Importance of Inspiration and Failed Studio Projects
28.06.17

You can find inspiration in everything. If you can’t, then you’re not looking properly.

- Paul Smith

I love this quote. For a designer who is so renowned for playing with contrasts, Paul Smith cuts into the mundane everyday-life and draws out excitement and inspiration.

Within design, it is important to be open-minded. To be inquisitive, playful, to see the world as a wonder full of unsolved mysteries and almost forgotten stories. It is necessary to be inspired, but hard to stay inspired. Studio projects are important. Creating and responding to design briefs helps foster and keep creative thinking and doing part of our everyday practice. Over the past two years of BrandCraft we have worked on various studio projects. It is hard to understand the success of each project, however some have definitely failed, or stalled!

@hklogo, 2017+

The ‘HK Logo’ studio project was supposed to be a daily updated archive of logos of Hong Kong with interesting stories. However, it rather quickly became clear that there aren’t that many to talk about, at least not one everyday! Also, it proved extremely difficult to find the creators of the logos and I got bored of writing ‘Designer unknown’. After only 24 posts, the project remains on hold for a hopefully better, richer logo-landscape of Hong Kong.

@365_days_of_type, 2016

This was a simple, logo-type based project, setting out to post one letter per day gaining 1.5k followers. This project is in more detail here. 

Relevant blog posts

Process is King
What Japan's flags teach us about corporate identity design
The Theory of Banking Logo Design

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About the author, Adam

Adam is the design director of BrandCraft. BrandCraft is a branding and design consultancy based in Hong Kong. We specialise in branding, visual identity, corporate identity and rebranding.

Adam is a branding consultant and has worked with clients in the UK, USA, Hong Kong, Tokyo, South Korea and China. He has had self-initiated art and design projects exhibited at various galleries and museums including the Victoria & Albert Museum of Art and Design and regularly writes about branding and design theory.

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