Inspiration is a key element in keeping ahead of the curve, especially when it comes to design. If you are a graphic or web designer, or if design is simply one of your hobbies as it should be, then finding interesting sources for content and inspiration to include in almost all this topics : art/illustration/concept creators/data/tools/trending news tips&tricks— can help get fresh updated ideas on the moment. You can subscribe to these platforms at a nominal fee, and be in touch with the fresh ideas as well as trends of design thinking, tools and techniques.
In this article, we will discuss some of the best websites to get creative inspiration for your design. They are full of resources, examples and community-driven content you can use to level-up your work and help kick yourself in the bootay when revisiting design practice.
1. Behance: A Hub for Creative Portfolios
Another major platform for creatives to show off their portfolios is Behance, a company owned by Adobe. A great source for anyone looking to spark new ideas, It includes a number of projects in graphic design, web design illustration photography and more.
If you browse Behance today, all the portfolios from everyone around the world give more insights on new design trends and fresh ideas implemented into their projects. You can filter by creative field, tool and even color schemes making it easier to find exactly the inspiration that you are in need of for your projects.
Behance also includes curated galleries for you to browse through projects handpicked by the Behance team, focusing on notable design work. It makes me follow more creatives, I comment and appreciate other works or creativity along the way to make a lot of sense that even before using Behance only for reference becomes also a networking tool.
Why Behance Inspires Design:
Multitude of creative fields and projects
Filters and Advanced Search Options
Galleries & Community
2. Dribbble: Showcasing Design Snippets
Dribbble Dribble is another must-use platform for designers with a preference towards UI/UX design, branding and digital art. Whereas Behance offers complete projects, Dribbble is centered around “shots”: essentially a snapshot or excerpt of works in progress.
This format makes Dribbble an amazing place to browse quickly for some inspiration, or see how others are working their way through certain design problems. The community on the platform is pretty large, many designers will publish their works and get feedback from other users as well work togetherisons.
The dangler: Dribbble also has a job board which links designers to prospective clients and employers on the hunt for talent. Dribbble is a great community to inspire design, whether in active interaction or passive critique creativity through constant display.
Why Dribbble Inspires Design:
Emphasise design snippets & ongoing projects
Designers giving feedback to your work
Places to network/get freelance work.
3. Pinterest: A Visual Discovery Engine
Although the majority of Pinterest is dedicated to DIY projects, recipes and home decor ideas, it can be an invaluable resource for designers looking for inspiration. Pinterest is a visual discovery engine where you can create boards of images, infographics and tutorials that brings your thoughts in an organized manner and easy to remember.
Pinterest is appealing as one of the ways it continues to benefit users in its algorithm which continuously recommends similar content pertaining your pins and searches. What this means is that the more you use Pinterest to find design ideas, the better tuned your feed will be.
No matter if you are looking for color palettes, typography inspirations or layout ideas, Pinterest with its algorithm can be diverse in design — not just UI but also UX. Another benefit is that you can follow other users or boards which makes it easy to find new cool stuff.
Pinterest on how it drives design:
Content suggestions personalized to your preferences
Perfect way to keep your design ideas all organized and together.
Plenty of Tutorials and Design Related Posts
4. Awwwards: Celebrating the Best in Web Design
Awwwards is quality and elite webdesign platform recognizing the talent and effort of the best web designers, developers. This one’s for all of you wanting to start designing websites. Awwwards is a daily collection of the best sites on internet, rated and aproved by its users (all Awwards judges) in 2018 based on design creativity usability content.
As shown here, all the websites in this gallery are peer reviewed and discussed at a length by trusted field sources respectively. In addition to that, there is an award competition each year where the finest websites are awarded and recognized according to multiple categories like web designers seem fun.
In addition to being a source of visual inspiration, Awwwards shares other resources such as articles and interviews designed around the newest trends in web design.
Why Awwwards Inspires Design:
Examples of Award Winning Web Design Done Right
User reviews and expert feedback on every program
Articles, Interviews and Cases
5. Designspiration: A Curated Collection of Design Ideas
Designspiration Designspirations is a hub for inspiring designs around world, it works as an arena that offers high quality of design feed across all differing disciplines. You can enter the site and search & save designs for your future reference, by creating inspiration boards.
The best feature of Designspiration is that it has a minimalistic user interface (UI) and does not compromise with the quality, doing better with good few. This means that each piece of content you find has been curated, which covers every aspect from graphic designs to typography or even architecture!
It includes a searches by keywords, colors or categories and all you need is to type what are you searching for. There is also a section in the site “Hot” which can be your inspiration to discern what is going on right now with design and creativity.
How Designspiration Inspires Design
Handpicked design inspiration from the best designs.
Intuitive Interface with user-friendly navigation.
Drive Search by Keyword, Color & Category
6. Abduzeedo: A Design Blog with Daily Inspiration
Abduzeedo Anywhere you might call it the design blog since 2006. Created by Brazilian designer Fabio Sasso, this site has a daily array of thought-provoking articles discussing everything you can think up related to design — such as graphic, photography and UX/UI.
One excellent feature of Abduzeedo is how it shares and showcases the stories behind successful design. The blog provides interviews and behind-the-scenes looks that offer a lot of information about how designers approach their work, so it can be very educational as well.
