Paul on… Finding Inspiration Everywhere
You can find inspiration in everything. If you can’t, then you’re not looking properly. That means looking, and seeing. It’s all about using your eyes. It’s all there for you, free of charge.
Finding Inspiration Everywhere
You can find inspiration everywhere once you start to notice what’s around you. Focusing on these details can help you overcome creative block and come up with really good ideas.
Paul on… Finding Inspiration Everywhere
I spend lots of my life travelling around the world. I always look and see, and that gives me the inspiration for my work.
Paul on… Finding Inspiration Everywhere
The good thing about looking through the viewfinder of a film camera is it really helps you look and see. I think one of my best points over the years has been the ability to see. By looking through this little viewfinder, it helps me focus on things.
![](http://images.ctfassets.net/hci7gri31tjd/4rpF5UeSfgwHhBEpuzmD0M/70327dcd0c7266eaa333c545f08888b8/Paul_Smith_JAW-47.jpg)
Paul on… Finding Inspiration Everywhere
Because of my busy head, I need a notebook with a pencil. I’ve always got a little orange book in my pocket. I just have so many ideas all the time. My whole collection is done by words and funny little drawings.
![](http://images.ctfassets.net/hci7gri31tjd/5CpPu0UGNw0zIl4Lm14hXY/e21ba61468a8f7882e142ec469416254/Paul_Smith_JAW-31.jpg)
Paul on… Finding Inspiration Everywhere
People don’t look up enough. It could be an influence just observing something done in bad taste but with something beautiful.
Paul on… Finding Inspiration Everywhere
Inspiration is everywhere. It could be taking photographs through a viewfinder, which teaches you to look. It could be finding inspiration in texture, such as a rough wall next to a shiny door, that could be Harris Tweed and silk. It could be a Matisse painting, a movie, often it's an artist. It’s all there if you want it.
Paul on… Finding Inspiration Everywhere
One of my collections was inspired by a trip to Chile. There are 16 types of minerals in the Andes mountains, so you get all these different colours coming through. When I showed my photos to my team, they said, “That’s an instant collection!”. It doesn’t always work like that, though.
![](http://images.ctfassets.net/hci7gri31tjd/33VoQPo4GrvOzTTC8bUEEQ/02f1faa8d33cb8a33d2330045dc0d3da/Paul_Smith_JAW-48.jpg)
Paul on… Finding Inspiration Everywhere
You can find inspiration in everything. If you can’t, then you’re not looking properly. That means looking, and seeing. It’s all about using your eyes. It’s all there for you, free of charge.
Paul on… Finding Inspiration Everywhere
If you look around at the greys, the blues, the rough, the smooth, all these things could inspire you. The problem for so many people is that they pay too much attention to what other people are doing, which you need to do, but also you need to think; ‘that’s what they’re doing, so this is what I’ll do’.
![](http://images.ctfassets.net/hci7gri31tjd/5VdIKnykQSIjTf8WEA6ujc/55ded903f81ff92de85844d8d7f15128/Paul_Smith_JAW-25.jpg)