inspiration, where art thou?
I’ve been using inspiration boards in one form or another for years now, as part of the creative process whenever I tackle a project. First year somewhat ruined hand-cut magazine collages for me (weekly design plates for Chu, oh my), but with the knowledge of Adobe CS came a newfound love of cutting and pasting, this time on the computer, and with an entire world of images on the web at my reach.
I’m a huge believer in inspirational images, whether they’re for styling ideas, the creation of a theme or mood, or just a mash-up of what I’m drawn to at that particular time. I have folders upon folders on my laptop that contain photos, illustration, graphic design and typography samples that speak to me in some way. Whether I use them for anything or not varies, but it’s the process of collecting them that inspires me.
And then I discovered Polyvore, which took my obsession to a whole new level.
Polyvore is a free, easy-to-use web-based application for mixing and matching images from anywhere on the web. It is also a vibrant community of creative and stylish people.
Polyvore lets you create sets composed of individual images using an easy to use, drag and drop editor. After you have created a set, you can publish and share it with your friends and the Polyvore community.
They’re time consuming to construct (it’s basically like shopping, as all the items are available for purchase if you click through to the site), and one of those tasks that is great for procrastinating since you feel like your doing something constructive. I could liken it to playing with paper dolls, and what girl doesn’t get excited about that?
I think it’s a really interested combination of street style and fashion as a culture (ie. how would you style this?), social networking and personal design and inspiration, which are all aspects that are extremely interesting to me as I move forward with bicyclette. I’d like to start putting together a weekly Polyvore inspiration board… you know, in all my free time these days. It’s a great way to ply around with images and piece together with inspiration. Never mind the opportunity to play dress up with typically inaccessible designer clothes!
So I’m curious, how many of you have heard of Polyvore and do you actually use it? For what — shopping, inspiration, networking?
And if you don’t, what do you think?
I JUST read an article about Polyvore today about how to use it: http://heartifb.com/2008/04/30/your-toolbox-getting-to-know-polyvore/ Apparently you can import your own items and use them in a “set” so I think I will do that with my store pieces. I think the collages can look a bit cluttered so I’ll have to be careful, but I can’t wait to try it out!
@Kaitlin
Oh, that’s great! Thanks for the link. I agree with you, when I was flipping through trying to find some good sets, I found it hard to find one’s that played with positive/negative space. Too much content!
I think this could be great for your vintage pieces, can’t wait to see!
Polyvore is new to me, and I like it! Easy to lose track of time following one’s fancy. Thanks for the lead!
Hi there! I LOVE your posts Paige. So creative you are – even in your writing. Sure wish we lived closer and I could have you get me looking fashionable : )