How are you inspired? What makes your head settle, what do you do to find inspiration? For me personally, it’s movement. A walk, a run, a bicycle ride will make me feel like all is right in the world (and a quick walk to the bathroom or around the block will give me new inspiration). It’s also true that I am, quite literally, in the circus, so movement is part of my life, every day. I thrive on movement and, when I’ve been too still for too long, I feel it deep in my bones, my brain, the very cells of my body. Movement sings to us all; our bodies are never still. Atoms vibrate in every object, in every surface in front of us.
As the summer stretches lazily out in front of us, promising cookouts and beaches, let’s check out some amazing art that moves us, and some that just moves.
Theo Jansen creates large-scale organic, walking sculptures. They are built of wood and plastic, and walk, seemingly on their own, across vast beaches.
You can even buy kits of the small versions of the sculptures! (Perfect for walking across your desk, no doubt!)
Jansen also created kinetic rings with wings; the wings mimic the flight of birds.
Words aren’t in motion, but language has cadence, an aural movement. Typography takes a language’s cadence and puts it on the page. Word clouds are visual representations of a block of text, using scale and placement to emphasize the most-used words. Wordle lets you create word clouds of any block of text or Web site.
This is a representation of the most common crossword puzzle answers.
This is old, but still fantastic: it’s a video animation of sung lyrics. Not at all a new concept (we’ve all seen VH1) but Mig Reyes’ The Lion’s Roar is engaging, fun, and excellent typography.
A picture’s worth a thousand words, and we have the wonders of the Internet to send tens of thousands of words (and we do, with abandon). However, postcards have a particular charm. What’s nicer than finding a piece of mail that’s not a bill or a catalog? (Unless it’s one of those really random catalogs of items you aren’t sure anyone buys. Those have their own appeal.. but we’re not talking about that!) No, we’re talking about actual letters, written by actual people. If you aren’t quite ready to take the pen to the paper, HazelMail is here to help. Upload a photo, write a message, type out an address and, for $1.50, your digital photo is on a postcard and moving its way through the physical world!
What moves you? What styles do you gravitate towards? Make use of it! Enjoy the activities that soothe your mind and the styles of art you love. Don’t apologize or make excuses for it, go with what moves you and the rest really will follow.
Clara LaFrance is a freelance graphic designer with an M.F.A. in graphic design from Boston University. She is currently a Course Producer at Sessions College, maintaining and updating online courses, as well as a freelance designer and circus teacher and performer.
