You never know when it might inspire something completely unrelated. Break out of your comfort zone and open your eyes to new possibilities by taking in everything you see, from the fonts used on public transport systems to packaging design in shops, graffiti tags on walls and the shapes of new and exotic fruit in the markets. Immersing yourself in another geography and culture away from your usual stimuli is a great way to broaden your visual library and also to challenge your assumptions about what works where. Sure, they could have found visual inspiration in photographs or books, but what they were really inspired to recreate was not just the imagery of the places they had visited, but the lush exuberance of their experiences there. Stockwell's timeless banana leaf print Martinique was developed by the company's owners and botanical illustrator Albert Stockdale following a trip to the Carribean in 1941. TravelĬhallenge your ideas by travelling (Image credit: Getty)Īnd if not, then travel is another great source of inspiration. Even if you're not near any famous buildings (opens in new tab), there are likely minor architectural gems nearby that can offer inspiration in their forms, shapes, colours and other details. No small number of architects have crossed into UI design attracted by its faster pace of development, and it's not surprising that they bring a keen eye for aesthetics. Hatfield found his inspiration in the colours and exposed systems of Renzo Piano's airy "inside out" architecture, which reveals all the elements that would normally be hidden behind walls, including plumbing, ventilation shafts and the escalator.Īnd who knows how the Star Wars stormtroopers might look had George Lucas not visited Catalan architect Antonio Gaudí's La Pedrera in Barcelona, with its twisted chimneys. Nike's vice president of design Tinker Hatfield, himself an architect, took his inspiration for one of the world's most popular sports shoes the landmark art gallery, the Centre Pompidou in Paris. What do Nike Air trainers have to do with French Structural Expressionism? Everything, it turns out.
The Centre Pompidou in Paris was the unlikely inspiration for Nike Air (Image credit: Getty)