Design Inspiration Through Artistic Engagement

It’s great to find art that you love. It’s always inspiring as a designer. One of the great things about the development of social media is that it allows consumers and artists to engage more closely. Artists can reach out more easily to those interested in their art. Consumers can find out more about the art they love. Online artistic engagement benefits both parties.

I need more walls!

On Halloween I went to a party at Artworks in Trenton. There was a lot of great art there, all available to buy. I fell in love with a piece called “Bride of Frankenstein”. I’m running out of space on my apartment walls, but I bought it anyway and found a place for it, because it’s a cool piece.

I always love finding awesome art, it’s always an inspiration to me. I love it for its own sake, but also think about which aspects I can incorporate into my digital media and web design.

Finding out more

The piece is by an artist called Bridget Roach. I wanted to find out more about her work, but I couldn’t find much information online. So I was really pleased a few weeks later when Bridget found me on Facebook! Just as I wanted to know more about the artist, she wanted to find out more about the person who bought her art.

Before the wider advent of social media, it would have been a lot more difficult for either of us to find each other. Now the tools exist for us to develop a greater engagement.

The wider benefits

In this case it means i’ve found a local artist whose work I really love. It’s vibrant and powerful, and in a great style. I can enjoy the art for its own sake and also be inspired for my work. I’ve also found other artists that Bridget engages with, e.g. by seeing posts on her Facebook wall, and seen more great art I wouldn’t otherwise have seen.

Bridget’s at the very least found a new fan. I definitely want to invest in more of her work. She’s also found a cheerleader, because I want to tell others about her talent. Some of my friends have already started following here on Facebook.

I’m hoping that at some point she might also have found a collaborator, because i’d love to come up with a project to integrate her art with my web design (Oh, and Bridget, you should have your own website!!).

Encouraging collaboration

I wanted to highlight how social media can benefit me as a designer. It’s easy to talk in generalities about social media, but speaking personally is more powerful.

As an art fan and a designer, I found a great artist with inspirational work. I hope the engagement will benefit both parties in future. It doesn’t have to be art and design, though. It could be anything.

Social media engagement can be used to develop encounters that originally started offline, and turn them into longer term relationships. Social media is a tool to build engagement, but remember it doesn’t always have to start and finish in the online medium.

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