I is for Ideas

Ideas a new House

Quite often over the years I’ve been asked where do I get my ideas. I don’t know if there is any surefire set of rules for coming up with ideas so I’ll just tell you a little about myself and where my ideas come from.

I started off my adult life working in construction to eat and keep the electric on. When I finally felt comfortable enough to start looking for work using my art, creativity and ideas instead of my back I didn’t really stray too far from my roots. I never thought about it until this post but I guess I became a one man marketing company for everything homes. I’ve done work for interior designers and furniture stores to builders, painters and mortgage companies.

My career has been fun and varied. I create marketing and ad campaigns, newspaper, magazine and electronic ads, billboards, logo’s, brochures, radio ads, the list could go on and on. Despite all the different things I get involved in there is one constant.  All my ideas come from the same source. LIFE!

The fact I was a single dad of three gave me a certain perspective on life that I was able to draw from and use in my work. Over the years I’ve done ad campaigns like a three month long weekly cartoon strip based on four crows buying a new house and the idea came from watching cartoons with my kids.

While cooking one night and checking the recipe I got the idea of doing an ad for a builder called the Recipe for a Dream House. It was nothing more than a recipe card with a picture of the house and standard features listed instead of ingredients. The ad was supposed to be a one shot deal for Thanksgiving, it was so successful I wound up doing five more over the course of the next 4 months.

The picture above as I bring this to a close is one of my latest projects. I was getting board a few years ago and started to study architecture. I had compiled some ideas and thoughts on houses and raising kids in them and decided it was time to present these ideas to the world so I designed a series of eight houses I called Family Functional Houses drawing off my experiences raising three kids.

Two of those models have been the top sellers for a local builder, the same builder I did the Crow Cartoons for nine years ago. He’s still shaking his head wondering how does a guy drawing cartoons with no degree or background in architecture design a top selling house.

Simple! LIFE!

Rule #8 ideas, find out what inspires you and cultivate your ideas from it.