inspiration=ideas: A Creativity Sourcebook for Graphic Designers

Today’s world is so flooded with images and information that only the freshest designs get noticed; but dominating trends and carbon-copy successes often trap designers in “been there, done that” mediocrity. In the first portion of the book twenty of the world’s leading designers, including Wolfgang Weingart, Carlos Segura, Bruce Mau, and Margo Chase, reveal the unique and diverse places in which they find inspiration and show how they have incorporated these sources into their work. Whether it be a city, a person, a movie, a promise, a piece of garbage, or simply the act of conversing, inspiration comes in many forms and being able to recognize and harness its power is half the battle.

The back half of the book opens the door to a new way of seeing by delivering an endless stream of imagery and ideas straight to a designers’ desktop. Indigenous design, traditional patterns, captivating textures and materials, and common and uncommon sights introduce readers to “found design,” where inspiration flows not from successful finished designs, but from textures, colors, patterns, and primitive and offbeat imagery. This creative sourcebook will enable artists to transform their work from common and bland to beautiful and unique.

Petrula Vrontikis is Creative Director of Vrontikis Design Office, a full-service graphic communication design firm in Los Angeles. In 1998 she joined the faculty of the Art Center¹s Communication and New Media Graduate Program. Petrula lectures at universities, to professional organizations, and at conferences nationwide about her work and about graphic design education and inspiration. Work from Vrontikis Design Office has won national and international design awards. In addition, her work receives ongoing recognition in Graphis, Print, Critique, CA, How and numerous other design publications, where she is an occasional editorial contributor. Petrula has held positions on the advisory board of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, Los Angeles Chapter, and is presently a National Advisory Board member of the AIGA.