As book makers, holding a new publication in our hands and breathing in the smell of the (FSC Certified) paper for the first time is one of life’s great pleasures, so we were thrilled to find seven boxes of INSPIRED! The Joy of Street Creativity by Stroud artist and maverick, John Ingledew being unloaded outside the office when we arrived this morning.

We’re keeping it under wraps until 7th November but we promise this joyous playbook of ideas, improvisation and invention is worth waiting for. (Tickets to John’s talk launching INSPIRED! The Joy of Street Creativity can be snapped up here.) Filled with more than a thousand of John’s photographs of imaginative, spontaneous solutions to problems we all encounter every day, from how to keep dry on a bicycle to a myriad of ways to sit down while we’re out and about, INSPIRED! is a visual celebration of everyday ingenuity. 

INSPIRED! is also a manifesto for street creativity that evokes the concept of ‘jugaad’, a South Asian term for a flexible, frugal and unconventional approach to problem solving using scare resources and creative inspiration. As John says, “it is empowering to possess the capability to outwit our poorly designed and badly thought-out world. Much can be learned from these successes – knowledge that can help us find new potential in old objects, better use the resources we have and better design both the things we use and the spaces and places we build.”

You can pre-order INSPIRED! The Joy of Street Creativity  here, or even better join John at his talk on 7th November, 19.30-20:30 at the Trinity Rooms, Field Rd, Stroud GL5 2HZ. We are offering a special 20% discount if you come along and buy a copy. 

We look forward to seeing you there.