How to Get Inspiration for Your Design

How to Get Inspiration for Your Design Even Professional graphic and web designers can struggle with creativity, learn how to get inspiration for your design.

Finding inspiration for your graphic or web design is one of the most difficult aspects of being a designer. However, designer’s block can be particularly difficult when you are in the midst of commissions or when you are desperately trying to design the perfect website for your business. To ensure that you are able to get constant new ideas and rejuvenate your outlook on your design, here are the top actions that you can take to get inspiration: 

• Learn a New Skill

If you believe that you are not progressing in your design ability, or that you are producing variations of the same work over and over again, you should consider learning a new skill. Learning a new skill can help you to refresh your perspective and give you different tools with which you are able to capture the angle that you are aiming for. For instance, skills such as photography can be extremely useful to designers as they can stop the need for relying on uninspiring stock photos and enable them to be able to take these themselves, capturing the exact image they are looking for. 

• Take a Photo Quiz 

If your website design is looking plain or dull and you are struggling to find the appropriate image that can allow you to refresh the design in question, you should consider taking a picture quiz. Picture quizzes can allow you to take time out of your day to have fun and relax, while also getting your creativity whirring by reminding you of some of the most beautiful and picturesque spots on earth. This can help you to produce new designs that have been inspired by these special places or monuments. 

• Test Your Knowledge

If you are lacking inspiration due to current world events, the best step that you can take to rejuvenate your interest in your art and to revolutionize your ideas is to test your knowledge. By taking an online course or by conducting new research, you will be able to remind yourself of design elements that you have forgotten, or artists and designers that you might be able to get inspiration from in the future.

• Read Design Blogs

One of the best ways that you can get inspiration from other people and top tips that might be able to spur your design techniques to success is by reading design blogs. There are many design blogs that focus on different niches, from photography to graphic design, and each of these can help you to learn new ways of thinking and can give you prompts that can inspire your latest work. Some of the most popular design blogs include Design Weekly and Creative Review, although there are also many others that focus on specialist niches.

• Look at Pinterest or Another Design Website

Luckily, feeling uninspired is a common emotion for designers, and so there is a large assortment of websites available for free that can help you to get back on track. One of the largest of these is Pinterest, which can be used to create and search for mood boards that have been used to inspire everything from interior design to novels. However, there are also many alternatives, including web and graphic design websites that act as social media platforms, such as Dribbble, and Branding, which focuses on the corporate side of design.

You can also get a lot of inspiration from video websites, such as Youtube, which allow professionals and amateurs to upload a range of how-to’s and design inspiration guides on a daily basis. This can allow you to find the skills that you need to succeed, as well as to hear about design techniques that you may never have heard of before. 

• Install New Software

If you believe that you have tried every technique and function of the software that you already own, installing new design software can open up a range of new options for those that are regurgitating the same web layouts and stock photos for every single project. Different software is also perfect for different types of projects, and so you might be able to find technology that has been specially catered towards different design types.

• Get Out into the World

The best way to get inspiration though is to experience the world around you. Whether you are looking for a stunning background photograph or trying to decide on eye-catching colors, the best inspiration can be found in nature and in the experiences that you will have when you are out and about, when a certain image or advert may influence your future work.

• Research Other Designers

If you want to get inspired by the latest design trends and by other people that are currently working within the business, you should consider researching other designers, whether these be contemporary artists or historical revolutionaries in the art world. You should also research the designers that are practicing now by looking at some of the top website and graphic designs on the internet, see what works within these, and allow these to influence your own design.

• Read Books and Magazines

Sometimes, the old school way of doing things is the best, and you can find inspiration as a designer or photographer by reading books and magazines that focus on design. These do not have to be academic, and there are many full-color design magazines and books that are produced on a regular basis, filled with inspiration that you can return to whenever you need to.

• Go to Exhibitions and Events

However, if you want to learn from the best in your industry and stay in the know, you should consider attending exhibitions and events that are run by graphic and web designers, as well as by photographers. This will allow you to hear about the latest trends and influences, as well as to meet other graphic designers that have the potential to become mentors or who may be able to build collaborations with you that can influence your work in the future.

by Chris London of Pixel Productions Inc. The Everything Design Company