Digital crate digging

Inspiration without judgement, and why the best finds are the ones you weren’t looking for.

Nothing is new

For me, inspiration comes from looking at things without judgement, things with some kind of proxy relevance to whatever I’m working on. Whatever I draw inspiration from isn’t new, because all work is a derivative of something else. Our experiences have shaped our filters. But that’s beside the point.

Without judgement

My point is that inspiration comes from embracing someone else’s work for what it is, without judgement. Without thoughts like: I could do this with this, or that with that. This is good, that is bad. None of that at all.

A bookshop in Shanghai

I was looking through a book on early American ads in a bookshop in Shanghai. The graphics were simple, black and white, mainly hand-drawn lettering with an address. Anything else was basic, more like shape outlines. Reasonable, because these ads probably had to be drawn by hand, or printed with old school machinery.

Simple, not boring

Those are characteristics of these ads. They are facts. I didn’t say they were boring. I said they were simple: a statement without judgement. Without judgement I can internalise what I see, and turn it into inspiration. Again, without judgement.

Where I dig

I have a particular feeling when I look at images from the 60s to the 80s. Especially fashion and culture, like early rock, punk and skate culture.

The same goes for music from that time. Rock and pop using analog synths. And early 2000s techno and electronic “futurism”.

Graphic design and advertising print, from the 60s all the way into the early internet days.

The communication technology and culture of the early internet, with its quirky art forms.

Deep archives

The real history of social networks, and maybe of the internet, is the BBS. There is so much history in the deep archives. Most of the services and domains are gone, but some are still there: ANSI and ASCII art collectives like ACiD, art packs mirrored on scene.org, and textfiles.com, text files that predate the internet and went round by e-mail and BBS. A really rad loop back in time, straight into the minds of people in the 80s.

It turns out there are still communities that have been around for decades: ASCII art, video (VJ) manipulation, low-bit music, the demoscene and its parties.

Diamonds in the rough

I like to find these things through some sort of digital crate digging. The material is hard to find, hence the crate digging. It takes time to find these diamonds in the rough, the ones that can be turned into inspiration, or snippets.

The path to discovery is what I enjoy the most.

I don’t know what I will find. And when I find something, it’s usually a surprise.