Finding Creative Inspiration

In honor of National Live Creative Day, we asked our of team of designers and creatives where does creativity begin? How do our experiences shape solutions? Learn how our team thinks outside the box below!

KARLA GONZALEZ | UX DESIGNER

What does creativity mean to you? Freedom of self. Designing for other users allows you to flex the muscle of seeing beyond yourself.

Where do you find your creative inspiration? I’m a visual thinker and really drawn to geometric shapes and bright color palettes. I love going to flower shops and seeing what palettes and shapes nature has created.

What is your favorite application to create in? Figma allows for a great range of creativity, and I love that it is constantly improving with new features, some of which are user suggested.

What passion project are you working on now? I’m currently working on a set of personal essays.

OLIVIA PRIOR | DESIGN LEAD

What does creativity mean to you? Creativity means thinking freely. This means thinking about solutions, ideas from all different angles, nothing is off the table. The moment there is self-judgement or stress associated with any creative thinking, that’s when I find it impossible to think freely.

Where do you find your creative inspiration? I am creatively inspired when I am thinking from the perspective of someone else. I find myself excited imagining how someone else would react to our finished product. It’s that moment when I’m the most inspired to research all solutions, engage in creative development and ultimately am the proudest of the work I create.

What is your favorite application to create in? I typically start off with drawings, usually involving tons of arrows and question marks on the page. If it is screen based, then Miro & Figma are my go-to for designing projects. If it’s physical, it’s SketchUp or Fusion 360.

What passion project are you working on now? As the days are getting shorter, I want to create a backpack that lights up when it begins to get dark outside for when I’m cycling on the road. I’ve started testing the interactions for it, but I’m most excited about sewing the bag from scratch.

TONY ROCHESTER | CREATIVE DIRECTOR

What does creativity mean to you? Creativity is about looking for unique opportunities to challenge yourself, challenge your team and challenge all the people around you to look for an opportunity to do things a little bit differently, to provide a unique approach to solving a customer, client, or other worldly problems.

Where do you find your creative inspiration? My creative inspiration typically comes from experiences. I truly believe that the more opportunities you have to do something different or look at things differently it gives you an empathetic approach to understanding other people’s walks of life. How do we reach them, how do we target people, how do we speak their language and how do we get them really involved?

What is your favorite application to create in? Pencil and paper. We live in this super digital world, where everything is online, everything is in front of computers, phones. For me, creative inspiration comes from pencil and paper. It’s a great opportunity to get things down, you can do it in a meeting, on calls. It’s a tool that’s always readily available. It’s the most powerful application that I use.

What passion project are you working on now? My passion project is always about finding opportunities to disconnecting from technology and being out in the wilderness, out in the mountains. For me, that is a huge piece.

RAY WIGGINS | SENIOR DIGITAL DEVELOPER

What does creativity mean to you? Creativity is about making connections. Connections can be aesthetic, kinetic or historic. At its core, creativity is finding novel ways to activate prior knowledge to gain new knowledge and insight.

Where do you find your creative inspiration? History. I try to find items that are so ingrained in our nature that we may be unaware of their origin, so I exploit those origins to find additional meaning. Creativity without meaning has no purpose.

What is your favorite application to create in? I like to create with sketches on paper and refine with apps like Adobe After Effects.

What passion project are you working on now? I volunteer at the Racine Creative Center teaching at-risk high school students the basics of graphic and video production.

SAM WILSON | CREATIVE DIRECTOR

What does creativity mean to you? Creativity means freedom. It’s the freedom to observe and the freedom to express your perspective.

Where do you find your creative inspiration? I find inspiration through sharing ideas and meeting new people. One of my favorite ways to do this is through events with Society for Experiential Graphic Design. They host amazing seminars on experiential design.

What is your favorite application to create in? AutoDesk Maya & Adobe Illustrator.

What passion project are you working on now? I’ve been learning TouchDesigner. It’s a node-based visual programing environment that allows you to create abstract visuals based on parameters like sound waves.