Think Outside the Box

I am typing up a handout for my students about developing design ideas. The big thing is "What if?" What if I did this or that, changed a shape, line, whatever for something else. Do you do "What if?" to your ideas? If so, you could take them further!

The other thing is observation. That's why I do Inspiration Tuesday. It is how you get a head full of ideas in the first place.

Someone recently left a comment about whether I would use an Inspiration Tuesday photo for my work. Well, perhaps not straight away or even in an obvious manner, but at some point, it may influence something I do. I know I did take other photos that day which I could immediately think how to use the idea. But, mainly I go round observing. Opening my head to ideas that can jostle round, combine and come out as something unique...no one else will have the same stuff mixing round in their head. (I see my friends nodding emphatically!)

For instance, all those years watching Extreme Sports with a certain young man in my house....well, not always watching, but stopping in midstride to see the action...came out in this design.

To me, this fabric looked like icy snow on a mountain slope. So, I used said young man's boot to do a rubbing with paint sticks in various places over the skirt.

Not easy to see, but there to make someone think if they discovered it!

Got any outside the box ideas to show me?