You can get inspired and get creative ideas from different sources whether online or in daily life. I prefer to explore new things in daily life because spending a long time looking at the screen can limit my thoughts.
There are no right or wrong ways here because everyone has their own ways to get inspiration and ideas. Some people need to refresh their minds by taking a walk and looking around, others can quickly get inspired simply by looking at others’ work online.
In this article, you will find some tips based on my own experience on how to find creative inspiration for graphic design and where to find them.
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5 Ways to Get More Creative
As I briefly mentioned above, it’s very objective to say what the best way is to get creative or find inspiration because our minds don’t work the same. But here are some general tips that should work for anyone who’s looking to get more ideas for the next creative project.
1. Stay open-minded and curious
Don’t think about right or wrong in the creative process. The less you push yourself to think, the better. Ideas often come easier when you have an open mind, and you should take note of your ideas.
When you brainstorm, you shouldn’t think about logic all the time, it’s better to let the ideas flow. In the creative world, I can say that most of the time, normal is boring.
2. Write/sketch out your ideas
When an idea comes to mind, you should definitely write it down in case you don’t remember it later on. And based on my experience, the first ideas are always the ones you’ll end up using. Keeping track of the creative process is so important.
If you don’t have any ideas at the moment or are stuck, start searching for ideas online or in some daily life, and drawing/sketching them out is a good way to “active” your mind.
3. Practice more
The more you create, the more creative you get. I do believe that creativity can be trained. You can “re-do” your projects several times to improve the versions. Make sure to save the versions so that you can see your progress.
A personal tip is that the best work often comes from pieces from each version during your creative process.
4. Study your competitors
Taking a look at your competitors and learning what’s good from their work is a great way to help you improve and get inspiration.
Note: the study doesn’t mean copying! The worst thing you can do as a creative person is to copy someone else’s work! What you can do is learn about the trends and techniques, then create your own version of your design.
5. Try new things
Changing an environment, exploring other cultures, and finding inspiration outside your field can be great ways to get creative inspiration. In short, to get more creative, you should get out of your comfort zone sometimes.
If you’re always working on the same routine and doing what you’re best at, it’s likely that you stay on the same level or get the same results. Based on my experience, when you try new things, it can add a special touch or something unique to your work.
Where to Find Creative Inspiration
You can find design inspiration anywhere, even when you’re just walking on the street or visiting shops! But if you don’t know where to begin, here are some of my favorite places to get design/creative inspiration.
Design Expos/Events
Going to design expos and networking events is my favorite way to get inspiration because I can actually see and sometimes experience design with my eyes. If your time and location permit, I highly recommend you to see/experience designs physically.
As digital artists or other creative careers, most of you already sit in a space to work mostly using your computer or laptop. Going outside to change the environment is a great way to refresh the mind, which helps to get inspiration.
Pinterest is another creative platform to search for ideas. One of my favorite features of Pinterest is Pinterest Lens because you can take a photo of something and directly search for images/ideas of related topics.
Behance
Behance is one of the first platforms I used to explore inspiration. Besides finding ideas and inspiration, it’s a great platform to connect with other creatives as well. You can also use Behance to create a portfolio.
There are so many creative individuals or companies out there on Instagram. You can follow designers or creative professionals to get inspiration. Another way you can use it is by searching for specific hashtags to get more accurate results.
Dribble
Dribbble is a popular platform and community for different types of designers where you can share your work, get feedback, and interact with fellow creatives to get more inspiration. If you find designs that you like, you can save them to your collection for reference, or follow designers with the styles you like to get inspiration.
ChatGPT
You can’t directly use ChatGPT to create images, but you can definitely use it to get new ideas and inspiration. For example, you can search for open-end questions like color choices, ways to get attention, etc.
Final Thoughts
You can find inspiration everywhere. There are different platforms or tools you can use to help but the most important thing is to stay curious, open mind to study, and try new things while keeping your unique style.
About June Escalada