What are the best sources of design inspiration for designers and creatives?

1. Nature

Nature is first on this list because it provides a limitless source of inspiration. The natural world in all its beauty has had a lot of influence on several forms of design. For example, using biomimicry in product designs, the design of streamlined bullet trains based on birds. The natural world provides numerous sources of inspiration; mountains, animals, plants, birds and more. You just have to be observant and draw inspiration from the patterns, colors, textures, and layouts present in the natural world. Next time you are outside, pay attention to the natural elements and see what nature tells you.

2. Travel

Sometimes, all you need is a new view. So, pack up your bags, jump in a car/plane and journey to a new place. The imagery of the places you visit could be very impactful. Although it’s very easy to find pictures and videos of other locations online, these may not be very effective. Simply traveling to a new place is not enough. You have to immerse yourself in its culture, geography, and people. These will influence you and help broaden your mind, sparking your creativity.

You may decide to travel solo or with company. Either way, strive to step out of your comfort zone and engage in new experiences. Be spontaneous and book a last-minute flight to a place that you didn’t plan on visiting. While doing this, take note of everything, even the smallest details: the color of trees, the texture of the car seen or the sound of car tires on tarmac. Your inspiration could come from anything and anywhere. Traveling also expands your mind’s visual library. even if you don’t get the creative spark during the journey, you may look back on the travel memories years later for inspiration.

3. Stores and markets

When I am out of the United States, markets/stores, no matter how big or small, are beautiful in their own way. There, you can find design inspiration in the most unlikely ways. If you have a project in mind, you can easily make connections and get inspired. Antique stores are particularly beautiful because they receive little attention. All those forgotten products from the past could open your mind to several possibilities; products with different shapes, old designs, typography and more. Don’t limit yourself to physical stores and markets. Digital stores could spark your imagination as well.

4. Architecture

Consider this: Nike Air trainers were inspired by architecture, particularly French Structural Expressionism. The buildings surrounding you, ranging from the tallest skyscraper to the smallest hut, are good sources of design inspiration. Notice their shapes, colors, and other features. You may also want to look up pictures of popular buildings from the internet. Or if you can afford it, you could travel to see these buildings in person. For me it is not only the totality of the building, but the individual components that sometimes are the most creative.

5. Friends, families, and acquaintances

When doing solo design work, it’s normal to sometimes go for a day without talking or connecting with anyone. Sometimes, it is a good idea to break your concentration and meet up with friends and family. Visit your parents for dinner, meet up with your friends for lunch or meet up with a love interest on a coffee date. The conversations you have with other people could be very impactful and inspiring.

You’ll be surprised at how much talking with others can broaden your mind and give you a new outlook on life. If you feel comfortable doing it, you could start conversations with random strangers you meet. Who knows what information they’ll be willing to share? If you’re an introvert, you may prefer to use social media as a platform to discuss with other people. People who are well-traveled and have unique life experiences could tell you their stories, serving as sources of design inspiration. I have one particular friend who is also in a creative occupation, but nothing near building design, who inspires me all the time.

7. A walk

Whether you live in a bustling city or remote village, a walk is one of the easiest ways to get design inspiration. Often, we only walk with a destination in mind, such as to a place of work, school or to visit a friend. It’s about time you consider a walk with no destination in mind. Just take a trip down the street, just for the fun of it. If you live in a city, a walk will inspire you with all the architecture, ranging from the sidewalk to skyscrapers.

9. Pinterest

Unbeknownst to a lot of people, Pinterest is a gold mine for design inspiration. Pinterest is similar to Instagram, allowing users to view, add and share images and videos. Every designer and architect should strive to integrate Pinterest into their daily inspiration. You can find beautiful designs in the form of architecture, illustration, photography, logos and more. Just like Instagram, Pinterest could become addictive with the amount of inspirational stuff it contains.

10. Instagram

There is more to Instagram than sharing pictures for your friends and family. Instagram is a great website for design inspiration. As an architect, it is a good idea to create an Instagram account. You should follow other designers, using their work to expand your personal/professional taste. Don’t limit yourself to following only designers. Check out memes, celebrities, authors, and others. You never know what could spark your creativity.

These are some of the ways that I use to stay creative in my field of architectural design. Go out and investigate what makes you tick!

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Check out our man cave ideabook on Houzz!

For the American renovation television series.

A motorcycle enthusiast’s man cave

A man cave or manspace is a male retreat or sanctuary in the confines of one’s living environment, such as a specially equipped garage, spare bedroom, media room, den, or basement. The term “man cave” is a metaphor describing a room inside the house where “guys can do as they please” like a caveman, without fear of upsetting any female sensibility about house decor or design. Paula Aymer of Tufts University calls it the “last bastion of masculinity” (yeah!)

While a wife may have substantial authority over a whole house in terms of design and decoration, she generally has no say about what gets “mounted on the walls” of a man’s personal space. Since it may be accepted that a woman has input on the decoration of the rest of the house, a man cave or man space is in some sense a reaction to feminine domestic power.

