One of the most functional things I have here in my office are my 'idea trees'. A year or two ago I stumbled across the Umbra Fotofall Tree on a pilgrimage to aimlessly spend my paycheck at the Container Store.
Did I know what I was looking for? No. Did I know I wanted to buy something awesome? Yes. Did I buy something that changed my life? Most def. Raise your glass to the impulse buy.
The Fotofall was created to display pictures. I use it to manage my ideas. I use the alligator clips for postcards or photos that are inspiring or bits of magazines that made me think 'great color palette'. Most often I clip hints of designs on my Idea Tree. It's foliage consists of doodles I've made on the backs of receipts, post-its, envelopes, anything I can get my hands on. If something looks promising I put it on one of my trees. I have two idea trees now, one is four tiered freestanding and the other is a short stack that sits on my desk.
When I have some time but not a lot of direction I'll sit in front of my Idea Trees and find something that needs development. They've changed my life. I'm not wasting time trying to find a particular scrap of paper that would have most likely gone through the wash with my jeans. I'm not spinning my wheels trying to think of something to do. I highly recommend adding an Idea Tree to your life.
This was sitting on my idea tree. I think I drew it last July when I was testing markers at Utrecht. Who knows how long it's been sitting around? I plucked it off, pulled it into Illustrator and used it as inspiration for my latest bit of surface design.
Did I know what I was looking for? No. Did I know I wanted to buy something awesome? Yes. Did I buy something that changed my life? Most def. Raise your glass to the impulse buy.
The Fotofall was created to display pictures. I use it to manage my ideas. I use the alligator clips for postcards or photos that are inspiring or bits of magazines that made me think 'great color palette'. Most often I clip hints of designs on my Idea Tree. It's foliage consists of doodles I've made on the backs of receipts, post-its, envelopes, anything I can get my hands on. If something looks promising I put it on one of my trees. I have two idea trees now, one is four tiered freestanding and the other is a short stack that sits on my desk.
When I have some time but not a lot of direction I'll sit in front of my Idea Trees and find something that needs development. They've changed my life. I'm not wasting time trying to find a particular scrap of paper that would have most likely gone through the wash with my jeans. I'm not spinning my wheels trying to think of something to do. I highly recommend adding an Idea Tree to your life.
This was sitting on my idea tree. I think I drew it last July when I was testing markers at Utrecht. Who knows how long it's been sitting around? I plucked it off, pulled it into Illustrator and used it as inspiration for my latest bit of surface design.
See? See? Makes you want to run out and get a design tree right pronto, huh?!
