The Design Process – Stage 1: Inspiration

What I learned from Aspelund in Stage 1: Inspiration that designers always need to be inspired. This is the key to having a successful creative process. It is the beginning stage we can’t wait for some imaginary muse to come and inspire us, we must find our inspiration on our own. Designers must always look for inspirations. Designers must also be careful where their inspiration is found. A tip would be to be careful where this inspiration develops from. Steer clear of work by other artists or designers because you want your own inspiration to be original. More advice from Aspelund is, “Good designers are continually on alert for new stimulation, new challenges, and new approaches to old problems” (Aspelund 21). Open yourself to new experiences as they will be beneficial to you in the future.  These new experiences add to your knowledge of new things and therefore can help you with ideas and inspirations. Designers should also tap into their inner childhood. Children can easily use their imagination to create new worlds and use ordinary objects to create magical ones. As we get older, we don’t use our imagination like we did as children. But once we do tap back into our inner child, we can see a whole new world of ideas and possibilities.

Being able to learn about other designers is a great experience. You get a little insight on how they work and what they do in order to stay successful. In the perspective part of this chapter, fashion designer Yeohlee Teng is introduced. She mentions how she started off. She had a criterion before she decided to go into business. She created a collection with five different sets of designs and her criteria was that if someone wanted to purchase all five of her designs, then that would finalize her decision to go into business. And it turned out that she was able to sell all five of her designs. She was able to sell them to multiple companies.  Teng goes into some detail of things that inspire her but what I really liked learning about is how she talked about concepts. She mentions that throughout the process of designing a collection, she has a lot of ideas but they do not always pan out. So right away she tosses the idea out but still keeps the idea in mind for a future collection. She has experience in knowing which collections will be best to design for the time frame she has to work with. From having experience working with fabrics, she knows techniques on how to maximize the time she has to create her collection. Using techniques that have less labor time when her product is ready to be manufactured. Also, she knows which fabrics are cost efficient and what will last a person a long time. She says, “In a general sense, a lot of the things I make are classic and timeless so when they withstand the test of time and wash and wear, that is sustainable design” (Aspelund 24). There’s that “durable mutation” that Scott McCloud was talking about. To design something that will be around for a long time. And that’s what designers are working towards. To make sure that their designs can withstand the test of time.  Just by reading three pages on Yeohlee Teng, I have learned a lot. Things I probably never thought of before. You never know what exactly you’re getting into until you try it for yourself. Experiential learning is necessary to be successful. 

Aspelund, Karl. The Design Process. Second Edition. New York: Fairchild Books, 2010. 21, 24. Print.