finding inspiration

Since I am at the beginning of 2 design projects at work, I decided to spend some time in barnes & noble on friday getting inspired... so this is my theory & practice on becoming inspired: I look at EVERYTHING! literally tons of things! I try to visually overload my eyes and my mind. I look very closely at a few things and not to closely at many, many more. Sometimes I think you get the greatest inspiration not from what you see... but what you think you see. Here are some things I thought were too cool:

Shiner has a new coffee table book they released late last year. This thing is great! It has loads of interesting historical photos, ads, stories, signs.... and it is beautifully designed! I love how the photos were handled with the 5th color overlays. You can find the book here.

I found this little journal that I thought was so too cute. It asks you to look at a page, in no order, but do exactly what it says. I especially loved these pages ONE because my family is notoriously known for smelling things, and TWO because I have a knack for washing things that are not to be washed. (most recently k's cell...woops)

I am so intrigued by all images of our Pres... Obama-man, as I affectionately call him.

So every once in a while when looking thru different publications (mostly music magazines) I find someone that I know, or kinda know... and I get super excited. In this month's Ready Made Magazine there was a project with Thao of Thao and the Get Down Stay Down... and I actually DO know her... see!

OK, so this one is completely gratuitous, but I'm going for it anyway. This is a book that I designed for the The National Ranching Heritage Center back in 2004, I finished it less than 2 weeks before I moved to Georgia. I get giddy (inside of course) when I see it on the shelves at barnes & noble... sometimes I stare. There are a couple of other books on the shelves there that I designed when I was an intern at the Texas Tech University Press, but since that was SUPER early in my career, I wouldn't point them out to anyone.... except K... every single time we go. Yes, I never miss the opportunity to try to impress him, even if it is with the same thing over, and over, and over, and over! ha.