Purpose

Man caves have multiple purposes: they are a place to be alone, to be away from women and from female sensibilities, to indulge in hobbies, and to hang out with male friends. It is, loosely, a male-only space to retreat to watch sports matches, or play video games. According to psychiatrist and author Scott Haltzman, it is important for a man to have a place to call his own, referring to a male area to which to retreat. Rules are relaxed; it is a place where other people’s sensibilities about standards of cleanliness are not necessarily observed; as one man said, “You spill a beer there or leave a hamburger overnight, who cares?

A man cave decorated with American Civil War memorabilia

In a sense, for married men, it is a way to recreate some of the space and freedom of their bachelor days since it was like a “pad” similar in feeling to a frat house game room or a college dorm room where people could come and go “as if they owned the place.” It is where a man doesn’t have to be on his best behavior, where no women are around, and where “no one is going to make you watch your p’s and q’s” and “no one is going to ask you to explain yourself”. Writer and handyman Sam Martin explained:

Men have had an identity problem since the women’s movement. They have tried to figure out who they’re supposed to be. For a while women wanted them to be more sensitive, so they were more sensitive. Then women wanted them to be more manly. One of the things I discovered is when men have their own manspace, what they put inside of it is really an expression of who they are. Manspace is about establishing an identity for a man. Our premise is that women have control of the look and the feel of the house and that left guys wanting more. Anybody who has a specific interest or hobby or work or collection is going to want a space to indulge that.

— Sam Martin, in the Chicago Tribune, 2007

Office Man Cave

Design

According to several sources, the general architectural and design trend is for men to take traditionally male-only spaces, and enhance them with improvements and masculine aesthetic choices. Man caves can be equipped with accessories such as refrigerators, vending machines, putting greens, kegerators, giant TVs, musical instruments including gear such as microphone stands and amplifiers, pool tables, boxing rings, and entertainment centers. A man cave may also be fitted out with a bar and sports memorabilia such as trophies. In the book Where Men Hide which Publishers Weekly described as an affable but only “sometimes thought provoking” guide, author James Twitchell and photographer Ken Ross explore areas where men like to be alone. According to Twitchell, some public male-only spaces, such as the barbershop, are declining, while other spaces are taking their places, and the author tries to show the attractions of the “grimy garage”. The book suggests that “men make their own spaces for good or ill”, according to Publishers Weekly. Twitchell focused on communal man cave spaces such as male-only groups in megachurches, possibly a modern-day replacement for declining attendance at male-only clubs such as Masonic Lodges. Twitchell noted that some anthropologists have speculated that these spots are a place for men to bond before hunting or war, and where they can “smoke or fart” and tell the “same jokes over and over again.”

One man redecorated the space to look like a replica model of the bridge of the Starship Enterprise from the TV show. Upscale sports-themed furnishings are also available to outfit a man cave. These rooms are also often decorated by the male, with little or no female influence. A big screen television is useful for watching sports games with buddies. Since it is an area set off from the rest of the house, it’s possible to make noise, or yell at the television, without fear of reprisals from a wife, girlfriend or mother.

Garages have typically been a man space since they’re often lit by “harsh fluorescent bulbs” and lack heat or air conditioning but nevertheless present a guy with an “opportunity to disappear for hours while never leaving the premises.” There are some reports suggesting that some men are likely to “lavish time, money and attention on fixing this spot up”. Places in houses which have been typically associated with male-oriented chores, such as garages, basements and sheds which have not been “particularly welcoming spaces” when shared with storage items and garbage, are being fixed up to be more suitable as full-time living spaces, with more thought to design and planning.

One man cave of a Gillette corporation executive has a desk, “a chess board that’s always set up, never used”. But sometimes there are limits; his wife has not yet agreed to let him smoke cigars in it.

Counterparts

Some ladies have set up “women-caves” for such things as crafts. Sometimes they are known as girl-caves.

In popular culture

In the book by Sam Martin, entitled Manspace: A Primal Guide to Marking Your Territory, the author suggested there were several spots from pop culture that any people could relate to:

• Al Bundy‘s garage from the TV sitcom Married… with Children: Al Bundy‘s garage was his only sanctuary. It was also used to hold No Ma’am meetings.
• Jerry Seinfeld‘s apartment: One report suggested the Manhattan apartment of the character Jerry Seinfeld from the TV show represented “the epitome of a male hangout devoid of any female influence” since cereal boxes and mountain bikes suggested to viewers that “Guys rule.”
• Chandler & Joey’s apartment, in the TV show Friends
• Tim Taylor’s garage in the TV sitcom Home Improvement: Tim Taylor used to “bring to life all manner of high-powered monster machines.”
• Bada Bing room in the TV show The Sopranos: Tony’s gang would meet in a windowless “dingy office” at the Bada Bing strip club. It was a “guys-only place within a guys-only place.”
• Barney’s apartment. In the TV show How I Met Your Mother, Barney Stinson’s apartment is designed in such a way that women will not want to stay there very long.

In the 2008 Iron Man movie and its sequels, Tony Stark (also known as Iron Man) does most of his best work among a cache of luxury vehicles and robotic aides.

