inspiration...

Happy Sunday to you! Lately, ok, frequently, I notice that my posts revolve around a never-ending (hopefully not entirely too tedious for you) list of things that I'm working on. There's actually a reason for that, which I'll talk about later this week. But at the start of all of these things that I make, do, create, there is a thing called "inspiration". It's very important...so important that I'm devoting this entire week to the topic. (with a few extra interruption posts for special announcements)

And so, as we enter Inspiration Week...



Allow me to introduce you to Frank Chimero.

One of my favorite sources of inspiration is from Illustrators. Truly, I could look at portfolios of illustration all day. I love it. But certain work calls out to me. And Frank's art is like that.

I believe that the first time that I found any of his illustrations was during a search on Etsy. I was looking for things related to Illinois (my lovely state!), and found this:



Fabulous, right? He has other states too.

Here's what inspires me about Frank Chimero:

Simplicity. This is such an important thing to me, and always a good reminder.

A retro look. I'll admit, this doesn't find its way into my work, but I love it. Maybe because it goes with simplicity.

Color. A good color palette does wonders. Especially a simple retro color palette.

But to top it all off, in the middle of great images, Frank layers in some truths that are too good not to notice:



Read that phrase. Productivity stems from passion. Repeat it. Remember it. We'll be coming back to it this week.

To find more of Frank's work, check out his portfolio, Flickr, and his shop.

(All images copyright Frank Chimero. Used with permission.)