Dreaming Up Design Ideas

Get Surreal

Need inspiration for a design? Plumb the depths of your dozing subconscious a la Salvador Dali. In their book When Brains Dream, Antonio Zadra and Robert Stickgold write that when the surrealist painter felt sleepy, he would think about a painting he wanted to create while sitting in an armchair with a key in his hand. As he dozed off, the key would drop to the floor and wake him, sealing whatever image was in his mind at the time. These images became some of his most famous paintings.