My Sources of Design Inspiration
I go through spurts all the time. Sometimes I have a billion creative ideas all wanting to explode out of my brain onto a Photoshop canvas. Then there’s other times when I can’t even lay out a simple ad correctly. When those times hit, I turn to a couple things. First of all, for some reason the song Danza Kuduro gets me out of a design rut EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Don’t ask how. It just does and I have no idea why.
I also look to a ton of different places for inspiration. There are some great sites that allow me to scroll through, clear my mind and get a fresh perspective. Here are some of my favorites:
Behance.net — Probably my favorite place. You can customize it by following those you feel do great work and every day it gives you something new. So many talented people showcase their work on there.
DesignInspiration.com — What an original name, right? This site is weird. I like weird, but not too weird. But it’s a good weird. It was shown to me by a student Pen Pal from Ohio State. There’s no real theme to the images showcased but all of them are just so interesting.
Pinterest.com — Search ANYTHING on Pinterest and you’re going to get something interesting to look at. Guaranteed.
Dribbble.com — This one rivals Behance, but there are so many well done pieces on here. I really like to use this for logo and dashboard layout inspiration.
InspirationMobile — This is for mobile interface design. Go here and I’ll see you in like 2 hours. Every single interface featured is mesmerizing.
Unsplash.com — A stock photo website that has some pretty amazing images. You can search or just scroll. But everything is beautiful and done so well.
CreativeMarket.com — Lots of different categories here but you can look up all kinds of things. Textures, themes, presentation layouts, posters, brushes, actions, etc. There are so many good resources here.
OnePageLove.com — As a web designer, this one is really good. Lots of one-page sites to look for inspiration and it’s always being updated.
Awwwards.com — Another website inspiration site, similar to OnePageLove. This one makes me feel real bad about myself though. I don’t know that I’ll ever be good enough to create things that are showcased on here.
Twitter.com — Follow @DesigningSports on Twitter for all the inspiration you need! But no seriously, most of the things I save to my Inspiration folder are from Twitter. There are so many great designers posting their work to the platform. It’s also the best place to connect with others in the industry.
DeviantArt.com — T R O W B A C K. This was the first site I really started posting my work to. Bonus if you can find my old profile on it. But it has a ton of resources and different kinds of artwork on it. Think of it as a poor man’s/old school version of Behance.
Designing Sports Slack Channel — Shameless plug! If you haven’t, make sure you sign up to join our Slack channel here: https://t.co/6J9p6hFSoD. There are so many designers within the community sharing knowledge and artwork. It’s impossible not to be inspired by just clicking around the channel for a bit.
So that’s my list and I’ll be sure to add more if I come across any. Do you have any sites you use that were’t mentioned? Drop them in the comments below and thanks for reading!
