The consideration of Design as pure information and, in these terms, reconsidering it via an Information Architecture approach.

IA is definetively what made me change my idea about the whole Design thing.

In this scenario, the aesthetics + computation group and things that think projects have been very inspiring.

Other sources of inspiration during the last year:

• zeldman
• scottandrew
• boxes and arrows

Obviously the considerations above are influenced from my point of view against Design, as a Web Designer, these are pretty different from the 'traditional' graphic designer. Ain't it?

well, as a traditional graphic designer, I can second the notion above. my continual inspiration, something that I have to renew in myself on a regular basis, is the desire to approach my work as an architect (not a decorator) of communication. as inspiration I continually read and reread such works as _The Elements of Typographic Style_, _The New Typography_, Tufte's information graphics books, _Ways of Seeing_, among others. Critique magazine was often a good source for these sorts of discussions as well.

For me, in this last year:

- Rick Valicenti's work and ideas.

- This site. I mean it. It just gets me going in the morning and throughout the day. Everybody who contributes makes this site an inspiration for me. Even on weekends.

- Bad design. Really.

- Chicago. The city not the font.

- Typographica.

- Tibor Kalman. I kind of rekindled my love for him this year.

This last year:

- Stefan Sagmeister returning after a one-year sabbatical.

- Pierre Huyghe & M/M Paris The Exhibition ICA, London

- Seattle: sleepless

This piece by KoolHaas and company. Doesn't deal directly with graphic design per se but design on another level.

It inspired me to draw a similarity between the challenges faced by civil engineers and web designers/developers. It may seem to be a stretch but I regarded all mentioned of “traffic” and “inhabitants” as allegorical of database and site-usability. Which lead me to conclude that it serves new media designers to approach their (virtual) projects in the same humility, intelligence and capacity as their engineering counterpart.

It's this mentality (or lack thereof) that makes a difference between creating slums or building suburbs.

I went skydiving 3 months back and as strange as this might sound, that has changed my approach to design and everything else in my life for that matter. I really enjoyed skydiving and I would highly recommend it.

I've been for a few lectures recently from Wolfgang Weingart, John Maeda to Art Chantry and I think listening to these people and looking at their work has helped me realise what I like and don't like.

Jumping into new territories of design has really been a source of great inspiration/creative energy for me. For 8 years I was primarily focused on brand identity/packaging design and then took a wrong turn(for me) into web design. After a fresh new start, I have spent the last year designing catalogs and have designed and illustrated a childrens book that is being printed right now. These new adventures in printed page layout have reinvigorated my desire to learn and experiment. Try it, you might like it. : D

>and then took a wrong turn(for me) into web design.

We took the same wrong turn and shared some nasty things, and as much as I hate to sound corny, �that which doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.’ For me, my stint at marchFIRST was an inspiration to become a better designer and to grow past corporate America's endless bullshit. Oh forget it... I'm just saying cliché after cliché...

For me, it's blogs. But not just any old blog will satisfy my thirst for something inspiring.

For me it isn't the diaries filled with quirky and/or emotional stories (Grrl.com) or lists of funny ha-ha links (BoingBoing). Granted, each of these sites have their merits, but if you asked me what sites I check daily for inspiration, they wouldn't fall into my short list.

I'm talking about those few blogs with just a dash of graphic design thrown in the mix. There are two that regularly catch my eye and fall into my list of secret inspirational guilty pleasures:

• A Life Uncommon, for amazing daily digital photography and helpful Photoshop tips, and
• Scrubbles, for curious pop culture links, including some focusing on assorted design and art history/trends
.

the last post reminded me... I forgot Andy Crewdson! linesandsplines.com was my inspiration every morning for quite a few months. while I appreciate his change in direction, I really miss starting the morning with his insightful typographic tid bits.