If you visit the rich parts of Paris, it’s a beautiful place. I fondly recall narrow cobble-stone streets, road-side cafés, funky french cars, homes, shops, and chapels each more ornate and gracefully detailed than the last.

Coming from a suburb designed by bean-counters and losers, I imagined that I’d be endlessly inspired by Paris, by New York, by wherever. But inevitably, the opulence, the architecture, the tradition, it all blends together.

I’m glad I travelled to all these places. Everyone should see more of everything.

That said, every journey inevitably leads me back to my ever-growing collection of charming, beautiful, and peculiar jpeg’s.

Collecting Inspiration

I started my personal inspiration library in 2010, saving cool images from the world wide web, and snapping photos from architecture and illustration books.

Like pruning a bonsai, sometimes I remove things that no longer resonate. What lives on are perennially interesting and memorable. The oldest branches evoke vibes and eras that I think are worth remembering and learning from.

I didn’t have a plan behind it, besides striving to express myself by combining and imitating the things I liked. I definitely didn’t think I’d be scrolling through these images a decade later.

At first I threw everything into a folder. Then I moved everything to LittleSnapper (now abandoned), then later onto the web with Are.na. Today, the collection lives in this Kinopio space.

Using Inspiration

I visit this space often. Sometimes to wander and wonder, other times to gather ideas for something new.

One of my original Kinopio references – nestled alongside drawings of nature with bright colors, and ’80s digital synthesizers with chunky buttons and sliders – is this gig poster:

Maybe one day I’ll make something charming-enough, beautiful-enough, and peculiar-enough to be in someone else’s collection.

Bonus

I found this comic while going through some my old inspiration, it probably inspired the Kinopio logo.