Robert Kirkpatrick, President, Lava Studio

Once upon a time, broadcast design was an elite pursuit. A handful of well-placed designers had access to the budgets and tools that would enable them to be competitive. Within this circle a few stood out as truly inspired and innovative.

Well, times have changed. It’s a wonderful world where we all have access to remarkable media. Cool tools are all around, and everybody, it seems, is a designer. Creating and customizing images is a daily experience for almost everyone. As professional designers, we have access to plug-ins and toolsets that enable us to create eye-popping images almost effortlessly. Yet, within this vastly expanded world, it still takes true inspiration and originality to set yourself, your brand, or your product apart.

In the plug-in culture, we have to be careful not to confuse cleverness with creativity. Otherwise we allow the software developers to dictate style. Soon every graphic has the same splattered ink or growing plants and conformity rules.

To be truly innovative, designers have to look for inspiration away from the desktop and then use all the tools at hand to bring their visions to life.

Expectations are high. The market for inspired design is vast. Access to material is easy. I don’t think it matters if your work is to be consumed in widescreen HD or on a mobile phone. The fundamentals remain. Do your homework, understand your audience, search for the best solution your own aesthetic has to offer and execute it with as much enthusiasm and as few obstructions as possible.