This article has been contributed by Julie Petersen.
By deriving inspiration from different people and different sources, one can learn quite a lot. So whether you are a guru or an aspiring designer, these online resources should inspire you to improve on your craft. Enjoy!
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1) Designspiration
Designspiration works more or less like Pinterest, the only difference is that Designspiration does not have the mason jars and the DIY pallet furniture. It focuses on high quality graphic design. Also see Ffffound.
2) WebDesigner News
Highly curated web designer news, delivered to your inbox or on their site.
3) Smashing Magazine
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A great source of design inspiration that provides users with the most recent web design trends & issues.
4) Awwwards.com
Awwwards.com ranks websites in terms of usability, creativity, design and content. If you want to keep tabs with the latest trends in the web design world, this is the website you need.
5) Codrops
The website is ideal for web designers who are looking for fresh ideas that can help them enhance their user interface and UX designs.
6) Pinterest
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With Pinterest, the user can create mood boards with ‘pins’ that can be a huge inspiration to anyone. The user can collect & curate whatever it is that they think can influence their design. Be sure to use their search box.
7) Communication Arts
One of the longtime favorites when it comes to enjoying beauty at its finest, in print. Every year the publication publishes six annuals with curated collections made up of some of the best works in the world in the design, photography and advertising.
8) WhichTestWon
Are you looking for a great resource for a successful A/B tests? Use this resource to get ideas on the kind of changes that you could make to your website, to generate better results. See more conversion tips here.
9) PSFK
Know what trends are going on in the design & advertising world with their handy reports and articles.
10) Squarespace
Besides helping you with your hosting needs, you can also browse the platform to find inspiration from other user’s pages.
11) DeviantART
A pure artwork hub. Whether you are looking for traditional or digital artwork, DeviantART is your ultimate solution. It provides you with an excellent source of inspiration for any of your projects.
12) Dribbble
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An awesome site that allows sharing of ideas & work among the world-wide design community. As a designer, you post snapshots of whatever as you are working on, to show off and inspire others.
13) The Favorite Website Awards
FWA highlights all the amazing, creative and technical web designs out there, on a daily basis.
14) Behance
Behance is a hub for creatives who want to highlight their best work.
15) Muse (no longer up?)
Visit the site to get the best commercial artworks. You also get to meet artists who are responsible for coming up these awesome designs.
16) Myfonts.com Rising Stars Email
MyFonts Rising Stars is a newsletter & archive that showcases their best-selling type families. The web page is ideal for designers who want to stay up to date with some of the latest typeface designs and trends.
17) Web Design Ledger
This blog is a web designer’s website that is written by expert web designers. You can visit the website to get inspirations, tips, tools, tutorials and freebies.
18) Web Designer Depot
Launched in 2010 the blog has continued to inspire web designers from all around the world. The blog covers an array of categories including inspiration, CSS, HTML5 and jQuery among others.
19) Noun project
A site that is dedicated to creating custom icons for web design and a resource for seeing how web designers normally rely information through simple symbols.
20) The Web Designer
This weekly newsletter is for designers that features a number of useful resources in the likes of programs, new code tricks, design patterns and even framework reviews.
21) Patrick McNeil
A UX designer and professor who writes and speaks on a number of design related topics. As a web designer you can get a lot of inspiration and insight the web designing.
22) Designerfix
This blog was specifically designed for graphic and web designers. The blog is normally about inspirations, freebies, tutorials and offering people resources for web designing.
23) Bonus!
Check out these 99 sites all designers must know.
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Julie Petersen is a language tutor and a young blogger. She works as a writing expert and a blog editor at Essaymama writing agency.
These sites are not only useful for deriving inspiration, but also showcasing designers’ own work. Most of these sites either allow you to upload your work, or review your submitted work and post it. Abduzeedo is also a great site for inspiration – sometimes just a random inspiration of the day.
Many pages I already knew, but others do not know.
Thanks for the article!
These pages are definitely inspirational! I am always looking for something new to get my creative juices flowing (I’m a jewelry designer in my spare time).
The nr 1 resource I think is still looking at different things randomly and keeping a swipe-file. There is utility in such platforms but if you are not curious and inspired the best tools won’t help.
Thanks for the list – there were a number of new ones for me. We often use these tools to help clients work through what they like / don’t like so that they can provide more meaningful direction prior to us starting the design process. One of the most effective ways to keep the design process flowing smoothly is to have great direction when you start, and these sorts of tools are essential for that. So thanks!
This is a nice list for inspiration for our web design, thanks for sharing. I think I am going to use it for some websites in the future.
So many websites to choose from!! XD Thanks for the insight I’ll be sure to share these with my fellow graphic designers 🙂
This list is amazing, it will be a valuable asset when building a website. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing! Some great sites here. I love seeing what others are doing and the opportunity to appreciate great design.
This is really a huge resource for the graphic design community! These famous blogs and websites are really useful to get educate the recent trends of graphic designing field..
Thanks!!
How about “The Design Inspiration”?
http://thedesigninspiration.com
i have been following http://mashable.com/2009/03/16/design-inspiration/ up until now. I felt always confused to pick one to do what I do. And The article was a little outdated as well.|
as expected of admin, professional and creative reference!! Great thinking.
Thanks a lot for sharing Awesome resources.
This is just great! Plus the 99 sites designers must know, this is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much. More power!
This is a great list. When ever I get a mental block, no I have more place to look for inspiration to get the creative juices flowing. The noun project looks real cool. I’m a dork when it comes to custom icons.
need to bookmark this. I always forget the websites I visit, no matter the browser history. this comes real in handy in case of downtime or lack of inspiration.
thanks, Julie/ Jacob!
need to bookmark this. I generally overlook the sites I visit, regardless of the program history. this comes genuine in convenient in the event of downtime or absence of motivation.
much obliged, Julie/Jacob!
These All Resources Are Really Awesome
DeviantArt is Good Online resource for design