Designers - who's your inspiration?

This morning I became so very excited when I found out that my favourite architect has also designed some rather unique and interesting furniture items. I have no idea why I'd not come across it before and it shows that I need to be doing more and more research. The only problem is that I'm a hands on person rather than a research and reading kind of person. I'd much prefer to build but I realise that without knowledge anything I do make could and most likely will be fundamentally flawed. Fruthermore, I do beleive that in order to take something to a new level you first need to know where it's come from and how it got to be what it is now to truly appreciate what ever it is. This is a process that i've applied (and continue to apply) to my swing dance teaching and exploration of european ballrooming and traditional american blues dancing. It is important to me that something isn't merely misappropriated for the short term gain of a misinformed and uneducated individual and/or group (which has happened unfortuantely in the Australian dancing scene). As such, I vow to do the appropriate research and educate myself as much as possible in order to be a positive contributor to the furniture making industry.