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My response? Do you have one hour a week? That’s the small amount of time I commit to defining my priorities and setting time boundaries — and the benefits are remarkable.

Even if your hectic schedule seems beyond your control, devote just one hour to slowing down and ordering your life around what matters most. When you do this, you’ll become more aware of the opportunities awaiting you and how to seize them.

How should you spend this hour? There are two key tasks:

1. Define Your Core Values

Your core values are the fundamental life principles that are most meaningful to who you are and what is most important. For example, my main core value is family. If you’re not clear about what yours are, your life can move in directions that are a waste of your time.

When you use your core values as the benchmark for all your decisions, you can quickly and easily simplify your life. So start off your hour by putting these values in focus, examining your commitments and saying “no” to those you are not passionate about.

[su_quote]“If you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.” Roald Dahl [/su_quote]

2. Clean Out Your Physical Space

Next, create more space to pursue your passions by getting rid of the distractions around you. We all hang on to stuff we don’t use — unworn clothes, things in drawers, gadgets sitting on shelves — that doesn’t support our values and pulls us away from life’s meaningful interactions with family and friends.

By donating or giving away all the material things you do not need, you gain mental and emotional energy to pursue your passions. Simply put, if something doesn’t truly matter to you, let it go — and be brutal about it.

I recommend you start one room at a time, beginning with the rooms you spend the most time in. Clean and organize what is left, and move on to the next room. It may take a few months, even a year, but do work on it each week. With every item you release, you’re opening up more possibilities for the relationships and experiences that count.

[su_quote]“Happiness can only be found if you free yourself from all other distractions.” – Saul Bellow [/su_quote]

Each of us has clutter in our lives that holds us back from becoming who we want to be and achieving our desires. What is holding you back? What can you start doing today to begin living simply, mindfully and most important – passionately.

I would love to hear from you about how you removed clutter from your lives and living environment.

Remember I’m always eager to hear your comments. Contact me at Michael@michaelmenn.com or at 847.770.6303.

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Instead, clients are demanding designs that are customized to create environments that meet their unique and what some might even call atypical lifestyles.

As a design professional, I crave these opportunities, because they let me flex my creative muscles and provide the personalized design that is the essence of what I do.  These opportunities also allow me to solve challenges I would not encounter in a more “traditional” project.

Recently I had such an opportunity to flex my creative muscles and create a unique living environment.  Before I tell you what I did, let’s review what I mean by a more “traditional project.

Spaces in the 80’s and 90’s were designed around the themes of “bigger is better” and “formal is better.”  It was not uncommon to see massive kitchens that would not have been out of place in an upscale restaurant, and bathrooms that featured swimming pool sized tubs and showers that resembled car washes.  Formal areas such as the living room and dining room were designed with the apparent goal of replicating palaces or museums.  Bedrooms were small, and a place to sleep.  If I could not design to those specifications, I would be in trouble.

Today, our lifestyles are different.  We spend most time in the kitchen or the family room, so we want those rooms to be functional, attractive and comfortable.  But they do not have to be huge and certainly not formal.  Bedrooms still are usually the place to sleep, except for the Master Suite.

So imagine my excitement when a client came to us with a request to complete a whole house transformation with the cornerstone being the creation of a Master Suite that would provide the perfect refuge for relaxation and rejuvenation of the body and soul.

Now I understand that this is not the “typical” project.  So I should tell you that our clients both lead chaotic lives with great mental and physical demands.  They wanted and needed a sanctuary, and they wanted that to be the Master Suite.  We accomplished this through structural change, the inclusion of critical functional elements, and the creation of a warm, inviting environment.

The structural changes allowed us to create a “bigger is better” living area.  I created a 1,500 SF Master Suite from what had been a much smaller area.  I took attic space and converted it to the husband’s closet.  A small Kitchenette (yes, a Kitchenette in the Master Suite) was hidden behind one of the walnut walls, and an exterior Balcony was converted into the Sitting Room.  Additionally, the Master Bath Foyer was defined and refined by adding a towel storage cabinet and adding a pair of pocket doors adjacent to the Bedroom.

There were also some functional “creature comforts” that were integrated to enhance the experience such as a towel warming drawer in the Master Bath, heated floors in the Sitting Room and Master Bath, a multi-component shower system with different shower settings for the husband and wife, and a structured wiring system that controls everything from the HVAC to the lighting to a whole house I-Pod dock system.

To create the warm, inviting environment the homeowners wanted, the suite evokes the essence of a European spa.  We used strong, clean lines, soft edges and various materials throughout the suite to evoke that essence.  Within the Master Bedroom/Bathroom we incorporated walnut cabinetry, Jerusalem stone, pillowed marble and mosaic tiles.  The resulting aesthetics were a result of the marriage of a variety of textures and materials.  Throughout the suite we employed a neutral palette to enhance the warmth of the space.

Embrace the changing desires of your clients and create something excellent.  Great design is about creating a true, living reflection of the people who live in the space.

Professionally, I am very proud of what was created.  But even more satisfying was the comment from the husband when the job was done.   “Most people look forward to going on vacation to get away.  Here we have a sense of peace and relaxation every day.”

Sincerely,
Michael

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