Of course, the area of graphic design, one way or another, is related to art, but design in the pure form of art is not. Unlike painting and poetry, the design is not an art for art. Design is not a goal but a means to promote certain goods and services. Therefore, do not depend entirely on the tides of inspiration; the customer will not wait for you.
When we talk about the inspiration for the design, we mean sources of creative ideas or illustrative examples like mockups of successful works that will help us perform a certain task.
Inspiration is the driving force behind the creative career of designers on the planet. Often the flow of creativity and ideas is replaced by emptiness and idle time. Where to get inspiration to the designer, if the project requires an urgent decision?
1. Websites – portfolio
For the development of the designer is very important what he sees every day. We need a visual flow of information, which would form a taste and orientate in modern trends. For this purpose, there are two well-known but no less useful resources: Behance and Dribble.
On the first site, you will find illustrations (like free envelope mockup), branding, web design, and much more. On the second site, you will find mainly user interfaces and illustrations. The main convenience of resources — in forming your own ribbon of what you like. Subscribe to your favorite authors, see a selection of the most popular, and form your own ribbon.
And if you are interested in 3D graphics, you should definitely look through https://cgsociety.org/. Here you will find a dental level of work, a lot of cool concepts for computer games, movies, and fan art.
Not the most obvious, but very useful resource – Pinterest. On it you can find great artboards of leading designers. And it is also an excellent service for the selection of references and ideas: one image will immediately pull dozens of related pictures on the subject.
2. Websites of festivals and contests
In addition to festivals, once a year calling the best works, some contests have moved to the format of daily updates and have become full-fledged information resources.
The main ones – Awwwards and The FWA – publish “Site of the day” every day. The resources work both as catalogs of sites on topics and as collections of projects of designers and studios. Visit the nominee section and enjoy the boldest and most diverse solutions. Or explore collections on topics that interest you.
3. Thematic communities
While portfolio sites and festival sites are more working tools, communities need more to inspire and find ideas.
Muz.li is the current pulse of web design in the collections from InVision. Unlike the usual dribble collections, there are no such twists, and the content is selected manually by the editorial team. Install the application to Chrome and let it be your first screen. By the way, our agency several times, got into the issue of Muz.li, which gave a tangible influx of users in a short time.
On Hudsandguis, you can explore fictional interfaces in the movies. Many of these projects are initially carefully thought out to keep the logic from film to film. Suitable for those who like to pay attention to details.
Designyoutrust is a full-fledged magazine about the most different areas of design.
The most stylish public with beautiful daily minimalistic picture posts is, of course, Designcollector. And a little crazy ELLO updates its ribbon more often and more daring visuals, so they complement each other well.
Of course, most of the information we get from the Internet. But there are so many possibilities to find inspiration around us that we cannot ignore these sources. Look for new ideas in art: visit exhibitions, watch movies, go to theaters. Pay attention to what is around you: nature, architecture, technology. Finally, communicate as much as possible – it is often people who inspire us and reveal our creative abilities. Do not limit yourself in your search and learn to absorb as much as possible. And then your projects will be really strong.
