Video of the day:
James Victore is an American art director, designer, and author. In 2010 Victore’s monograph Victore or, Who Died and Made You Boss?
was published by Abrams Books. In 2010 and 2012 Victore’s work exhibited in The Museum of Modern Art.
What’s Inspiration?
1. WORK.
I use the analogy of sports and exercise. If you gonna get strong, it takes pushups. How many pushups? Not five. Twenty? Thirty? A Hundred? It’s how strong you want to get. You gotta do the work.
For me, I realized that the writing is the hard part. It’s the sitting. Forcing myself to sit and out in the park with some paper or in front of the computer and sit and write for two hours. That’s what the work comes in. That’s what the inspiration finds me. When I’m writing. It takes practice.
2. DON’T WORK.
I know most of us spend six, ten, eight hours in the studio working. I also know that one third of that time is productive . Don’t work. Get out. Walk around.
For me I go for a run. I either go by myself or I go with my neighbor Archie and we have the most amazing conversations. Even if I’m by my head, there’s multiple voices. It’s awesome. Ideas come running to me. It’s great. Get out. Go outside.
Watch the video Part One:
1. LOOK AROUND
Travel, see places, go to Wisconsin, go to Paris, you know, visit the world. Go to museums. Go to the library. Go to the bookstore. Or hell, go to the damn computer, if you really have to. Look around. Look outside of your normal interests.
What I do? I read. I read a lot. I read a lot of different things. I watch documentary films on a lot of different subjects.
2. DON’T LOOK AROUND
First of all, the looking around part is not about imitation, or appropriation. Fuck all trends. We are not looking to follow trends. We are not looking over other people’s shoulders, to just mimic. Fuck all trends, specially skinny jeans on guys. What the hell is that? It’s about cultivating an opinion. It’s about learning, it’s about looking around, studying. It’s about creating a wealth inside of you. It’s about creating this fountain of inspiration within you. (..) It’s about trusting yourself, and asking inside what do I have to give. That’s the important part.
Ultimately what we are trying to do, what we are trying to find is the TRUTH. YOUR TRUTH. The world as seen by you, as experienced by you. Because what you’re trying to make is HONEST, AUTHENTIC, UNIQUE, SEXY, FUNNY but YOU. Because ultimately this is where the great work comes from.
Watch the video Part Two: