While I was in business school, my wife studied fashion design in San Francisco. I was working spreadsheets and powerpoint, and she was making patterns and “inspo boards.” I had no idea what inspo boards were for, but they certainly didn’t fit in my spreadsheets.

When crafting a new collection, the designers in her program would routinely go out into the world to seek inspiration. Not only of apparel, but of color, form, and personality. They'd go to museums, parks, stores, etc, just soaking... and then they'd build boards that visually captured the things that stood out to the team, to spark fresh thinking as they undertook the process of crafting a new collection.

I was reminded of these inspiration trips while teaching with Grammy Award winning hip-hop star, Lecrae, at Stanford. We had just given our students an assignment called "Analogous Exploration," which basically prompts student to look for answers to their design challenges in unexpected, seemingly-unrelated places.

One of our analytically-minded MBA's remarked, “I've never really thought about where to get inspiration before.” I turned to Lecrae and asked, “Do you have any insights about seeking inspiration?” To which he replied, “Yes. Inspiration is a discipline.”

Leave it to a hip hop artist to drop a bar like that!

I was instantly reminded of my own spreadsheet-conditioned-confusion over my wife’s “inspo boards” all those years back. Except now, having taught at a design school the last 13 years, and having observed countless folks ("creatives," and otherwise) seeking to invent the future, I knew that creativity is more a function of input than output. And while it didn’t surprise me that an artist like Lecrae had a practice around seeking inspiration, I could relate to the student’s confusion: “‘Inspiration?’ What is that?”

What was routine to an experienced creative wasn’t even on the radar of the innovator-in-training.

Inspiration is the deliberate pursuit of unexpected inputs to trigger fresh thinking.

I’d love to hear how you make it a practice in your own life.

Related: Make A Mood Board
Related: Explore Analogies
Related: Steve Jobs: Inspiration Junkie

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