that I have a stack of family postcards dating from WWII through the 1960s. Some of them are actually photographs that had the postcard information printed on the back. My favorite is a picture of the Institution for Defective Delinquents in Napanoch, N.Y. My father worked there before going off to war. My grandmother thought he might want to see where he used to work so she sent him a postcard with a picture of the Institution on it. I guess war must have looked like a better prospect. You can find old postcards in antique and junk stores. The added bonus is they have old stamps and indicias, and interesting notes to friends and family.

Hatch Show Prints
If you are ever in Nashville, Tenn., make sure you stop by Hatch Show Prints on Broadway. Hatch is one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in America. It has cases upon cases of wood-block and metal type and images to explore. They still print posters promoting concerts and other types of entertainment, but their work also includes clients like Nike. Ask if they have work around that they have produced for themselves.

Wood Type
Speaking of wood type, I've started a small collection of old wood type of my own. (This is something I wouldn't mind people giving me). I prefer the larger blocks because it's easier to see the characteristics of the letter, and they make a bolder statement.

London Underground
Not only a great transportation system, but an important part of design history. Calligrapher and type designer Edward Johnston created the typeface often referred to as London Underground. A modified version of it is still in use today. Johnston was a big influence on typographers, most notably Eric Gill. Gill sans is used throughout the Poynter site. The circle and bar logo of "The Tube" is one of the most enduring brands of the 20th, and 21st centuries.

Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain
The architecture of The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is an inspirational work of art, designed by north American architect Frank Gehry. I have not been there, but it's on my short list of destinations.

Clocks
I just have this thing for clocks. I have six in my living room, two in the dining room, three in my tiny kitchen, and others scattered about the house. I guess you could say I collect clocks. My favorite clocks are in the $10-20 range and are modern and colorful. Continued psychoanalysis is recommended.

B&W Photography
It has a special intimate feeling about it. It's as if all the noise of a color photograph has been taken away, and you can just examine the soul of something. I mostly take photos of architectural details, and I'm a great admirer of black and white portraits. Poynter held a conference on covering rape last year and invited photojournalist and rape survivor Nobuko Oyabu to teach and share her traveling photo exhibit called "Stand: Faces of Rape & Sexual Abuse Survivors." She captures the true meaning of survivor in each portrait.

White Space
Journalism is not real friendly to white space on a page. It's often thought of as "dead" space that needs to be filled up. And not all designers are comfortable using it. White space is organic and is meant to be used to enhance, balance, and add contrast. Imagine a powerful quote placed on a page -- a printed publication or website -- with the breathing room it needs to grab the reader. Magazines do a great job with space and its relationship to elements on the page. I frequently tear out pages I like and refer to them later for inspiration.

A Journal
http://www.kas-tor.com/images/journal_pics/
My journal is mostly nonsensical writing, and sometimes a few drawings. But I have seen fabulous journals that have items pasted in them with text that describes an event or reaction. I find that writing even meaningless things connects me with my creativity.

Two Books
These are the two design-related books I refer to and recommend regularly. "Designing With Type," by James Craig, and "The Color Index," by Jim Krause. "Designing With Type" was the first typography book I owned, and I think it's still the most concise book about typography on the market, especially for beginners. "The Color Index" has over 1,100 color combinations with their CMYK formulas. Great for the beginner or seasoned pro.

A Simple Idea
Ron Reason, a newspaper consultant with Garcia Media and former Poynter faculty member, has a great resource on his site called "The Art of the Simple Idea." A simple idea is tightly focused and boiled down to the essence of a topic. Reason says, "You don't have to include everything but the kitchen sink in your page design or photo collage. Sometimes, the kitchen sink alone may tell the story!" How many times has someone come to you with an idea something like this: "We have this story about happy dogs, and we were thinking of an illustration of a dog in a dog house with little Bobby playing frisbee in the yard, and Dad is cooking on the barbeque, and Mom is carrying out a tray of iced tea, and blah, blah, blah." All you need to know is that the story is about happy dogs. What makes a dog happy? Treats. So, have a dog biscuit on the page.

I'll end with that scenario, but I would love to hear about what inspires you. Share your collections, ideas, and recommendations in our forum area.

Visual Voice

Latest Poynter Blogs (See All Blogs)