How often do you finally decide to start a project you’ve been meaning to work on only to discover you have absolutely no idea what to do?
I feel like I go through that with every project! What do I do? Research.
There are hundreds of remarkable articles on inspiring websites and Smashing Magazine usually puts together pretty good collections, like 60 Elegant and Visually Appealing Designs. If you’re one a little more for the typography of websites, there are 15 that make the crème de la crème list at I Love Typography.
I keep coming back to this collection of creative business cards from Daily Poetics. There are some very unique and a few bazaar cards in that collection! If you don’t click on any other link be sure to look at those business cards. And do your research on what makes a good business card, too.
You can also use these resources to add a little extra something to a design that isn’t quite there. Examine a design you like and figure out why you like it. Is it the colors? The layout? An extra little line, a fancy bullet point or an interestingly styled date? Adapt those elements to your own designs—you can even do cross-media adaptations! Who says you can’t make your print work have shiny buttons?
And of course, there’s always those awesome Flickr collections! Oh, yes, and Logo Pond, too. Their tagline even says “Identity Inspiration.”
So how do you find inspiration? What galleries do you have saved up in bookmarks or on del.icio.us?
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It’s interesting that you mention the business cards. They are a real challenge: that tiny space in which to sell oneself.
Some great links there. Flickr really is becoming a wonderful source of inspiration.
I have a great cafe full of design and art books, so that’s my main source; other than that, magazines—even an “off-topic” magazine can give me some ideas. In fact, I find that a good idea—rather than keep looking at design magazines and journals.
And thanks for the mention young lady.
Don’t you love some of those business cards? Oh! They’re so wonderful! I agree, Johno, even magazines and other materials that aren’t directly about design still are an inspiration. They are still designed! I just love looking for and collecting new resources for inspiration. It makes me so eager to get to the designing part
And you are most welcome for the link; the mention was well deserved.
Whenever I find an inspirational resource online, I bookmark it in my inspiration folder (under an appropriate subfolder). In the offline world I either take photographs of the things that inspire or keep hard copies of books and magazines and revisit them once in awhile.
Flickr is definitely a great resource.
p.S. Lauren, are you experimenting with the theme’s design? It looks really awkward now - looks like the CSS file is not being fully recognized.
YIKES! No! I didn’t do this! I don’t know what is going on!! Thank you for telling me, Vivien. This is crazy! I’ll look into it right now.
Do you share a lot of your inspiration with us on Inspiration Bit? I really loved that contact juggling that you shared with us last week. That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. I watched a few of brinechild’s other videos and tutorials. It was so facinating!
Phew, somehow my theme got set back to the default. I have no idea how because it was fine on Friday and I’ve been away from my computer most of the weekend. There must have been some type of reset. Weird. Thank you for making me aware of the problem, Vivien. Hopefully we caught it before too many others noticed it :/
huh, glad you were able to fix it quickly. I had to refresh your blog in my browser several times, just to make sure that it’s not my browser issue before notifying you.
Yes, I do share quite a lot of things from my inspiration bookmarks on my blog, that was the main reason I started Inspiration Bit
Glad you liked contact juggling. Am I going to see Lauren’s tricks with the crystal ball on YouTube soon? ;-)
Hehe, I don’t think I would be very good at the contact juggling. I can barely juggle normally, and only 2 balls with one hand (erm, that’s not supposed to sound that way…). But I haven’t done that in a looong time!
haha @ 2 balls
I remember trying to learn juggling with three apples while imitating my mother (she was really good at that). I was about 8-9 y.o. I think I did learn it a bit, but, like you, haven’t tried it in a long time. I guess I better start practicing, if I want to be a role model in juggling for my daughter :-)
A role model in juggling… you make me laugh, Vivien! :D
you just wait until you become a mother, Lauren.
Kids have a very different perspective of the world: my three year old daughter will certainly appreciate and enjoy my juggling skills much more than my web design
Now, when she turns 6 or 7, then it’s a different story, then I’ll have to buy myself a new MacBookPro and give up my current one to her :-)
Thanks for the excellent resources. You can never have too much design inspiration.