- October 21st, 2008
- Filed under Design, Technology
It’s been a pretty busy time of year in the MIS department, and as you can imagine, we spend most of our days huddled over our computers hitting keys and cursing blue screens of death. In today’s world it’s ever-so-easy to become consumed by your computer and forget about reality.
The crisp autumn breeze and smell of change in the air has always put me in a great mood and provided creative inspiration. If you’re stuck in a rut at your computer, you need to get out and take a stroll through the grounds and park here at the IMA! Your spirits will be lifted in no time, I promise. Of course, if it’s raining you can always come inside and experience the great indoors.
Unfortunately, we don’t all have the option to leave the office and get outside. So I pulled out 10 sites from my del.icio.us bookmarks and put together a list of 10 sites that bring creative inspiration directly to your browser. Here they are in no particular order:
DesignCharts
Weekly top 40 list of website design published every Monday!
Ted
Inspired talks by the worlds greatest thinkers and doers. The page I’ve linked to is a video list of the most inspiring videos.
99 Flickr Groups for Design Inspiration
An excellent big list of Flickr groups for design inspiration.
PingMag
The Tokyo-based magazine about “Design and Making Things”, always features amazing work.
FormFiftyFive
A blog with “Design inspiration from around the world”. Always superb photos and graphics featured on this site.
Kaliber 10000
Kaliber 10000, The Designer’s Lunch Box, has been a long-time favorite of mine for years.
Computerlove
A social platform for creative talent. Lot’s of good stuff here.
Craftzine
Feel like getting crafty? This site makes me want to make things every time!
Web Designer Wall
The design of this site alone is pretty inspiring! Great articles and inspiration for you web designers out there.
Design Meltdown
A site with examples of design elements, trends & problems in web design.
As a Web Designer, I’m always interested to know what inspires people in the creative industry. Nature has always been a major influence on my mood and creativity. But, beyond that, I’m always a sucker for music. Something I started obsessing over lately is the idea of putting a soundtrack together for a particular design. So, depending on what I’m working on, I’ll pick out an album and just set it to repeat and keep it rolling in the background while I work until the project is complete. The theory is that this will help with consistency, but I’ve yet to determine it’s effectiveness.
So tell me, what inspires you?
