What inspires an interior designer?

I sometimes, as often as I can, write about interior design, art, construction, architecture, and other forms of design, including that which appears in nature. I studied these things on a limited spectrum in college, and my first job after graduation led me to editing a construction magazine. I spent a lot of time talking about design, engineering and buildings with the experts. It was fascinating work that stays with me to this day whenever I see a project I once wrote about in my hometown.

It's a background that led me to admire what I see when I'm out in the world: color, texture, fabrics, woods, metals, renderings, floorplans, glass walls, a building's facade, furniture, and so much more. I often photograph such things, just to have it. You never know when or where or for what a photograph might be useful. Such imagery can inspire new ideas to write about, think about, or file away for another time. Maybe in a previous life I was an artist. I'm a big doodler in this one. Or maybe I was supposed to be a botanist, except I'm lacking that green thumb. So I take photographs of organic things with the right texture or color, and admire them that way. Can any of you relate?

I think it's about being an observer, and that's also part of the BIKE philosophy discussed here. To be aware, I think, is to live, and to live to is observe.

That being said, if you've ever wondered what inspires an interior designer, meet Katja van der Loo, originally from the Netherlands, now living in New Jersey. A public relations consultant sent her link to me today, thinking I might want to write about her. Of course, curious, I clicked. I expected to find her portfolio, which I did. Impressive. But I didn't expect to find photos like these--her inspirations. Are you inspired by anything she's photographed:

_a repeating image?
_an animal in the wild?
_a doorway or entrance, or simply, doors?
_flowers?
_children?
_a home's landscape?
_a building, a very large building, in the distance?
_foreign architecture?
_someone you meet in a faraway land?
_the texture of a flower?
_a family of animals, or maybe their spots?
_sculpture?

If any of these things have ever inspired something within you, what was it? Did you do anything about it? I find that the best inspirational moments lead to an action that will take you some place you might not have discovered otherwise. What are your thoughts about this?

(Photo of the London Plane Tree was taken at Battery Park on Liberty Island, New York City, by Jackie Dishner, April 2010)