How Do Graphic Design Creatives Find Design Inspiration?

Every artist gets some sort of 'writer's block' at some stage in their career. How do graphic design creatives get past this? Knowing the answer to this question is something that comes with time and experience, but there are a few tricks that can help you on your way.

Decide what the purpose of the design is

When working on a new brief, don't try to set the graphic design industry alight with an entirely new style or design. It's impractical, unlikely to succeed, and even more unlikely to SELL. This is what graphic designs have to do - SELL. As much as many graphic design teachers and gurus might rail against 'selling out' in today's graphic design industry, we can't afford to treat every piece of design as a unique work of 'art'. We produce graphic designs for clients who buy them because the designs will help to SELL their product or service. It's that simple.

Think about the target audience

So when you start a new design, before you do anything else try to put yourself in the shoes of the potential customer. What are they going to be buying? Why will they buy it? Most important, what would persuade you (if you were a potential customer) to buy the product or service you'll be producing a design for?

If you can come up with an idea which would convince YOU to buy, then you're on the right track. And this applies to any kind of graphic design job there is - whether it's an advert, a website or a business card. the primary purpose of all of these things is to get a potential customer to PICK UP THE PHONE. That's it - if you can achieve this, you should be proud that you've done your job well.

Ignore the window dressing

Don't include something on a design that doesn't have a reason for being there - window dressing hides or confuses the message. Resist the urge to fill space for the sake of it. The message is everything, so don't keep the reader guessing - you'll lose them before they can be bothered to work out what you're trying to sell. And selling is a concept you can't afford to forget. Graphic designs sell to clients because they are visual 'salesmen'. A business doesn't commission a piece of art from a graphic design firm - it buys a sales tool. As long as you remember this at every stage of the design process, you'll be fine. Be simultaneously clear about what you're trying to say as well as visually appealing.

Find design inspiration

Have you ever heard the expression "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"? If you run into trouble while working on a design, take a deep breath and look at how graphic designers from the past have dealt with the same situation. Thisdoesn't mean that you should copy someone else's work - you just need to generate some new ideas of your own which can be sparked by leafing through other creative work.

If you're working on an advert for a magazine, leaf through a few publications targeted at the same industry as the one you're designing for. You'll find design inspiration and ideas pretty quickly. It's also useful to see what others are doing to target the same market as you.

No graphic design studio is without a small library of design books, art books, graphic design industry magazines and other sources of inspiration. How do graphic design publications help? Magazines and books about graphic design tend to fill their pages with up-to-date design ideas as well as favourites from the past, all of which can fuel your design inspiration.

In my studio I also tend to keep items of marketing material that appeal to me in some way; either because I like the finish of the stock they've been produced on, or because they contain an innovative or visually appealing piece of work. All these can be drawn on as sources of graphic design inspiration.

You must have your own favourite period of art and design history - whether it's Art Deco or Pop Art; the Renaissance or Impressionism; advertising of the early 20th Century or Star Wars merchandise. Use what appeals to you in your design. Remember, you have to enjoy the creative process in order to produce good work, so try to design something using your own preferred influences. This should help to kick start your own design process, and will help to define your own unique style.

Create graphic design!

So you now have an idea of the style that you'll use, as well as the message you want to get across. How do graphic design creatives start the actual process of designing? I always begin by sketching ideas out on scrap paper. Don't stop until you've explored a number of ideas so you can narrow them down to one or two good ones. If I'm creating some sort of page layout design, I'll sketch a number of page outline thumbnails, look at the material that I have to fill them, and doodle little layouts over and over again. It never takes too long before some solid design ideas start to show themselves.

Once I'm happy I move to the Mac. I never skip this stage and start a new design on the computer - it takes much longer and if you set off down the wrong route it will take quite some time before you realise it - and that's wasted time and money. You don't have to be a great artist to sketch ideas by hand - and you'll improve with practice. In many ways this is the most enjoyable part of the creative process - starting wth a blank sheet. Enjoyable and a little terrifying!

10 Poster Design Tips

1. Start with a Good Idea

A great poster isn’t about a great aesthetic, it’s about a clever idea that’s skinned with a great aesthetic. Start out with a sketch, not on Pinterest. Start by filling a few pages with ideas. Once you have one you love, then start to think about the aesthetic of the illustration or lettering. The idea should drive the visual, not the other way around. In the example above, I was designing a poster for a creative conference called the Inside Job. I first decided that I wanted to design a pencil/gun, then I decided to illustrate it with a mono-weight black stroke to help combine the visual language of the pencil and the gun. 

2. Two in One

Sometimes I start with a word list. I list out nouns that evoke the message of the poster. Once I have my list, I start to combine them visually through sketches. In the poster above, the two words were “pencil” and “heart.” The message of the poster was that Target loves education. A poster of just a pencil or just a heart would be trite and pretty expected. The combination of the two elements creates something unique and ownable.

3. Get Inspired by your Life

In 2009 my wife was pregnant with our first child. At the same time, I was asked to design a poster for the poster show Artcrank. The only rule about Artcrank is that the poster needs to be focused on bikes. I combined bikes and babies in this print that plays off of gender-specific bicycles.

4. Embrace the Medium

If you’re screen-printing, consider overprinting. It’s a great technique that can score you an extra color without the cost. If you’re working with digital prints, explore the possibilities. Many screen-printers look down on digital printing when in fact it’s a great opportunity to integrate photography and subtle shading. If you’re doing a letterpress print, make sure you explore different papers that offer a deep impression as well as the level of natural paper texture. 

5. Use your Hands

Try thinking—and working—away from the computer. Figure out the best way to execute your idea, and if that means sculpting 3D type and pouring paint on it, do it. The natural imperfection that come with handcraft can amplify an idea that needs a level of humanity. 

6. Rule of Fives

A wise man once told me that a good poster should be just as impactful at 50 feet as it is at 5 feet—and at 5 inches. In the example above, the posters read Target from +50 feet away. At 5 feet you notice the tiny person playing on the logo. At 5 inches you notice the emotion of the model as well as their striking wardrobe. 

7. Embrace the Brand

When creating a poster for brand campaign, dissect the brand’s logo and explore what you can use as building blocks in your design. Integrating the logo elements will make your poster ownable and will avoid a client asking you to make the logo bigger. In the above posters for Target, I created patterns with the dot and the ring of the Target logo and integrated the diverse target audience in this branded world. These posters are distinctly Target and read Target at a glance without ever actually showing a Target logo. 

8. Explore Scale

Sometimes exploring the extremes of scale can add interest to an otherwise dull image. In these posters designed for a Summer campaign, I’m only showing a cart and a product; however, the scale of the product paired with the headline adds visual interest. 

9. Stand Out

If you know your poster is going to be in a sea of posters by other designers, it’s ideal to make yours stand out. You can do this with bright color, pattern or high contrast. I’ve even seen people integrate small blinking lights into their prints.

In the Artcrank poster above, I integrated retina-burning black and white lines with a bicycle to portray speed as well as a way to highlight the bicycle’s linear frame design. This helped the posters stand out at the show as well as in Instagram feeds.

10. Keep it simple

The most important tip that I can’t stress enough is to keep your poster design simple. Pick one idea and execute it with the fewest elements possible without losing the integrity of your idea. People are bombarded with visuals all day that are fighting for their attention. Make sure your poster is easily digestible at a glance. You shouldn’t have to explain the concept to anyone.

The poster series highlighted here is for Target’s Spring campaign. I picked a collection of icons that read Spring at a glance, and I illustrated them using only an Exacto knife and one piece of paper each. The simple illustration style is what makes them unique and interesting.