Collecting Inspiration

A collection of mementos from an East Coast trip to New Haven, Hoboken, and NYC

I have a habit of collecting things. I collect pamphlets, ticket stubs, post cards, business cards, paint swatches from Lowe's and Home Depot, packaging for electronics, maps, brochures, restaurant menus, the free toiletries from hotels, tags clipped from new clothing, and stickers. Most of these eventually get recycled, but some stay. 

As I'm starting to personalize my apartment, I've begun to pull out this collection of printed material and objects and curate them. Some of these items have sentimental value, but a lot of them are inspirational to me as a designer. 

Lovely typography and delicious food! I transported this specimen all the way from NYC in a paper towel roll in my backpack.

By surrounding myself with all these different samplings of design, my goal is to always have ideas to contemplate consciously or subconsciously (at least when I'm in my room). 

A lovely set of toiletries courtesy of the W Hotel. I should have grabbed more of them!

Even though 99% of my day-to-day work does not involve packaging design, print design, or extremely creative typography, it's something I definitely do appreciate. (And something I want to dabble more in my free time!)