Current Read- Paul Rand: A Deisnger's Art

Here's an excerpt from the book:

Ideas About Ideas:

"The source of the creative impulse is a mystery. Where do ideas come from?

Any theory about inspiration must be offered with certain reservations. Ideas may come from anywhere, anything, any time, any place. For the most part, however, I believe that they spring from rather unromantic, sometimes unexpected, or even unsavory sources.

The artist is a collector of things imaginary or real. He accumulates things with the same enthusiasm that a little boy stuffs his pockets. The scrap heap and museum are embraced with equal curiosity. He takes snapshots, makes notes, records impressions on tablecloths or newspapers, on backs of envelopes or matchbooks. Why one thing and not the other is a mystery, but he in omnivorous.

Wildy heterogeneous as his inspirational treasures appear, curiosity is the common denominator and the pleasure of discovery an important by-product. The artist takes note of that which jolts him into visual awareness. Without the harvest of visual experience he would be unable to cope with the plethora of problems, mundane or otherwise, that confronts him in his daily work."