Maintain the "Creative Flame" With 6 Interesting Websites That Designers Cannot Miss

In the ever-changing world of design, maintaining a constant source of inspiration is vital to creating innovative, unique and trendy products. Many designers have probably experienced the feeling of “ running out of ideas ”, when inspiration seems to run out in an instant. At times like these, you will feel pressured, lose confidence and even falter in your work. However, thanks to the development of technology and the Internet, today there are many online resources shared for free, helping designers rekindle their inspiration and find new and unique ideas.

The following article by SaDesign will introduce you to 6 interesting websites , each website not only brings endless inspiration but also provides powerful support tools for the creative process. Let's explore and apply them to your design work whenever the flow of ideas is "frozen"!

1. Inspirational Websites

1.1. Behance

Behance, owned by Adobe, is considered one of the world's leading professional design project sharing platforms. It is a place where designers, photographers, illustrators, and other creative artists can upload and showcase their work to a large audience. With an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, Behance is not only a place to showcase your work but also an endless source of inspiration for those looking for new ideas.

Advantages and how to use Behance

Diverse categories: On Behance, you can easily search by categories such as graphic design, UI/UX, branding, motion graphics, photography and many other art fields. This helps you not only broaden your horizons but also discover design styles that you may not have thought of before.

Search by keyword and topic: Behance’s smart search interface allows you to easily filter and select projects by specific keywords or topics. If you’re looking for ideas for a logo design project, just type in the keyword “logo design” and a series of top-notch projects will appear before your eyes.

1.2. Dribbble

Dribbble is considered an online community dedicated to graphic designers, UI/UX, illustrators and many other creative fields. Unlike Behance with its complete project presentation format, Dribbble often shares “image samples” – short, impressive designs, helping you quickly grasp the latest trends and styles in the industry.

Advantages of Dribbble

Intuitive, easy-to-read interface: With its “shot” format, Dribbble makes it easy to browse through a series of creative works without spending much time. This is a big advantage when you need a quick source of inspiration while you are “stuck”.

Dynamic creative community: Dribbble is a place for designers to interact and exchange, creating an extremely rich learning and knowledge sharing environment. Through this, you not only receive inspiration but also have the opportunity to receive feedback and suggestions from the community.

Latest Design Trends: Many of the designs posted on Dribbble reflect modern trends, from color and layout to animations and user experience. This is a valuable source of information to help you stay updated and not be “outdated” in the design field.

1.3. Pinterest

Pinterest is more than just a photo-sharing social network; it’s also a great way to collect and organize ideas. With its “board” system that allows you to store images by theme, Pinterest makes it easy to build your own library of inspiration for each design project.

Pinterest Highlights

Friendly and easy-to-use interface: You can easily scroll through thousands of images with the “infinite scroll” interface to explore endless creative ideas.

Powerful search capabilities: Just type in keywords like “minimal design”, “modern logo” or “creative typography” and Pinterest will provide you with a rich list of related images. This makes it easy to find a design that matches your original idea.

Smart storage and organization: You can create separate pinboards to categorize ideas by topic or project, making them easy to reference when needed.

Inspiration from everywhere: Not only graphic design, Pinterest also helps you find ideas about interior decoration, lifestyle, fashion... This helps expand your creative vision, thereby applying it to design projects in a more creative way.

1.4. Awwwards

Awwwards is a website that celebrates creative, unique, and groundbreaking web design projects from around the world. Each website is judged on criteria such as creativity, user experience, content, and technology. This gives you an overview of the latest trends and quality standards in the web design industry.

Advantages of Awwwards

Professional review standards: Projects on Awwwards are reviewed by industry experts, giving you peace of mind about the quality and creativity of each design.

Explore modern web design trends: From unique layouts and smooth animations to the use of color and imagery, websites featured on Awwwards are often a beacon of new trends.

Inspiration for real projects: Whether you're working in web design or just need ideas to improve your user interface, Awwwards is a valuable resource for you to learn from and apply to your work.

1.5. Canva Design Inspiration

Canva has long been known as an easy-to-use online design tool for both beginners and design professionals. However, in addition to design features, Canva also provides a rich library of design templates and ideas. This helps you to quickly and effectively reference and get inspiration for your own projects.

Outstanding features of Canva Design Inspiration

Diverse design library: Canva offers thousands of design templates for different fields such as logos, posters, social media posts, infographics, and many other types of publications. You can easily filter and choose the template that best suits your project.

Intuitive and user-friendly interface: With an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface, even non-professionals can create beautiful designs in just minutes.

Integrated powerful editing tools: Not only does Canva provide design templates, it also allows you to customize and edit every detail to create a unique style for your project.

Modern design trends: Canva's templates are constantly updated, ensuring you always have access to the latest design trends, from fonts and colors to creative layouts.

1.6. Adobe Color

Color is always one of the most important elements in any design. A suitable color palette not only creates a sense of harmony but also helps the design product stand out and convey the right message. Adobe Color – an online tool from Adobe – allows you to create and explore unique color palettes that match modern design trends and styles.

Outstanding features of Adobe Color

Create smart color palettes: Adobe Color offers a variety of color palette creation modes such as contrasting, complementary, tetradic, etc. You can easily experiment and adjust to find the perfect color palette for your project.

Explore color trends: This tool also shares suggested color palettes based on current design trends, helping you quickly grasp and apply hot color tones.

Community shared color palettes: On Adobe Color, you can browse color palettes from other designers, learn from, and be inspired by designs that are highly rated in the community.

Integration with other Adobe products: If you use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or other Adobe design tools, syncing color palettes from Adobe Color will save time and improve productivity.

2. Things to Keep in Mind When Exploiting Inspiration from Design Websites

While design idea generation websites offer a number of benefits, they can also have unintended consequences if not used properly. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Avoid Copying Prototype Ideas

Websites often provide ready-made designs with carefully arranged layouts, images, and color palettes. However, if you simply copy these ideas, not only will you lose your own originality, but you will also run into copyright issues. Instead, take inspiration and knowledge from these sources and create your own unique version, expressing your personal style and independent creativity.

Maintain Personal Creativity

While the web offers a wealth of inspiration, relying too much on pre-existing ideas can rob you of your creativity. Shared ideas should only be used as a “launch pad” when you’re really struggling with inspiration or in need of a quick fix. Think of them as a tool, not the only source for creating your product.

Avoid Clutter When Combining Ideas From Multiple Sources

When you’re looking for ideas from different websites, it can be tempting to “patchwork” elements into your design. Mixing styles, colors, and layouts in the wrong way can make your product look messy, disjointed, and inconsistent. So, always make sure that no matter how many sources you draw inspiration from, the final design remains closely aligned with the original brief, creating a harmonious and logical whole.

On the journey of pursuing creativity, there is nothing more valuable than maintaining a rich and constantly updated source of inspiration. The websites that SaDesign has introduced are all reliable “companions” that help you overcome moments of “no idea”, while opening the door to new and unique design trends.