The “Daily Inspiration” series on Abduzeedo features a collection of the most inspirational design work from them web, all hand-picked by their team. It is a great way to be inspired and anyone can join it anywhere into this series.
How Abduzeedo Inspires Design
Creative Process & Behind-the-Scenes
Curated inspiration from the design community every day.
Suites many design disciplines (including mine)
7. Creative Boom: A Platform for Emerging Designers
For those of you who may not be familiar with them, Creative Boom is an online magazine that champions creativity in all its forms — they love to feature new and exciting up-and-comers especially. There are interviews, features and resources on a vast array of content from graphic design to illustration to photography.
Creative Boom is famous for its deep dive articles that uncover the background of creative work, leaving you with a better sense about what inspires designers and how they think. In this way, the site also serves as a platform for emerging designers which is perfect to spot new faces and creativity.
It also gives creatives some practical guidance and tips, so it is not limited to only inspiration.
How Creative Boom Drives Design Inspiration:
Highlight emerging designers and new talent.
Backstories on creative projects
Expert tips for growing as a professional
8. Swiss Miss: A Design Blog with a Personal Touch
Swiss Miss, the design blog of Swiss designer based in New York Tina Roth Eisenberg. The blog is famous for its person-first attitude towards design inspiration; discussing topics as varied as typography & branding to art, tech.
Swiss Miss is unique in that it explores the idea of design and everyday life crossing paths. Tina is always writing about her own personal expereiences, favourite products and inspirating quotes — it feels more like a discussion over coffee with all your creative friends than a typical design resource.
From innovative design projects to creative tools and apps, this blog offers a broad swath of inspiration for the designer that wants them some fresh ideas.
Swissly Miss: How Swiss Design Inspires
Design inspiration that is personal and eclectic.
Design and Daily Life
Hand-picked to cover a broad range of creative disciplines.
9. Smashing Magazine: A Resource for Web Designers and Developers
If you are a web developer or designer, you might know Smashing Magazine already. It is one of the best websites providing high-quality articles, tutorials and eBooks regarding topics such as UX design, front-end development & typography. Although the platform is most certainly educational based, if you are seeking out some motivational inspiration to better your design skills then this should be well worth checking out.
In its “Showcase” section, you can browse web design examples gained from the best designs found worldwide. These showcases are not only inspirational, but also informative as they include a lot of detailed insights into their design process.
Not only inspiration, Smashing Magazine also provides practical resources such as design patterns or coding tips and downloadable assets that makes this journal a perfect rug for both learning and creating!
What Smashing Magazine Can Teach Us About Design
Wide range of design and development topics
Examples of outstanding design in a showcase section.
Learning and building resources
10. Instagram: A Visual Playground for Designers
Though less of a design resource in the traditional sense, Instagram is now one my most powerful tools when searching for inspiration. It has a visual platform so it really is an artboard where you can find out new Design trends, follow the best of designers and showcase your own work too.
Instagram is a popular platform for designers to show-off their portfolios, display elements of there creative process and generally connect with the community. The layout of the Explore page on its own is golden… and let us not forget about the power of hashtags — search for logo design, branding or packaging inspiration, interior decoration concepts; whatever you desire.
Instagram’s Stories and Reels features allow designers to take us behind the scenes with their work, giving a more personal and interactive experience in inspiring design.
How Instagram Influences Design:
- Best for Inspirational design discovery and sharing platform.
- Share to your explore page and use hashtags for discovery.
- Meanwhile, interactive features like Stories and Reels provide us with a look behind the scenes.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that in the creative world you have to keep inspired and be inventive if you want to follow everyone out there. Regardless if you are a master or an apprentice in your field, being able to tap into an abundant source of ideas and influences will open up the door for high quality writing that is truly yours.
The five websites in this article, from community-driven platforms like Behance and Dribbble to curated collections on Designspiration and industry resources such as Awwwards are indispensable for all designers. Without a doubt, these online communities go beyond sharing the most cutting-edge trends and techniques for knitting practice; they are also an opportunity to connect with other knitters, collaborate on common projects as well as create innumerable opportunities for professional growth.
As you surf these sites you will see each has something different to offer. Behance: you can see a lot wide variety of portfolios in your field to know what is possible (Dribbble — only design snippets): will give ideas which add-on questions if you are working on something already. Top websites that creatives use for collecting their web-design inspiration:Pinterest — Pinterest is a visual discovery engine perfectly built to help you organize and add on your creative library of inspirational images.Awwwards — Offers the best selection of awarded sites, expert reviews, insights into digital design trends.
With sites like Abduzeedo and Creative Boom — you get your dose of visual inspiration, but also diving deep into their articles, interviews and tips adds an extra dimension to the design journey. Some of these resources necessarily come through in the way successful design projects, following certain thought processes and methodologies to provide a structure that links creativity.
While blogs such as Swiss Miss and larger educational platforms like Smashing Magazine are a great mix of personal touch first, but professional knowledge too — perfect for designers who want to stay informed yet inspired. Instagram as well has become a big contributor to the designers who get way to build up their portfolio, connect with others alike and learn in real-time about what is trending.
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