Design Monthly Vol. 4
I save a bunch of things each month that I find inspiring for some reason, and I like organized lists, so I figured I’ll share those lists and maybe help someone out of a creative block.
But more importantly, I am trying to push an old idea that inspiration is everywhere if you look with the right mindset. Being a product designer does not mean you can’t draw from architecture, graphic design, or type design. It also does not mean you can’t draw ideas and inspiration for your project by reading articles, brand stories, or tweets.
Pro tip: use the cmd + f to search for the inspiration you need faster. For example: “Portfolio inspiration”
1. Bento
Bento is a digital ID, or a personal about me page and is a good inspiration for a few things. First, their approach to design and product is very visible. Every pixel and interaction is thought through and works flawlessly.
Recently acquired by Linktree after being on-air for less than two years, it serves a point that when you are patient enough to wait just a bit more for the idea to mature, you will have an amazing first impression online, and a good first impression sells.
2. Article by Eduardo Hernandez on solving problems
This short article, accompanied by a story with a lesson is a great inspiration for anyone building something or working on digital products. It visualizes that “solving” a problem actually has 3 different paths. Must read in my opinion before the next time you tackle a challenge in your product.
3. NOHEMI font by Rajesh Rajput
Rajesh Rajput regularly adds great fonts for use, and I highly recommend them for the next project. Even his font demo is inspiring 😅
View it here (also, Medium your Behance links paste option is broken…)
https://www.behance.net/gallery/168183377/NOHEMI-Typeface-Free-Variable-9-Styles
4. !Boring software company
This independent studio is creating minimal and well design and developed apps, from weather to habit-forming experiences.
The website is very inspiring in its off-grid approach, and the principles for their work are definitely worth exploring.
5. Orfeo Tagiuri’s work
Orfeo’s practice spans from painting and drawing to performance, film, woodcarving, animation, and music. Beautiful, unique style.
6. ALLd. Design and motion studio
This Japan-based studio that specializes in motion ads and campaigns and has projects with Coca-Cola and Google is the top-of-the-line inspiration for movement, typography in motion, and design overall.
7. Designer Daily Report web-tool
I’m not related to this project in any way, but they seem to capture a lot of design content in a very intuitive way. Give it a try.
8. Frank Gehry — Designer and Architect
One of my design-thinking heroes is Frank Gehry, the architect responsible for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Disney Opera House, and many more. His Mstercalss on design and creativity, and his life-long stories are pure inspiration.
He speaks about generating ideas and the early part of building something as Jass (“you can’t rehearse something you haven’t invented yet”), which is truly liberating to think that a person of his magnitude starts any project just like the rest of us — without any clue of the answers, just passion and confident to find out.
https://www.masterclass.com/classes/frank-gehry-teaches-design-and-architecture
9. History lesson — Apple’s Lisa
The Mac owes a lot to its lesser-known, older sister Lisa. Here’s how the Lisa, while seen as a flop today, used clever interface design to welcome everyone into the personal computer era.
This video is a good inspiration to see how everything is the ‘day 1’ of something else and get some perspective on things that seem so obvious to us now.
10. BB B Studio
This studio is loaded with great inspiration for brand design and storytelling through visuals. Very minimal and clean, which automatically helps drive the message more concisely.
Summing up
If you just scrolled past this list and said “There’s nothing here that helps and ignites creativity”, you need to adjust your curiosity. These links offer hundreds of sub-links, more references, additional work, more inspiration, and resource banks. Scroll back and now really look.
Hope you found this useful, let me know in the comments.
-SH
Bonus:
