Inspired

Friends, fellow designers and orange sunsets aside, I always get out bed with a sense of purpose. I can’t remember doing anything else. As long as something needs solved, needs to be done, or could be improved, I can’t help but try.

Maybe that’s why designers are such an evangelical breed. Maybe we just can’t help ourselves.

The things that have inspired me have changed. They used to be ‘things’ – beautiful buildings and objects, created in a different time and place. Or work by other designers that I coveted or wished I’d done myself. As I write this, I realise that my focus has changed. It’s moved from things, and finished works, to more long-term, less obvious, less status-driven and more humble solutions. I now get out of bed with the need to create things that work and that make a real and lasting difference. I’m also driven by my belief that business and society can work better, and the need for designers to play their part. Maybe that’s my inspiration and my crusade. And I’m not alone. Above all else, people are my inspiration – those who are determined to make the world a better place, and those who give designers a chance.

Janice KirkpatrickGraven Images