HyperQuake

The fine folks over at Bergdorf Goodman in New York never fail to go wonderfully nuts with the window dressings during the holidays. Here are this year’s offerings.

(Additional photography by Busy Being Fabulous.)

Le Sens Propre from Cisma on Vimeo.

For more beautifully girlie video clips and daily inspiration, visit Lily and the Muse.

In the hopes of brightening the mood of those of us living in the “concrete jungle,” The Design Inspiration compiled a wonderful list of incredibly cute animals.

70 Cutie Baby Animals Bring You a Good Mood.

Well, Design Inspiration, consider yourself successful. I was smiling after the first picture.

Early last week, Joe Duffy wrote an article urging designers to get out of their offices and get out in the world, asserting that this was the best way to get (and stay) inspired.

“We need inspiration to continue to stretch and truly reach our creative potential. I don’t believe that inspiration is sufficiently served up in even the most compelling office environments, nor among the most creative cultures. So we need to get out of the office. Design how you’re going to work. Dial it into the rest of your life and vice versa. Be purposeful about what you do, where you are, where you really need to be in order to be happy and productive.”

Easy for you to say, Mr. Duffy. But he IS completely right and DOES make an excellent point, trying to stay inspired at the office can feel a bit like trying to get a cat into a bathtub, and getting out from under the florescents is a fantastic way to avoid getting creatively burnt out. So what can we cogs do?

Seems to me that the “design how you’re going to work” bit from Mr. Duffy’s quote up there is the most practical place to start. Figure out what you would most like to do as a job, read a book by someone with more insight and experience than you, think about how you procrastinate and about what things you can bring into the office to make you feel inspired, be it art, iTunes, action figures or piles of books. What can you do after-hours to keep that spark alive? Staying inspired can, at times, feel like a full-time job in itself, but once you figure out what methods are going to best work for you, that machine will start rolling on its own and off you’ll go!

Like many others in the office, I have become mildly obsessed with the life of Little Edie. At first, I was shocked by her “eclectic” lifestyle. She lived in filth, wore the most outrageous ensembles and acted as if she were a permanent fixture on The Ed Sullivan Show. Then, after getting over the initial shock, I was hooked. I needed to know what she was all about – her past, her present and, most importantly, her fashion choices.

What sold me was her passion, presentation and the unpredictability behind both. It didn’t matter whether others liked her “costume of the day”, believed in her vision or made fun of her. As long as she was happy with her choice then she was able to exude that infectious confidence that is so inspiring and made me love her.

If “Little Edie” were a brand, I’d be its biggest fan and, after googling “little edie fashion”, I’d say there are plenty of others that feel the same way.

Nate Williams just launched Letter PLAYGROUND, a wonderful community for people who like letters (and making them). You can join and upload your own designs!

You’ll need it when you look at this.

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Illustration dweebs like myself have had crushes on Deanne Cheuk for a long time, I just love her graceful, chaotic, feminine illustration style. She was an art director at Tokion back when I had a subscription, and has been kicking ass ever since. Deanne has launched a new website, but thanks to the great-concept-but-oops-this-actually-doesn’t-work-so-well-yet platform that is Squarespace, I can’t view any of the work. But never fear! Design*Sponge to the rescue, delivering a nice little collection of her work for you.

In an effort to learn and mingle with the greater design community, HyperQuake took an inspirational trip to New York to attend Gain: AIGA Business and Design Conference.

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Whether you’re an Interactive Designer or not, A List A Part should be in your RSS reader. Weekly, they post informative, thought-provoking, well-written articles on creativity, web design, client relationships, and more. “List” used to be very interactive-focused, with tutorials and writing about emerging trends, but have shifted over the past few years to cover a broader range of creative topics while upping the quality each and every time.

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