It has been quite some time I’d never been to any Design conferences or exhibition; lately I saw this article from newspaper posted about KLDesignweek 2009 (www.kldesignweek.com). It was claimed the largest annual international design event held in Malaysia.
So I had this idea to bring along the designers to check it out, hope to refresh their mind and gain some inspirations, ideas and recharge their creative passion! As designers, we are creative - we have to be. Even creative people need inspiration. So the question is, where do we look for inspiration?
Since it was held from 27 March till 4 April, well, it certainly a good time to drive down to KL on Monday, why? I believe Monday’s traffic should be smoother compare to other day.
When we reached at CapSquare that located in between Dang Wangi and Jalan Ampang
(www.capsquare.com.my), there were not many people around, I found out the shopping complex was quite small and it was not located at the hotspot such as Bukit Bintang or KLCC.
It was such a quiet place to explore new things. Btw, most of the pictures were taken by my 2 megapixels phone (p990i); regretted has not brought my gear along. 
The exhibitions have separated into 3 portions at different part of the complex. 2nd floor was occupied by individual designers and creative studios. 3rd floor was occupied by most of the commercial purpose such as colleges, design schools.
Close up and from far. Wonder how much time the designer spent on it!
Some wonderful works were done by local designer. Just wondered some of these as well as alternatives for where to find appropriate sources of inspiration.
One great idea amazed me, recycle plastic bottles and reform it into one ceiling lamp, and designer was actually using part of the handle (see small cutting part). They’re not original anymore, yet it has its own enormous compilation.
After we had our lunch, we continue on the 3rd exhibition area that located on the other site of hall; well, nothing much here and it was displayed all the collection of designers’ ideas - ‘Safe the green‘ or ‘Don’t use Plastic bag’. These ideas motivated people reduce the usage of plastic bag and save the pollution from our month’s earth.
Few of us love the designs so much and which to buy those bags. Too bad, it was for exhibition purpose and not for sale.
At the end of the exhibition, I managed to buy this book-”The Web Designer’s Idea Book” which only cost RM75 from Basheer Graphic Book (www.basheergraphic.com). A book by Patrick McNeil (Creator of designmeltdown.com)
Why I bought it?
First thing in my mind about the nature of business, clients can be our best friends or our worst enemies. We have all experienced it; our client wanting to defy all of your knowledge and control the entire creative process. They see their competitors’ websites and want exactly the same thing “but better“. The problem is that they have uninformed, preconceived notion of their website and neglect to consider the many other factors in building a website.
Well, this could be the reason; we must educate our client so that they may understand your design decisions. And I think this guide book will ‘Feed‘ them nicely.
It’s the ultimate guide to themes, trends and styles in websites design. For example, sites by themes, there’s Nature, Food, Old paper, Splatters, Workplace etc. But the key is to let design galleries inspire to design, not inspire my design.
I try challenge to break the design cycle, explore uncharted territory and be original. Go beyond what has been mentioned here; seek out our own unique inspirations. Anything can inspire you if you will just let it.
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