inspiration archives

Path leading up to a grove of trees adjacent to the Smith Family Farm near Palmyra, New York, where Joseph Smith’s first vision occurred. Very quiet, very peaceful, very inspiring on multiple levels. A few days prior, at the UIE 13 Conference, Luke W encouraged us to use color combinations we found in nature. After leaving the grove, I told my wife that I had found a color palette I wanted to use someplace in my work here at the Church. Now I just need to find the opportunity…

posted by ted on Thursday, Nov 20, 2008 · 0 comments

“Leaders inspire. Managers require.”
A participant at the George Wythe University Statesmanship Retreat last weekend, commenting on the difference between leadership and management. Not to say that good managers can’t also inspire—but when they do, that is when they Lead instead of merely Manage. Also, you can lead without being a manager—something good designers do every day.

posted by ted on Monday, Nov 17, 2008 · 0 comments

Color inspiration

Looking for some inspiration today, and hoping you guys can help me out. I’m looking for websites that make extensive use of color. Non-white, full color websites that buck the NY Times or Apple (or Northtemple) clean but sterile style of black type on white background.

What are your favorite colorful sites?

posted by jason on Wednesday, Sep 24, 2008 · 9 comments

Inspiring images from the the Beijing Summer Paralympic Games.

posted by gilbert on Saturday, Sep 13, 2008

Ceramics, Jennifer McCurdy (from 2008 show). The Smithsonian has started advertising next spring’s exhibition of contemporary craft. To browse full photo series from this year’s collection, click here

posted by bea on Tuesday, Sep 09, 2008

What are you listening to?

I’m settled in today for a day of writing and analysis, and I need some good music. This weekend I’ve been on a Stadium Arcadium kick, and my recent tastes have varied from Blackalicious to Vampire Weekend.

What are you listening to? What you got? Link it up.

posted by jason on Monday, Aug 25, 2008 · 15 comments

The sun breaking over Mount Timpanogos this morning.
It seemed an appropriate introduction to this morning’s brainstorming session on how the Church might use the Internet to its fullest potential.

posted by ted on Monday, Apr 21, 2008 · 0 comments

posted by gilbert on Saturday, Apr 19, 2008

posted by gilbert on Thursday, Apr 17, 2008

“Do small things with great love.”
Mother Teresa, in one of the most engaging, most inspiring biographies I’ve ever read. Applies to design, but oh so much more important in the rest of your life.

posted by ted on Wednesday, Nov 07, 2007

One of the many paper sculptures created by Jen Stark. Fridays need color.

posted by kaleb on Friday, Oct 19, 2007

“I have a much easier time designing a typeface once I can imagine how it will exist on the page. ...I spent several fruitless weeks coming up with sketches for the Guardian until we stopped thinking so hard about how we wanted it to look, and started to focus on what it needed to do.”
An interview with Christian Schwartz in MyFont’s October newsletter

posted by emmy on Thursday, Oct 18, 2007

Sansovino Library
Find some inspiration at Curious Expeditions’ Compendium of Beautiful Libraries
(via Top of the Mountains)

posted by ted on Sunday, Oct 14, 2007

“For some problems, the distance to a solution must be measured in days, not hours. It might take only a few hours of work, but if you try to work those hours all in a row, you won’t solve the problem.”
Jesse James Garrett

posted by ted on Wednesday, Oct 10, 2007

General Conference Morning,
and the cloud is on the mountain…

posted by ted on Saturday, Oct 06, 2007 · 0 comments

Giant Maple in Quinalt Rain Forest.
The Olympic Peninsula is one of the few places on Earth where true temperate rain forests can exist. Every tree is covered with moss, the canopy is almost unbroken in places, and the light is filtered green on sunny days. An impression of great age juxtaposed with new life pervades these forests. Great design inspiration, and a fine place to spend the sabbath as well!

posted by ted on Sunday, Aug 19, 2007

Submitted for Cameron’s “Influential Inspiration Initiative”

Inspired: Church Magazines in the 1960s

posted by rick on Tuesday, Jul 31, 2007

The Intersection of Inspiration and Innovation

(Re-posted by request.) One of the neat things about working for the Church is that every once in a while, you get to hear how the systems you help develop are used by the Church’s general authorities.

In March 2007, the New Era magazine published an entire issue dedicated to helping young men and women prepare spiritually and practically to serve a mission for the Church. One of the articles describes how a prospective missionary can fill out the required paperwork, using a web application developed and deployed in the past few years.

A sidebar in the same article describes how Elder Henry B. Eyring records new missionary assignments as given to him by the Spirit:

All my life, from the time I have been a young boy and as far back as I can remember, I have had experiences feeling of the Holy Ghost. … But I’ve never felt what I have felt as I have … participated in the assigning of missionaries. …

We go into a room, and … it will be a two-or three-hour session and sometimes longer. Because of technology, it is possible for us to have your picture and the information about you displayed. And then quickly, on that same screen, all the missions of the Church with all of their needs are displayed. Within minutes, and sometimes less than a minute, the impression comes so powerfully that it would be, if it were a single instance, something that you would never forget. Can you imagine sitting there for hours at a time, having that happen time after time without interruption? I testify to you that it is real. …

In a world so large, the Creator … somehow not only knows you but loves you enough to ensure that your call is where He needs you to go to teach the children of our Heavenly Father.

Working on cool technology is one thing. Working on cool technology that’s used to further the work of the Lord is something else.

And knowing that the software you work on is being used by an apostle under inspired circumstances like this is priceless.

posted by ted on Monday, Jul 30, 2007

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
Albert Einstein, via Terry Jensen’s email sig

posted by ted on Friday, Jul 20, 2007

Another sunset on Ruby Beach.
The sun is peeking just beneath the canopy of clouds on the horizon, forming the red line just left of the largest island (Abbey Island).

A design insight—even when the source of the light or inspiration is practically unseen, the effects can be profound. You can barely see the sun in this photo, but it is responsible not only for the small red streak, but for all the color in the sky. And less obviously, but maybe even more importantly, for the visibility of the entire landscape, for anything green, for anything alive.

What lights your interior designscape, even if it’s not readily seen by others on the outside?
How about your life?

posted by ted on Saturday, Jul 14, 2007