1 Tyler invited the art and design team to spend two days in Paris. The plan was for everyone to visit the new offices and construction site of an epic project we’ll unveil at the end of the year. More importantly, the team would see a ton of places and people to get a dose of Gallic inspiration. It sounded like a lot of fun, so I made sure I was on the invite list too. On the first day, however, I made a rookie mistake by donning a pair of polished black shoes – the only way to keep up with a brûlé in full stride is to wear a high-performance sneaker. You might even consider a few power walking exercise sessions before a city tour in his presence. Inspiration is important in all of our lives, but finding new sources of this elixir is often neglected. In a world where we are bombarded with images and information via social media, being force-fed too many fleeting seconds of inspiration can leave you feeling a little overstimulated. Although I am an Instagram user, I know it is Pringle-style media. Once you start devouring the content, you just can’t stop, and by the end of the binge, you find it hard to remember what hit you. And there’s another problem with using Instagram as a source of ideas – everyone else does, too. In April, at the Breakfast Talks organized by Monocle and V-Zug at Milan’s Pinacoteca de Brera, designer Philippe Malouin was asked where he found his inspiration and how he started a new design brief. His answer was simple: “Books.” When he sat down to think about a project, he avoided looking at social media, didn’t click on competitors’ websites, and instead surrounded himself with books. Its pages would spark fresh thinking – no matter how old the title – and uncover seeds of inspiration that no one else had discovered.
