IT WOULD BE GREAT TO HAVE AN EXCUSE TO TAKE OFF AND GO SOMEWHERE EXOTIC TO GET INSPIRED, BUT IT IS THE LITTLE THINGS ALL AROUND ME THAT PROVIDE THE SOLUTIONS I AM LOOKING FOR.

I have drawers full of “good” ideas that I never produced. Most I’ve never shown to a single person. The reason is that for me, the process of getting to the idea is what I enjoy. I am fulfilled when I believe I have a great idea. Also, executing and spending the time selling my ideas often feels like a drag. I get caught up in little details and can make changes seemingly forever. Thank God our business is driven by deadlines; that’s how I survive.

Inspiration is hard to define. It is there some days, but sometimes, when you need it the most, it can be hard to find.

The key is to capture good ideas when they occur. I travel frequently, always carrying my Moleskine and a digital camera with me. I have learned that even when I think an idea is so original that I will remember it forever it is often gone the following day.

I get lots of ideas when I receive the brief from a client. Even more come from conversations, even those seemingly far removed from the world of design. There is no doubt that my best ideas come from being social. But when a deadline approaches, I am often sitting alone in my office. There is no time to get out of the house and no one to chat with beyond my three-year-old daughter. At times like these, I need to find inspiration in the things around me.

Maybe I should get a dog. That way, I could be outside running with my dog instead of sitting here. But my deadline is approaching, and I end up designing packaging looking like my kitchen table, with four legs.

Yes, this is chocolate packaging that looks like a table. I think maybe this idea was a bit too avant-garde for my client, since they went with a more traditional idea of mine. But I still love it, mainly because it is original, and I have never seen anything like it.

Why does chocolate always have to be wrapped in warm, earthy, velvety, yummy colors? What would happen if I used cold, harsh black and white for chocolate packaging? That way, I would cut out production costs, and surely that would make my Danish client happy. (Or am I just lazy?)

These four chocolate bars wrapped in bar codes are some of my client’s best-selling products. They have been around for several years now, and the four different flavors named So White, So Milk, So Dark, and Oh, So Dark are very popular among chocolate fans.

I have stacks of books and magazines around me, things I buy at the bookstore next to the playground when I’m chilling with the stroller and a coffee. I like to browse through them to see how other art directors and designers work. Sometimes, it is inspiring; other times, I get upset if I see a great and simple idea: Why didn’t I come up with that? I sit in my office, thinking, and I tell myself I need to go for a run or do something physical, but, instead, I just look out the window and watch other people running up and down the canyon with their dogs.

My experience with projects such as these tells me that I’m surrounded by inspiration everywhere, everyday. It would be great to have an excuse to take off and go somewhere exotic to get inspired, but it is the little things all around me that provide the solutions I am looking for.

Truth be told, I need chocolate to get inspired; after all, I am a woman. I am very lucky that one of my long-term clients, Summerbird, is a gourmet chocolate maker, and when working on their packaging projects, I automatically receive the contents for the mock-ups. After consuming several packages of chocolate, I need a break, and I certainly need to brush my teeth, and from there comes my next inspiration.

This product, called Rembrandt’s Chocolate Spread, is one of my client’s most popular products. It has been around for several years and has been featured in design books and magazines such as Wallpaper.