How I Find Inspiration Online

The internet is a great resource, but trying to find inspiration for a design without spending hours can be difficult.

I find the most efficient way is to scan through the results of an image search. But a search for “dining table” isn’t likely to be very fruitful. Think carefully and add some key words or phrases to your search. Usually, I do half a dozen searches or a few more.

Note that I am looking for ideas that inspire me and shapes that I like. I am not looking for an image of something to replicate. What I eventually build may be a composite of half a dozen things I’ve seen, plus my own ideas.

Try search terms like these instead of the generic “dining table”:

• Curved dining table
• Sculptural dining table
• Crazy dining table
• Lightweight dining table
• Massive dining table
• Artistic dining table
• Twisted dining table
• Collapsing dining table

Then, try using words that might not normally be associated with the subject – if you’re stuck, look around you. If the first dozen results don’t look promising, try another search.

Here are some strange search terms that may yield inspiration:

• Spherical table
• Rocking table
• Mountain table
• Mercury table
• Fan table
• Electric table
• Blind table
• Street lamp table

If you like, you can save the images that you find interesting and even make notes about why. Pinterest is a good tool for this that I have used in the past, but these days, I usually just save ideas in my head until I’m ready to make a few quick sketches to help develop the design.