Iris Van Herpen.

Behold the genius and artistry of Iris Van Herpen. Iris is a Dutch fashion designer who’s known for her couture. She counts Björk, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Cate Blanchett, Indya Moore and Lady Gaga as muses (among many illustrious others). On the about page of her site they say “The brand's visionary creations merge pioneering techniques and luxurious materials, often evoking a sense of avant-garde wonder.” And I concur. I literally sat mouth agape upon first discovering her brilliance.

I highly recommend trawling the aisles of her website. I had an impossible time choosing only 3 images, there is just so much sumptuous scenery! But beware it’s a black hole of luscious magical mystical otherwordly delights and you may get sucked in never to return. You’ve been warned.

I get my design inspiration and much needed doses of creative wonderment from all over the map. Fashion ranking quite high among my happy places.

Where do you feed your brain when it needs a recharge?

What gets you up in the morning?

As a person with ADHD this is a GREAT question. For those of you not wholly familiar with some of the lovable quirks that come with being a card carrying member of the attention deficit disorder family, let me illuminate. One of the biggest or let’s say more consuming aspects of being an ADHD’er is the trouble with SLEEP. My god! My kingdom for a week of solid, consistent, deep, tranquil sleep. I can’t even fathom what a well slept life could look like.

I can tell you what an unwell slept life does. I usually try to get myself to bed at a reasonable hour and at the same time each night. But each evening is like playing grab bag. It’s a toss up between insomnia, restless half sleep tossing and turning, or waking up in the middle of the night to twiddle one’s thumbs until dawn and every so often a good old fashioned night of the good deep restful stuff just so we can know what we’re missing.

Which leads us to Act 2. The wakey wakey eggs and bakey. Because ADHD seems to operate by the rules of Murphy’s Law, generally around the time one’s alarm is about to pop off, you will find yourself drifting off to a deep, tranquil, restful, luxurious, sleep state that is nigh impossible to wrench oneself from. So getting up consistently and on time is a herculean task.

Which begs the question, what does get us sleep disordered chappies out of bed in the morning? What keeps us from fingering the snooze until early afternoon? And my answer is as corny as it is true. I leap out of bed whether well slept or not if I’m working on a project that inspires and excites me. Good design work keeps me engaged and in hyper focus mode from day in and out and even activates my get up and go come morning. It’s a blessing and that which drives me to keep my work interesting, varied and challenging.

That’s why I’m a one stop shop from logos, colors, and branding to strategy and digital to websites and social. I even squeeze in video editing and infographics to keep it extra interesting. It’s the novelty and quest for originality that keeps me in the throes. A well designed life worth living or something like that.

And how about you? What gets you out of bed in the morning?

Image is courtesy of Gaelle Marcel via Unsplash.