Design Essentials To Help Kickstart Your Next Creative Process
In my last post, I talked about my process of designing the Holus logo from concept to sketches and how the final logo came to be. A large part of that process is dependant on research, inspiration and using the right sets of tools and resources to help you translate your ideas into visuals. As a designer, I am constantly seeking new resources to help me design better and faster. I love reading about other people’s processes and their design essentials because tools are tools and they’re made to be used one way but what interests me most is how people use a combination of these tools and discover new ways to use them. Today, I’d like to share some of the tools and resources that I’ve been using to help me translate the ideas in my head into the world.
INSPIRATIONS
https://www.pinterest.com / Inspiration for anything you can imagine.
https://www.behance.net / What I love about bechance is that you can showcase your work as well as your work in progress.
http://inspirationhut.net/ / A collection of inspirations from illustrations to design to sculptures.
http://designspiration.net/ / Random collection of images that will tickle your brain and bring out the ideas hidden deep within.
https://usepanda.com/app/#/ / I love Panda. It allows you to visit multiple sites all in the same place. It’s my go to place for quick inspiration.
http://www.awwwards.com/ / Some of the most powerful and well designed websites enter the ring to be judged by credible designers.
http://land-book.com/ / Land book is a great site to get inspirations for one-pagers.
https://design.google.com/ / Great articles and resources.
http://webwithoutwords.com/ / This is something I discovered recently. Its interesting to see websites without its contents and still be able to recognize the layouts.
UX/UI
Three great websites for APP inspiration. Each site has categories that allows you to filter to the screens you’re looking for.
http://www.mobile-patterns.com/ /
http://littlebigdetails.com/ / One of the reasons why I love design is that a lot of time is spent into putting little details that make huge differences. This site showcases some of these details that you might overlook. Take a moment next time you visit a website and see if you can notice a detail that makes a difference.
http://sixux.com/ / 6 Seconds of great interactions in apps and websites.
TYPOGRAPHY
These are just some of the sites I use when dealing with type.
http://fontsinuse.com/ / Great site to see how other designers pair fonts.
http://fontstruct.com/ / You can create your own font, how cool is that?
https://www.google.com/fonts /
RESOURCES
I am sure most of you know these sources already. Great blogs and articles as well as tutorials and resources for download.
http://www.sketchappsources.com/ /
https://www.sketchapp.com/community/ /
http://www.creativebloq.com/ /
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/tag/process/ /
TOOLS
https://www.invisionapp.com/ / Invision has come a long way since they first launched. All the features are designed around the creative and collaborative process.
https://slack.com/ / Sharing files, discussions made easy. Saves a lot of unnecessary meetings.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/whatfont/jabopobgcpjmedljpbcaablpmlmfcogm?hl=en / A chrome plug in that allows you to check the fonts being used in websites.
https://www.typeform.com/ / Well designed forms to create quick surveys etc.
https://color.adobe.com/ When I need inspirations on colour palette
Finally, this is another list of sources that Awwwards has covered which I find quite useful as well. It covers not only design but also usability, documentation, psychology, and trends.
http://www.awwwards.com/ux-design-blog-and-resources-to-follow-religiously.html
What are some of your design essentials?
- Jenny Lam, Interaction Designer