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Lesson Learned: The Internet Rabbithole

Freelance Journey

This is how my mornings go. I wake up anywhere between 7:00 & 8:00. If I’m feeling peppy, I make coffee/tea for my fiancé and I before he leaves for work at 8:30. Once he leaves, I plop myself on the couch with my ipad and zone out for about an hour. I spend that hour reading through my emails that came in overnight, go through my bloglovin’ blog roll, and scroll through inspiration on Pinterest and Tumblr. The hour goes by quickly, but I’ve found it to be a really good way to start the day.

I find that the hour I spend a day browsing online inspiration has a really big influence on how creative I’m going to fell that day. This got me thinking about how much my personal work is influenced by others. Bri of Design Love Fest recently wrote about this exact thing HERE and makes some great suggestions about how to avoid being sucked down the rabbit hole. Those who would like to boost their data privacy when connected to the internet may use free residential proxies.

I totally agree with her suggestions/ concerns and strive to let the internet inspire my own personal ideas to grow and evolve, and for my personal ideas to not mimic my internet favorites. It’s a tough one, but I think we can all find the perfect balance of drawing in inspiration and generating your own to share.

What are your thoughts on using internet inspiration to influence your own personal design???

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16 comments on “Lesson Learned: The Internet Rabbithole”

  1. My routines are pretty much like yours I wake up and make my son breakfast and myself coffee then after my son and husband leave I lye in bed on my ipad going through my feedly and pinterest although I hold back on checking my email until business hours that I use through freelancing.

    I really do not read blogs that much anymore bc it seems everything is just something that someone else did or the handful of bloggers talking or linking to one another.

    Reply

    1. Noor, Thanks for stopping by and sharing your routine. I wish there was a way to pull in more internet inspiration without constantly seeing an overlap of material.

      Reply

  2. I also love starting my day with reading blogs, browsing Pinterest, etc., but I do always try to keep in mind that I’m just looking to be inspired. I’ve mentioned on my own blog how browsing for me is more about soaking in creativity in general instead of looking for specific ideas. In fact, I always try to avoid turning to the Internet when I have an actual project in mind!

    Reply

    1. Thanks Amy. I agree with you that when you have a specific design/creative challenge you are faced with, it’s sometimes best to step away from the computer. It’s easy to find something you love and before you know it, your work resembles something you’ve recently seen.

      Reply

  3. For me, I find it’s always difficult to balance my desire to be original and my desire to be relevant. I know looking at the work of those who are much more talented (or more advanced in the practice of their talent) has sharpened my eye so much, and my work has grown leaps and bounds since I first set out to be a photographer (at the wee age of 14, ha!). But I think Noor has a point, a lot of blogs are starting to look the same. But then there are a lot who are stepping up their game (which makes me want to do the same!)

    Reply

  4. Our mornings sound very similar! I am a design student and draw huge inspiration and motivation from the masses of amazing work online. As I study online I find that if I didnt have that resource I would be severely lacking in creative inspiration and my designs would be really one sided.

    Reply

  5. I think it’s important to stop and ask questions relating to yourself when you come across something inspiring. For example: instead of seeing something inspiring online and copying it for myself, I stop and ask myself:

    1. What is it about this that is inspiring me?
    2. What do I think is drawing me to it?
    3. How do I want to use this inspiration in my life?
    4. How would I do this?

    It helps me stay inspired, but do things my own personal way. I also learn more about myself, my tastes, and my aesthetic in the process.

    Reply

    1. Love this Kate. Like you, I’ve been able to find out a lot about my own person style by browsing around and seeing a lot of styles that ARE NOT me. 🙂

      Reply

  6. Getting stuck browsing through blogs & Pinterest is something that happens to me all the time too, but I’ve realised that the best ideas come when I put the inspiration aside and start sketching my thoughts out on pen & paper. I think it’s also really important to balance online inspiration with offline ideas from conversations with friends, buildings you see on the way to work, books etc.

    Reply

  8. I’m bookmarking this post for my thesis research 🙂 I just did a post a couple weeks ago trying to tackle this question and it was so intriguing hearing what others had to say on the subject matter. It seems to be popping up a lot and has been a concern for many bloggers and designers lately. While I’m a huge proponent of using inspiration found online, I think it’s all about how you interpret it. It’s important to find the meaning/concepts behind the inspiration so that you can look at the design problems in front of you and, hopefully, see them in a new light. Great post Cassie!

    Reply

    1. Thanks for stopping by Kelsey. I love your take on it and totally agree that it’s all about how you interpret it. Happy Friday!

      Reply

  9. I’m similar to TRIX in that I get lost down the rabbit hole of the internet. it doesn’t matter what I’m looking for I’ll do hours of ‘research’, get stuck, bogged down … lose focus and at the end have to coax myself very slowly to WALK AWAY from the laptop.

    Reply
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