Best Graphic Design Inspiration Sites
Are you looking for graphic design ideas? Me too, constantly! As a designer, I believe it’s important to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s current and on-trend. The good news is, there are a plethora of resources online for us designers to get inspiration and collect reference. Read on to see our list.
Behance
The top of the list has to be Behance. Founded in 2005, Behance is the design industry leader for connecting artists with people in their industries. Content from Behance is populated into several categories such as Graphic Design, Illustration, Photography, Motion Design, Architecture, Product Design, Advertising, Fashion, Fine Arts, Game Design, and more.
Behance is so much more than just a collection of art and design inspiration. While you can just browse and soak in design inspiration, Behance is a robust platform that provides a lot of value. It allows artists to create personal portfolios with project structures. Since Adobe acquired Behance in 2012, you can use Adobe Portfolio, which is a personal portfolio creation tool that syncs seamlessly with Behance projects. Adobe Portfolio can only be accessed if you have an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.
Dribbble
Dribble originally started as a place where designers could get feedback on their work. Thus the name, “Dribble”, as-in bouncing ideas off each other. Over the years Dribble has evolved and introduced features such as API integrations, Player Stats, “Pro” which is a paid profile, and eventually a “Playbook” which is a customizable portfolio. Dribble has come so far, where they now have a podcast and in-person designer events/meetups.
Dribble showcases the world’s top designers and creatives in such disciplines as Animation, Branding, Illustration, Print, Product Design, Typography, and Web & Mobile UI Design. Dribble is a great place to get inspiration or get feedback on your own work. You can also curate your profile and showcase your best design work in order to land jobs.
Designspiration
Designspiration is a hub for creativity and inspiration. Also a tool for sharing ideas. You can explore design work based on category, what’s popular, artist name, or even based on color palette. What I like about Designspiration is that you can easily curate the reference material that you enjoy the most.
Using Designspiration is easy and intuitive. First, create an account. Then you will be able to collect and organize what inspires you. It is similar to Pinterest, but with less noise. Designspiration is a highly curated source of endless records of design from all over the world.
AIGA Eye On Design
Published by AIGA, The Professional Association For Design, AIGA Eye On Design can serve as a Graphic Design inspiration site for providing both visual and written content. It features stories about the world’s most exciting designers and the issues they care about. You can browse and read about design. In addition, you can sign up to their newsletter or purchase the Eye On Design Magazine.
Abduzeedo
Abdz, or Abduzeedo, is a design blog founded in 2006. This site is a collection of individual writers who share articles about design, photography, UX, and more. You can browse collections or articles that feature both written and visual content. Abduzeedo also has a tutorial section for learning purposes. If you want to receive weekly updates, you can subscribe to get the ABDZ weekly digest.
What I like most about Abduzeedo, is that each article is highly curated. There’s more than just some imagery. You get a deeper dive into the backstory of each design. Oh, and by the way, Abduzeedo means “abducted” in Portuguese.
Design Week
Design Week is a UK based website that shares design news, views, and inspiration. What started in 1986 as a design magazine, transitioned to a digital-only publication in 2011. Design Week does deeper into the design industry with longer reads, exclusive interviews, opinion pieces, career advice, news, and inspiration.
Design Week keeps you informed, connected, and inspired in different ways. From job boards to annual awards, there’s really something for every designer, no matter what level. You can also sign up for their newsletter and have their editorial team curate content specifically for you.
Creative Boom
Founded in 2009, Creative Boom is a UK based platform dedicated to the creative community. Creative Boom provides inspiration and insight to creatives in a number of ways. They have an online magazine and network that showcases creative work, share recommended tools, and books. In addition, they deliver invaluable tips and perspectives with a mission of bringing the creative community together.
Creative Boom actively engages with the creative community. You can also stay in touch and inspired by Creative Boom via joining their weekly newsletter. They also have The Creative Boom Podcast, hosted by the founder Katy Cowan.
Creative Review
Founded in 1980 as a print magazine, Creative Review is a UK based platform that shares insight and inspiration to the creative community. Their content focuses on various subjects including creative inspiration, insight, process, leadership, advertising, Graphic Design, Photography, Illustration, Film & TV, and Gaming.
You can view their free content online, or subscribe to their digital or print magazine. Subscriptions with Creative Review are compelling. Not only are you joining a global community for creatives, but you also get access to all their online content, including every print magazine ever published in their digital archive, and six print magazines per year.
Adobe Create
Formerly Adobe Inspire, Create is Adobe’s online magazine for creatives. You can go there to check out inspirations and tutorials on Graphic Design, Illustration, Photography, UX Design, Video, and more.
Awwwards
Formerly Adobe Inspire, Create is Adobe’s online magazine for creatives. You can go there to check out inspirations and tutorials on Graphic Design, Illustration, Photography, UX Design, Video, and more.
Pinterest is the global leader for visual discovery. You can find ideas in a number of ways that are easy to use. What’s great about Pinterest for Graphic Design inspiration, is how easily you can save and curate what inspires you. Honestly, for most design projects I work on, Pinterest is frequently used.
Typeroom
Typeroom is an online platform for designers obsessed with typography. You will see outstanding typographic works, inspiring stories, breaking news, and interviews from type designers from around the world. One of their missions is to be a consistent source of typographic inspiration.
The FWA
FWA, (Favourite Website Awards) was established in the year 2000, in England UK. FWA showcases industry-leading innovation in digital design and development. Their content is carefully curated by an international team of over 300 judges, from over 35 countries.
Logo Design Inspiration
Logopond
If you are looking for Graphic Design Inspirations sites specifically about logos, Logopond is an excellent resource. Logopond was established in 2006, and still remains relevant today. Logopond focuses on showcasing identity work from designers of varying abilities all around the world.
Iconography Inspiration
The Noun Project
The Noun Project is undoubtedly the most comprehensive icon collection in the world. This platform showcases work from a community of designers from 120+ countries, with the goal of creating the most extensive collection of iconography bar none. When it comes to iconography reference and inspiration, The Noun Project is the first place to go every time.
Packaging Design Inspiration
Dieline
Established in 2007 by Andrew Gibbs, the Dieline is an unbelievable reverence for packaging design. It’s a highly curated creative platform dedicated to serving the packaging community. The Dieline has evolved from a platform for sharing design innovation and reader-submitted projects to annual awards, packaging design competitions, conferences, and events.
The Dieline now focuses on further building a global community of packaging designers and advocates the packaging industry in order to establish sustainable solutions via creativity and innovation. One thing is for sure, the Dieline is simply the worldwide leader in packaging design inspiration!
Color Palette Inspiration
Adobe Color
Adobe Color allows artists to create and share color themes and inspiration. You can save themes to your Adobe Creative Cloud Libraries, and use them in your favorite desktop and mobile apps, like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Photoshop Sketch.
Coolors
Coolors is a great tool for creating and collecting color palettes. Coolors let you generate perfect matching colors in no time. You can select colors from a photo with their Image Picker and create stunning palettes automatically. My favorite feature is how you can choose colors and lock them while hitting the spacebar to automatically generate other colours that go with your colors of choice.
Color Hunt
Color Hunt is a vast collection of color palettes, created by Gal Shir. Once a small personal site, Color Hunt scaled up and is now being used as a resource for thousands of graphic designers all over the world. Color Hunt features thousands of color schemes for creatives. You can save your favorite palettes, manage your personal collection, and have quick access to the color codes.
Conclusion
As shown above, there’s a lot of great sites out there for inspiration. Likewise, the more ideas you have, the more options you have to solve problems visually. All in all, this is my list of go-to sites for graphic design inspiration. I hope these sites help your design process.