“Inspiration exists,” Pablo Picasso famously said, “but it has to find us working.”
While finished projects and products are the endpoints of the design industry, designers and manufacturers spend most of their days focused on process — the ideation and iteration that define design work, or any creative endeavor. And inspiration often strikes not at the beginning, but somewhere in the messy middle.
In “Perspective,” IIDA’s digital magazine, we frequently cover designers’ sources of inspiration and the finer points of their creative process. Below you’ll find those details about three designers we recently featured; we hope that, among their influences and methods, you find a bit of inspiration to fuel your own creative work.
Adi Goodrich on the art of building worlds
The person: Adi Goodrich, a spatial designer based in Los Angeles who works on commercial interiors as well as set design for music videos, commercials, and photoshoots. She is the co-founder of Sing-Sing Studio, an award-winning creative studio, and a furniture designer — she debuted her line, Sing-Thing, in 2022.
The inspiration: Goodrich is inspired by everything, especially ordinary, everyday moments. “Honestly, it can be a crack in the sidewalk, a dusty drape in a window, a Matisse painting of a goldfish, a 1950s film, the color of an egg, the way light hits a certain material, or a piece of furniture. I’m endlessly inspired, but mostly by what people might consider mundane — the everyday juxtapositions you find in the world simply by looking.”
The process: Whether she’s designing a surrealist retail shop or a music video set for the band Fleet Foxes, her goal — and her process — remain the same: “The client arrives with their own inherent backstory, and my job is to find the reason and intent behind the world I build around that narrative.” In other words, finding the why, then refining the how.
Upali Nanda on achieving awe
The person: Upali Nanda, Ph.D., global sector director of innovation, partner, and executive vice president at HKS. In January, Nanda spoke at IIDA’s Industry Roundtable, an annual thinktank that convenes design leaders across firms, manufacturers, and academia.
The inspiration: Lately, Nanda’s been obsessed with the emotion of awe. “What if we could unlock the emotions we want, like joy and happiness and comfort, through awe?” Nanda asked. “Awe creates little earthquakes in the mind,” she said, quoting a scientific paper. “It literally changes our framing with which we see the world.” The powerful emotion can boost health and promote social interactions — and Nanda, a longtime researcher, began studying how to create awe through design.
The process: There’s a simple equation for awe, she said: Awe equals vastness plus surprise. But naturally, simple theories are tougher in practice. That’s why Nanda created a method to generate awe in design. First, build anticipation. Then, design the approach. Next, frame it — and allow for a sensory onslaught.
More on unlocking awe with Upali
Tekla Severin on harnessing color to induce joy
The person: Swedish-born designer and colorist Tekla Evelina Severin, known for interior and set designs, furniture and textile collaborations, and vibrant photography. She established her multidisciplinary studio in 2015.
The inspiration: Pink carpet, among other things. When she was a child, she loved the wall-to-wall powder pink carpet that blanketed her family’s home. When it was replaced by gray flooring, she missed the color and rued the neutrality of modern Scandinavian design. These days, she creates space for inspiration to flow in: “Taking a walk during the day, having a coffee, staring into space — all help me to focus my mind,” she said. “The creative brain works 24/7, and balance is hard but important.”
The process: Severin savors unexpected color combos. “One of my favorite ways of combining colors — which might sound a bit weird — is to combine ‘something flirty and something dirty,’” she said. “So something bright, or pale, or bubbly, with something more grounded and deep. For example, combining an airy sky blue with a deep grounded burgundy.” (That color combo is one of her current favorites.) “Otherwise, I love tone-on-tones of warmth like pink/peach/red/burgundy, and yellows ranging from deep mustard to butter yellow.”
When it comes to working with color, she urges others to look inward: “You should find your own rules and create your own atmospheres,” she explained, because exploring color, and really any creative exercise, is “more about examining yourself and your space.”