Inspiration doesn't happen in a vacuum. Compelling design solutions depend on novel ideas, and novel ideas grow from time spent exploring and collecting images. But with mounting pressure to do good work at speed, what does efficient inspiration-gathering really look like? What's lost when exploration is sacrificed for efficiency? And how can we tell whether our search was successful—or if we’ve simply been trapped in the algorithm?
We lost sleep over this. Then we got up and put this list together for you: resources for inspiration-gathering, ranked by efficiency.
LEVEL 1: GOING TO THE MALL OF CREATIVE IDEAS
You know these guys. Everybody knows these guys. They’re widely used for a reason—collecting inspiration, fast.
The benefits: They’re easy to parse and curate the most current, most popular ideas. Plus they’re built to support organization and keep your desktop clean.
The drawbacks: They’re a greased chute to being stuck in the algorithm, which can lead you and your fellow designers to consuming and creating similar work. In turn, this can make design feel stale.
Examples:
Pinterest
Instagram
Are.na
LEVEL 2: GOING TO THE ANTIQUE STORE OF CREATIVE IDEAS
It requires deeper digging and a few rabbit holes, but we recommend knowing these guys.
The benefits: They show you things outside of your algorithm and offer historical context while serving up sources of inspiration beyond the usual brand/layout/illustration formats.
The drawbacks: It often takes longer to find project-specific resources (like for moodboards) and since they’re usually run by individuals, you’ll sometimes run into content gaps.
Examples:
Typo/graphic Posters Archive
Cari Institute Index of Aesthetics
The People’s Graphic Design Archive
Public Domain Image Archive
LEVEL 3: GOING TO THE BIG, UNSORTED, KINDA STINKY BUT MOSTLY BEAUTIFUL THRIFT STORE OUTLET BINS OF CREATIVE IDEAS
Don’t let these guys intimidate you. Bring some hand sanitizer and roll up your sleeves, because poking around leads to unexpected discoveries and unique ideas.
The benefits: No algorithms, so the content can reflect hyper-local experiences, niche practices, and perspectives beyond the mainstream.
The drawbacks: Takes time and a creative mind, and you’ll have to manually sort through not-so-useful things to find the good stuff. Not ideal for Big Design Corporations under pressing deadlines and can be limiting in terms of quantity.
Examples:
Local library
Museums (art and otherwise)
Thrift/antique stores
Walks/bike rides
