Here a building, there a building … oh, it’s a city

Most of us live in urban areas. That’s pretty much a given. As such, some of the most common things around us are buildings. Now, buildings offer great design inspiration without a lot of work (or even movement for those of you that are borderline agoraphobic). From uber clean modern buildings, to old, decrepit shacks, each city has its wide range of dwellings, just for your taking. So, what do these mighty monoliths have to offer of design value?

You could just take a picture of a building you like, go home, sample it and use it either as a pattern or as regular texture in your next design, and that’s just fine, but you’d have learned nothing from the experience. When at location, take the time to really look at the building. Look at it’s walls, how the light falls, how the texture creates shadows, how colors blend and twist etc.
Let’s not fidget about, though, and get a proper example:

What can we say about this wall? It’s…brown and green? It’s made of wood? Yeah, sure, but look deeper than that. It’s rough, it’s not uniform, it has different colors and shades and bumps, cracks, folds, crevasses, the list can go on and on. So here’s a specific for ya: I’ve highlighted a section of the photo, to illustrate my example. Notice how, where paint peels off, the part that’s higher is lighter (the Highlight arrow) and how immediately under this highlight there’s a pretty strong shadow. Also, under the green paint, the wood isn’t uniform either, the lower part of the plank is grayer. You see, all these things can help you achieve an effect in your design. If you want to add depth to an element, now you have a way of doing so that’s not only cool and easy to remember, but it also appears in nature. So I’ve taken this information and put together a menu bar:

The menu bar design doesn’t just use the elements we’ve taken from the real life wall, it also takes on a life and feeling of it’s own. It stops being a dirty, grungy, distressed wall and looks like something one could easily use in a design related to gardening, maybe. That’s how you sample real life and turn it digital. But wait, there’s more!

Finding inspiration in crap

But let’s not get stuck on buildings. Things all around us have unlimited potential. Even things you’d think are total crap. Like a big pile of used tires, for example.

As you can see, this isn’t exactly the best looking pile of tires in the world, but that’s good. It’s something anyone is likely to see at one point or another, regardless where you live. Obviously, the lesson here is rubber as a material. How light falls on it, how do the grooves in the tires cast shadows and how does the fact that they’re round affect color and light. It’s all about taking a virtual step back in your own head and trying to analyze the material, the shape, the texture, basically breaking down an object into individual components and extrapolating information. It’s actually a lot easier than I make it sound. Anyone can do it. So let’s see a practical example of how extrapolating information from a big pile of crappy tires can translate into design:

Applying physical properties that you notice on the real object to a design element is one of the skills I think are most important to the artistic side of design. How fitting would this bar be in the header of a garage’s website. And the fact that you’re not just slapping textures mindlessly also means you have control and ease, in case your client should suddenly decide he/she likes four grooves instead of two, or something similar.

Analyzing and understanding not just the way things look, but why, can help your design skills grow immensely.

Kiss my shiny metal … car

The second most common things around us are, probably, cars. While cars themselves are a serious source of inspiration, we’re focusing on what they’re made of, which is mostly metal.

Again, this is just a normal scene you can find anywhere around you. Metal is, still, to me, one of the most interesting and hard to understand materials, in terms of the way light hits it. At certain angles it catches spot highlights and looks really shiny, but change the light angle even a bit and you can get either a flat gloss or color dispersion. It’s crazy! Oh, and don’t even get me started on different types of metal!

This last picture is up to you to figure out. Take a step back, squint your eyes, sing Celine Dion (what? it might just work). Whatever gets you there.

I deliberately selected only pictures that are not of exceptional quality and that do not take great photographic skill to better illustrate how all of these techniques can be learned by anyone. It doesn’t take talent, not even a lot of work, just a bit of focus and a desire to better understand the world around you and how it works. It’s all about the how.

As promised, here are some of the best articles from around the interwebs on the subject of inspiration from reality:

Offline Inspiration for Web Designers by Mike Kus
10 Unusual Places to Get Design Inspiration by Kayla Knight
Offline Inspiration: How To Find It and Get The Most Out Of It by Kayla Knight

I firmly believe that having a method to how you’re being inspired and influenced professionally is a cornerstone in a designer’s career. So drop a line below describing how you manage to squeeze inspiration from reality. How do YOU bend reality to your needs?