by Michael John McGarrI did a talk to a group of garden design students recently where I spoke about extrospective influence. This is something I truly believe makes me a better designer, and overall, better at the creative process.So what is extrospective influence?For me, it's using any medium of art to gain creative influence, and to spark off a chain of thoughts and ideas, which culminate in a theme or concept, which is then workable into a new client brief.Although I am passionate about garden and landscape design and ecology, I rarely read garden design or landscape magazines