The Ongoing Search for Real Inspiration

Originally published September 26, 2024. Refined April 28, 2026.

It has taken several years to arrive at this point with Collected Volumes. Much of that time has been spent developing a graphic design practice, building brand identities, designing packaging, and working across campaigns and commissions.

While that work continues, Collected Volumes has been gradually expanding into something slower, more observational, and rooted in research.

From the beginning, the intention has been to encourage new ways of seeing in order to create design that feels not only relevant, but considered. Early on, it became clear how quickly contemporary creative work can begin to circulate within the same closed loop, where references echo one another, and “inspiration” becomes increasingly diluted. What is often framed as creative intervention can, at times, feel like surface-level variation. In this context, the term “inspired by” begins to lose its meaning.

In an effort to stay away from that cycle, Collected Volumes, as a core practice, has drawn project research from its own gathered collections of real-life encounters and overlooked details. These collections have formed through small, repeated acts of noticing: signage, brick patterns, shadows, packaging, printed plastic bags, old phone cards. The value is not purely aesthetic, but perceptual – learning how to look more closely, and more deliberately.

This approach is not new. In many ways, it's foundational to design itself, but it can be difficult to sustain within the speed and saturation of contemporary visual culture. As tools evolve and access expands, the challenge becomes not just what we make, but how we choose to see.

Collected Volumes exists as an ongoing response to that dilemma. It's an attempt to document and share fragments of research, collections, and reference points that might otherwise go unnoticed. Not as definitive answers, but as material to think with.

What began as a small set of collected inspiration in the form of categorized camera roll albums has continued to grow across formats. The Brown Book series is one response to creating a physical, accessible way to share all of our diverse personal archives. ‘Research Material’ extends this process further, serving as a space for ongoing notes, observations, and contributions that explore the role of collections, archives, and lived experience in shaping creative work.