24 March 2014

Get Inspired! Websites



For this last blog, I’ll briefly talk about three useful websites where you can get inspiration from when you’re creating your projects and designs. Of course there are many others out there, but I feel like these three are ones you should definitely check out.




Number One: Behance

You probably have heard of Behance from your professors or whatnot. For one thing, I think it has a good interface that’s not hard to navigate, so that’s a plus. You can create an account and submit your designs there as well, and if you’re lucky someone browsing through may see your work and ‘appreciate’ it. This ‘appreciate’ thing to me is equivalent of a Facebook ‘like.’ But if you don’t want to create an account you can always just do what most people do and browse through other designers and artists’ works to get inspiration from. It’s not just general graphic design or typography work either, you can find other things like UX stuff too. 



Number Two: DeviantART

This is my favorite website to look through awesome artwork and get inspiration from. DeviantART has a huuuge amount of artwork in their gallery, and they’re distributed into many different categories from photograph, to digital art, traditional art, etc. Although some ‘junk’ or wrongly categorized artwork can be found in there, it doesn’t take from the really amazing ones. You can create an account and share your artwork there as well, and you can also join Groups created by other members; they have groups for almost anything you can imagine so you may find a couple that fit your interests. You can also find tutorials that other deviant members have kindly posted, to help you practice something like ‘lineart,’ shading illustrations, and such. I’m a proud member of this community, and I highly recommend it to others. 

Another cool thing about having an account here is that, if you’re browsing through art and find some great ones, you can ‘favorite’ it and it’ll go into your ‘favorites’ gallery that you can go back to and reference later.



Number Three: Abduzeedo

I’m still exploring this website, but from what I’ve already seen it’s a great website to view artwork. Abduzeedo offers a collection of different art styles, just as the other two do, from photographs to illustrations, logos and so on and you can also create an account if you’d like. They also have tutorials and tips for photoshop, illustrator and some other softwares you might be interested in checking out. If you don’t have anything in particular that you’re looking for as inspiration, I suggest a shortcut: hover your cursor on the ‘collections’ and go to the daily inspiration section; you’ll see the works and designs that the writers and users from the website have chosen.
 

These are just 3 of many that I find to be very solid websites to go to if you’re in need of some inspiration or motivation, especially when you feel stuck or have that ‘artist/designer block’ that I’m sure all of us get from time to time. So if you have time check these websites, and you know just do a quick browse of what they have, I’m sure you’ll find something that catches your eye. Hope you found this blog useful!

4 comments:

  1. I love Behance! One thing that I really like about the website is that you can follow other designers that you like or know and get emails when they post new works.
    I intern for a graphic designer and she showed me the site originally and was telling me that she got offered a freelance job from someone who found her work on that site. How cool would that be to get a job without even trying!

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  2. I have a Behance account! Its really cool I still need to post some of my recent work, just maybe ill get a job without trying haha

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  3. I also love DeviantART. One can truly get lost in a perpetual cycle of never-ending linking. I have to say however that I've never been overly fond of their website. It feels kinda cheap and old. I wouldn't mind getting a shot at redesigning it. As far as functionality it's good, but I just never liked the look or the feel. It's got a great archive and that's what matters but I feel like they could push their look a little more.

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  4. I am familiar with the first two sites. I think that the are both great places to see what is out in the design world now and it is also a fantastic place to pull inspiration.

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