Ice ice baby week #3

Hello my little cats! 

We're enjoying this sublime weather, I'm so glad it's so nice, I was afraid I'd fall flat on my face with our Ice Ice baby or Nice cream week... I had to give you a weather update because the weather has been sublime for almost a week now, and that's no mean feat... My skirts are getting shorter and my blouses are translucent (from the verb translucider). At this rate, I'm likely to be making you a DIY fan very soon... ( Ahah, no, it's not true, remember, and storing up that warmth for this winter is something we'll talk about later...).

Today, in keeping with this week's theme, I'd like to tell you a little about how things work in my head... I wanted to talk to you about inspiration. How a project develops and how it starts... As you'll see, I don't have a miracle recipe, but my two salutes are lists and mood boards...

Lists, because one of my number one professional satisfactions is to get things done, only to cross them off my list later... Happiness isn't very complicated... And mood boards, the craziest thing of all, was when I was at school. There was the internet, of course, but there was no Pinterest, or Tumblr and my searches for visuals were done solely on Flickr, Google images and even in very, very old search engines: BOOKS. Yes, yes, I photocopied everything. Today, I tell myself that if I'd gone to school now, my inspiration boards would have been so much richer and more seductive... 

So why "seductive"? Because at the start of a project, to best defend your ideas, when words fail you or when the ideas are in your head but you can't formulate them... Do it in images. I don't remember who said "a little sketch is better than a long speech"... Well, it's the same for me with mood boards: when I can't express clearly what I have in mind and I have to sell an idea to a client, so that he finds my idea "sexy" and seductive, well, there's nothing more telling than beautiful images.

There have been many times when I've had to explain a project I've had in mind, and it's crystal clear to me, but no one in the audience can see what I'm talking about. And mood boards have been my salvation to stop looking like an enlightened person.

So I don't care if this image is taken from another ad campaign or another photo series. What we're talking about here is inspiration, escapism. You need to feed your neurons so that they can absorb and digest a concept, and then YOUR IDEA will appear. Obviously, we're not looking to copy and paste, but we have to free ourselves from the "we can't do it, it's already been done etc." attitude, because if we start out like that, we're not doing anything. So yes, today this image is very much inspired by the Kinfolk magazine which I love, but it's been "reinterpreted" to serve our purpose this week: Nail art & Ice cream. What's more, I think if you cite your sources in Image at least, if you're transparent in your approach, we can only thank you. 

Photography by Camille de Laurens for Ma Récréation and Make My Lemonade. Flower ice cream inspired by Kinfolk magazine. Vintage Marie Hélène de Taillac ring, gold chain around the wrist and Marie Hélène de Taillac medals, Chic Alors gold bracelet, New Look turquoise bracelet. Nails: Fuji (mauve), Sakura (pink), Frenchie (blue) Kerria (yellow), Caicos (green) by Kure Bazaar. Nail Art: Yumi Toyama and Sophie A. Model: Lili Barbery-Coulon