Sometimes we need a kick in the butt. Other times we just like looking at pretty things — we are, after all, designers.
We are constantly taking in different sources of inspiration, whether it’s the obvious, a new clean menu design at your favorite restaurant, to the more obscure, the architecture in an old downtown square. As artists everything is inspiring. Then there’s Pinterest, which is great if you just want to browse random ideas and concept art (shameless plug for you to check out mine, though). But, it’s also nice to have great resources that compile real work in a great, organized way.
Below are some of my favorite sites for inspiration, for whatever project I’m working on.
From simple one page landing pages to full sites, lapa.ninja is amazingly organized and showcases screenshots that go beyond the typical “fold” — which is the way it should always be. Note: the “fold” is not a real thing, this is not a newspaper, websites are fluid and no screen is the same.
If a fashion magazine was a website it would be httpster. Websites for the those who love white space and believe less-is-more.
When basic websites aren’t enough, there’s Awwwards — the home of interactive experiences.
Part inspiration, part resource downloads, Uplabs is a great mix of everything interactive design. Be sure to check out the Challenges for some cool user-submitted executions to Uplab design challenges — better yet, submit your own design!
Reelizer is a user contributed gallery of movie posters for just about any movie you can think of.
If you love beautiful gradients, you’ll love ColorHue. They’ll even give you a CSS snippet or the whole damn library to download.
Just as it’s name suggests, MaterialUIColors shows you all the colors and shades you need to create Material Design with a handy click-to-copy hex code.
Dribbble is a must for the design community, with members from all over the world and design industry there is no end to this inspiration. Get inspired as a prospect until you get an invite and get your shot! (Hey look! Another chance to plug my personal profile. Crazy!)
This is one of my favorites, Daniel at From Up North is constantly showcasing the coolest in design — no matter what the discipline!
