Creativebrief recently asked a group of industry leaders where they had found inspiration this summer.
Photo by Chris Smith on Unsplash
I was fairly sure my contribution would sit alongside those penned by cultural mavens inspired by an exhibition in Arles, a concept store in Copenhagen or an obscure Japanese magazine that only ships by canoe.
Alas, that is not me.
I have a four-year-old. I live in a remote village whose cultural highlights are fourteen carved, two-foot walnuts around the village green. So while everyone else has been posting sun-drenched shots from Cannes, I’ve been picking horse shit from my son’s wellies.
My world has become gloriously, ridiculously small.
I’ve found myself fascinated by a fallen bird’s nest: a sturdy structure made from random finds. Yes, rather like David Ogilvy’s description of an idea. The intricate weaving of thousands of sticks, shoots and bits of debris really is a sight to behold.
Or I find myself holding my breath with excitement after discovering an expired bumblebee, then popping it into a jar for Cosmo to show his friends at nursery. These hardest-working legends of nature quite literally make the world go round. And they are so damn beautiful.
Then there’s my new BFF, a robin. I find myself holding out my hand, gazing at its needle-thin legs and wondering what a featherless robin would look like.
The irony is that we often spend an awful lot of time searching for inspiration somewhere else.
We fly further, scroll faster and ask AI to show us what everyone else has already seen. And yet some of the most awe-inspiring, original thinking is right in front of our eyes.
This does not include the bloody walnuts.
Aimee Luther is Managing Director of The Liberty Guild. This piece originally appeared as part of Creativebrief’s summer inspiration round-up August 2026.
