In Praise of the Inspiration Board
I decided to embark upon an early Spring cleaning project in my office the other day. My vision for total office perfection started off with a plan to sort through five large portable drawers that have been devoted to holding the inspiring bits and pieces, magazine tears, etc. that I've collected over the past 10 years. I didn't get very far (it took me an entire afternoon just to get through one drawer), but what unintentionally emerged amongst the few items that I chose to keep from that first drawer, was this fun new color palette. I love it when things like that happen.
I cleared everything off the inspiration cork board I have propped against my wall near my desk, but then ended up just quickly taping most everything up onto the wall with some Japanese masking tape (gotta love that stuff). I plan to add more snippets over time...and/or take it down once I tire of the colors/theme.
Unfortunately since I've had most of these magazine tears for so long, I don't know their sources anymore. If you happen to know any photographer info, I'd love for you to share. The only image that I have definitive credit for is the grey tone polka dot drawing by Julie Morstad from her book Milk Teeth.
Do you have an inspiration "board" in your home or office, or a virtual inspiration board on Pinterest or another site? If so, I'd love for you to share a link to it in the comment section below so we can all be inspired! xo Ez
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| by Ez Wednesday, February 23, 2011 
Reader Comments (22)
I don't have an inspiration board, but mostly because I don't have the space. I work from my dining room table, so I don't even have a real desk for my computer! But when we buy a house, I definitely want a little working space with tons of inspiration boards to get the juices flowing :)
All my inspiration boards are on my computer! But I do have boxes of tearsheets that I love and that I'll probably need to sort through one of these days...
All of my inspiration boards are digital as well. I really love Pinterest! I have pinned a few things from your blog too! :-) I am very visual, so Inspiration Boards help me a lot.
First of all, I love your board. The colors are beautiful and that shade of purple has been on my mind recently!
I HAVE to use inspiration boards..I guess I am old school ; ). Without them my mind wanders and I just start designing random things, which is fun, but less productive.
Here is a link to a few photos of my boards:
http://patternobserver.com/2011/02/23/inspiration-board-70s-muse/
This is such a great idea! Thanks for sharing your boards with us!
-Michelle
These are awesome. The colors are so fresh and warm all at once. Thanks for sharing, I'm inspired to create my own board in my room.
http://www.thewrittenrunway.com
i use evernote as my inspiration board. it's not as visually pleasing and i have to keep the physical stuff in my art book. but it does the trick for all the great stuff i come across online!
LOVE these colors together! I'm so inspired!
i love it! can you imagine a whole wall of large boards? just clashing and dancing together? delicious!
I just adore the chuck taylors! Fantastic.
I love your board so much! I still have to put mine up...
I got a kick out of the pigeon photo; though black and white, the colour palette next to it almost made the photo look like it was in colour (I guess it's because of the powers of association: so many pigeons have that purple tinge).
Funnily enough, I just did a post with photos of my desk yesterday, of which my 'inspiration' bulletin board is central. It is a humble set up, but if you are interested in seeing it, the photo can be clicked on twice to enlarge.
It seems my blog address isn't showing up with my name, so here it is:
http://somethingbyvirtueofnothing.blogspot.com/
i have yet to start an inspiration board (online or otherwise)... but all these thoughts in my head need to go somewhere!!
I've been sorting through old clippings this week too! Must be that time of year... I couldn't live without mood boards. I have tons of digital ones and then one that hangs just above my desk. This is what's currently on it - http://www.flickr.com/photos/alisontauber/5473928912/
I love this new color palette. I've been toying with the idea of an inspiration board and am delighted to hear you suggest that Pinterest and other online boards could be considered the same. I hadn't even thought of that! I have a Pinterest:
And now I realize what a great place it is, not only for sharing, but also for revisiting things I want to remember and/or find inspiring. I think I'm going to use it more often for inspiration when I feel creatively stuck! Thanks for this!!
Whoops! I think I misplaced a space or something in the link html. Sorry! That whole second paragraph shouldn't be in caps or all be a link to my Pinterest. hehe.
Love, love, this post. It's so creative and makes me want to dig through a few of my drawers....definitely a day long (atleast) project. Beautiful work, Ez!
i love inspiration or mood boards.
pictures i love, colours that make me smile, a feeling that makes heart sing...
my pinterest board is: leahluna if you want to check it out.
thanks for inspiring me x
I love to look at inspiration boards and yours is beautiful and fresh!
I would definitely go for portable drawers. Everything becomes so much easy to organize when you have them at your office.
Eric
I love inspiration boards, they are a great way to visualize your thought process. I have not put up a board at my new place but will soon. as for the magazine rip outs, I slip them into plastic sleeves which is then stored into binders. whenever I hit a rut, I flip through the pages! it's great. I've also recently started a blog http://lunatig.wordpress.com/ to get my sources of inspiration out there. check it out if you can. thanks!
Unfortunately I dont have empty wall space (we have a tiny home) so I keep my inspiration boards over on pinterest. When I do have a bigger office space I plan on hanging up plenty of inspiration to keep my blogging juices flowing :)