Lost and ffffound

Before I was old enough to drink, or thin enough to get a girlfriend, my Friday and Saturday nights usually meant staying up late and watching Rage on the ABC. I would sit there in the wee hours of the morning waiting for a good clip to come on, ‘2 more clips I’d say, then if the third one sucks, I’m going to bed...Ok maybe three more.’

It was addictive. And a little sad. The promise of something great coming on kept me on that couch for hours. Recently I’ve found myself on the couch making the same deal with my tired eyes, except the TV is off and the laptop is on. I’m on ffffound.

Any designer with eyes and hands will be aware of ffffound, which Wikipedia describes as ‘an image hosting service designed for the sharing and bookmarking of found images.’

Launched in 2007, ffffound is a super simple blog site providing an endless stream of varying images and, like most designers, when I was introduced to the site I was overwhelmed. Pages upon pages of visual inspiration, it was more than any designer could possibly take in.

I was quickly addicted. Over the last two years though, ffffound has evolved somewhat. What began as an index of images relating predominantly to design, photography and illustration has slowly morphed into an index made up mostly of weepy love notes, awful vector based images, unusual shots of kittens, polariods of girls in dark rimmed glasses wearing stripey socks and soft core porn.

Yet I am still addicted. Even while writing this I jumped onto ffffound (purely for research) and 15 minutes later I’m still scrolling. It’s like I’m back on that couch in high school just waiting, hoping for something great.

The interesting thing is that ffffound has not once helped me solve a design problem. Sure, I’m inspired by some of the imagery, the use of colour (which most would argue is the point of the site) and occasionally I’ll click through to an interesting studio or site that I’ve never been to but generally I just get tired.

Once in a while something astonishing will pop up but I must admit even then my strongest emotion is usually jealousy. Why didn’t I think of it? And if something great’s been done, there’s no point doing it again, right? I’m always suspicious of designers who’ve been on the site and found the ‘inspiration’ to solve a design problem. 

A lot of the time this means they’ve found an image or style treatment they like and they plan on re-appropriating for the job at hand. Surely there is more satisfaction in sincerely trying to do something no one has seen/done before? Can you imagine Stefan Sagmeister sitting around 10 years ago looking at ffffound, coming across a shot of someone with type carved into their torso and then thinking ‘brilliant, that’s what I’ll do.’

We all want to be innovators. And that’s my fear – that the more time I spend sifting through visual inspiration the less likely I am to create something truly innovative. So why do I keep going back? I guess because it’s immediate, endless and at times visually interesting.

It’s a way to kill time with the promise of an occasional gem. And maybe for some it’s part of the process of looking for a design solution. I love looking for the perfect solution, I just want to make sure I don’t find it on ffffound.