How to never stop having ideas!

The importance of staying inspired

Hey everyone,

this morning I stumbled over a post on Cara from someone complaining about running out of ideas all the time (unfortunately I couldn’t find it again). In the comments, many shared a similar experience. And I thought this is a great topic for a newsletter!, so let’s look at ideas today!

I used to call myself lucky when I told people on social media that I rarely run out of ideas. My sketchbook is filled with so many drafts, plans and thumbnails that I feel overwhelmed at times. It’s no luck though, and there’s also no natural talent involved - it’s based on a clear process. So here’s some specific tips that you can try out immediately, no matter if you’re lacking inspiration, or just feel a new for fresh ideas (who doesn’t? 😉)

1. Look at what surrounds you!

You don’t need to come up with the wildest ideas to develop a great idea, or travel around the world to find inspiration! It sounds obvious, but by observing situations and objects around you, you can fill a whole sketchbook easily. Daily life delivers lots of starting points that you can interpret in your own way, or you can add a surprising twist to it.

The Hearts suit cards of the playing card deck I’m working on is a great example. I’ve been looking for objects that I could combine with love (as the Hearts theme is Magical Love), and just noted down what I found: a candle, a bottle of champagne, a rose, and more. Then I gave it all a dark twist (like calling the champagne brand Bitter Tears 😅)

More cards I made lately are on my Patreon, if you’d like an early sneak peek!

2. Develop a sketchbooking habit!

Speaking of taking notes. Many years ago started a sketchbook routine: whenever the slightest spark of an idea hits me, I write or scribble it down. It doesn’t matter if I take 10 seconds or 10 minutes, but it has to land in there, so I can come back to it later.

There’s lots of truly idiotic ideas in there as well, but that doesn’t matter. The sketchbook can be your private space, and there’s no wrong ideas or thoughts. I love that this doesn’t take much time, and it can be inspiring to turn the pages some time later, and discover some great ideas!

3. Give yourself tasks!

My first tip was about observing your surroundings. Any magazines or newspapers around? Great! Grab one, find an article with a really boring image (or none at all), and give yourself the task to create a great visual for it! This is basically what you’d do in courses at art school, and these fantasy commission gigs are a great practice.

You can do this with ads, company brandings, even whole campaigns if you want to. And this is not only a good starting point to create artworks, but it also trains you to come up with ideas for actual commissions that are hopefully around the corner. Here’s an imaginary cover I made for a class a bit more that 10 years ago!

Next week, I’ll give you three more tips for finding great ideas, because I just realized that I have too many ideas for just one newsletter 😄.

What’s your best strategies to develop ideas, and what do you do when you’re chasing these sparks? Let me know by replying to this mail or in the Substack comments, I’d love to include some in the next letter!

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Thanks for reading today, and have a great week ahead!

Cheers
Stefan