Inspiration Research is the path to Where?

At work we are about to begin an ongoing project and though I can't say much (anything) about it, I will say that I went looking for design inspiration directly for this project. I'm not sure I know how to design something that has a style that will last for many many videos and over a period of many years! Anything for that long will eventually get boring and old. It's interesting that in my TAM class we learned about classic styles that never truly go out of style - pea coats, jeans, Chanel jackets, trench coats, etc - they get re-invented or re-invigorated but they remain in style. So that's what we are challenged to do in this multimedia video project.

I found little in my search that truly helped me solve this current conundrum, however I did come across some inspiring videos. I wound up on a website called MographTV and there I watched a well-told and beautifully shot short called Apricot by Ben Briand, which is hosted by Vimeo:

APRICOT — A Short Film by Ben Briand from Moonwalk Films on Vimeo.


After stumbling on Mograph, I decided to stick around and see what I could find. There was a link to a nice talk by designer Cameron Moll giving a lecture about good design versus great design. So far, I've only found time to watch about 15 minutes of it, but it seems worth my time to revisit and watch the rest of the lecture.

Did you know God uses DJs?

I'm tired and worn out from the day/weekend thus far. And I really don't want to be on the computer. So, to keep up with my plan to post something inspiring every day for thirty days, I'll post an old favorite.

"Spin" was created by Jamin Winans - Double Edge Films and I first saw it probably over two years ago, but I often come back to it because I am amazed by the basic storytelling that requires no language translation and the realization that you don't need a huge budget or crew to make a compelling film, just a brilliant story idea and the motivation to implement it - not that beautiful videography, editing, special effects and a great soundtrack aren't necessary also, but for those who have access to those things, a great vision and implementation are what it takes.

Eat, Pray, Loved it!

Today I took half a day off work. Why? For me. For the opportunity to go see a movie with my mom. Even better, we were joined by a very good friend of mine whom I rarely get to see anymore.

I will tell you that I read Elizabeth Gilbert's bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love after it became a mega-best-seller, but it really didn't matter. After reading that book I wanted to collect everything Gilbert had ever written and read it because I not only loved and admired her for her courage, gumption and life, but I also loved her style of writing.

Last year I came across the Ted talk she gave and re-realized why I want to know her. I listen to this talk whenever I'm feeling down about being creative and feeling like I'm not good enough.



This summer I read her follow-up book Committed while I waited as patiently as I could for this movie to come out. You might think that my expectations were set so high that I couldn't possibly love the movie. Well, you would be wrong. I did love it. I enjoyed it no matter that I already knew the story. I got excited when I recognized direct quotes and when I didn't recognize events because it has been so many years since I read the book. We weren't even under the best conditions to see the movie. The audio in the theater was a bit on the low side and quite often things were blowing up in the theater next door - of course during the parts that were already hard to hear or understand. But those things can fade away when you realize you are experiencing part of a really incredible story. That's what movies are about for me - getting sucked into the human story.

Was it the best movie ever made? Probably not. Was it as good as the book? Probably not. But it can't be compared really because they are two different mediums for storytelling. They just happen to be two of my favorite mediums for experiencing a story. I love finding a character I can believe in and I love finding a story that is beautiful. How amazing to know that this one is true!!!