Best websites for finding creative inspiration for your mood boards.
The hardest part about creating is knowing where to start.
I can’t say that I have ever sat down with a completely clear vision of what the thing I want to design looks like (to the point that I have searched for aphantasia tests far too many times that I can count). This has caused me a lot of anxiety and frustration in the past when I start on a design project. I know the *vibe* and the audience that I am designing for, but I don’t quite know how to show this to my peers, this is where mood boarding comes in handy.
Mood boarding is a great way to get inspiration, show your ideas to others and define a direction to start from when you are creating any project. So I decided to create a list of my favourite websites to source inspiration from, hopefully these websites can help you out too!
Let’s get started:
Pinterest is the best place to start when creating a moodboard. I like to create a board for the project I am working on and add a few images that inspire me to start off. Pinterest is also where I will save all of my inspiration from each website so it is all in one place, which makes it easier to download each image without having heaps of tabs open.
Pinterest save button
Behance is an awesome place to find inspiration, share your work and discover other creatives. I love getting inspiration from Behance because I know I am supporting artists with diverse backgrounds from all around the world, whether they be established artists or students who are just getting started. They also host live streams with some great tutorials and advertise jobs in heaps of different creative fields.
I can’t say I have used Dribbble quite as much as the others in this list, it is very similar to Behance in that there are loads of wicked creatives signed up and a community for sharing your work and getting feedback. Dribble also has a cool section called ‘Dribbble meetups’ where you can host local meetups to socialise and get to know other designers and creatives, talk shop, share resources or even find a mentor or a mentee.
Although awwwards is mainly focused on web design, it’s still a great place to find inspiration, creative assets and have a look at what is trending in the design world. People submit their work to be considered for Awwwards which is a great way to get your art and name out there. They have collections of inspiration and resources to help build your mood boards, as well as job listings and occasionally conferences. They also have a section for ebooks and publications which I love to check out.
While this is another web design based site for people using webflow, I love looking at what people are creating on here and getting ideas that I can bring into my designs. They have free courses which can help introduce you to design principles and the basics of web design and a really cool community that loves to share and help each other out. You can also clone some of the websites if you have webflow and redesign them for your own needs!
Final tip
Compile all of your images together into one final board, print it out and keep it in front of you!
I can’t emphasise enough how helpful this can be when designing so you don’t go too far off track and forget what inspired you in the first place. Put your printed moodboard/s on a wall and write on them exactly what you like about each image, then reuse the things you like to help build whatever you are creating. Remember the famous Pablo Picasso quote “Good artists copy, great artists steal”
And remember to have fun!
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