These are the five best design inspiration sites on the web:

1. Dribble
2. Behance
3. Abduzeedo
4. Awwwards
5. Pinterest

At Go Fish Digital, we draw inspiration from a lot of different places when designing websites. Being a designer and creating something new every day is challenging. Sometimes, ideas spark instantly. But other times? They can take hours or even days to develop. When this happens, it’s useful to step away from the project for a moment and look to others’ work to find a inspiration.

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1. Dribbble

Dribbble is the best website to find design inspiration.

This site is an online community for designers to showcase their own artwork. Dribbble uses an invite-only membership system, which helps to keep the quality of artwork up. Members are given a handful of invites to freely give out to other designers. This ensures the artwork on the site is from talented designers and not someone who can just use Photoshop.

P.S. Follow me on Dribbble. 

2. Behance

Behance is another online community for designers to showcase their artwork.

What differentiates Behance from Dribbble is that anyone can join and post on the site. This gives Behance a bigger archive of artwork compared to Dribbble. The large assortment of artwork makes finding specific design inspiration much easier.

3. Abduzeedo

Abduzeedo is a design blog filled with inspiration, case studies, tutorials, and much more.

This site is equipped with a “daily inspiration” category on their site, too. It’s curated daily, and includes interesting things/finds/work to spark inspiration.

4. Awwwards 

Awwwards is a professional web design and development competition site.

This is my favorite place to find web design inspiration. Awwwards’ search tool allows you to filter for the exact inspiration you are looking for. Since it is also an award site, you can also see the best work from specific categories. 

5. Pinterest

Pinterest is another great site to find design inspiration and craft tutorials.

I will be honest, I don’t often use Pinterest to find design inspiration. What I do use Pinterest for is to create mood boards. You can create a board for a project and add in multiple images and links to use for inspiration.  

Get Offline

If the ideas are still not flowing, it might be a good time to step away from the computer and look elsewhere for inspiration. Get your mind on something else for a while and come back to your work later. Don’t get discouraged; inspiration can come from anywhere!

A Designer’s 5 Favorite Design Inspiration Sites is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

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There is more detail below, but here is the quick list:

1. Poppins
2. Montserrat
3. Josefin Sans
4. Lora
5. Playfair Display
6. Caveat
7. Oleo Script

Sans Serif Fonts

1. Poppins

Poppins is a recent favorite font for me. This is a great corporate looking font that reminds me a lot of Google’s Product Sans font. Although I tend to use this font most on web design projects, this geometric sans serif works well across all types of media.

2. Montserrat

Montserrat is a bold geometric sans serif font based on the old posters and signs in the Montserrat neighborhood of Buenos Aires. I love using this font for bold headings. I also find that Montserrat is a great substitute to the font Gotham Pro.

3. Josefin Sans

Josefin Sans is another geometric sans serif font with a more vintage feel. This font is my go-to for an elegant, vintage look or if the type just needs to stand out a bit. I especially love using this font in all caps with a thin weight.

Serif Fonts

4. Lora

Lora is definitely my favorite serif for body copy. This font pairs well with almost any sans serif font. This font also looks great on all types of media including print.

5. Playfair Display

Playfair Display is perfect for when I want the type to be a bit more elegant or luxurious. As a display font, this should primarily be used for headings or titles.

Handwritten/ Script Fonts

6. Caveat

Caveat is great for short annotations and body text usage. I very rarely use handwritten fonts, but when I do Caveat is usually my first pick. I find that it pairs well with most fonts.

7. Oleo Script

Oleo Script is a great flowy typeface, with a somewhat vintage look. This font is perfect for headlines and captions. I find that Oleo Script is a better substitute for the font Lobster in most situations.

What’s your favorite Google Font?

Google Fonts is a great free font foundry and full of many uses. Hopefully, you can find great uses for the fonts I have listed above as much as I have. Let me know in the comments what your favorite Google Fonts are!

A Designer’s Top 7 Favorite Google Fonts is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

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1. Corporate Ipsum

For when you need to sell the next big tech product. Corporate Ipsum is full of big techy words like “nanotechnology,” “ROI,” and “cross-platform.”

2. Doggo Ipsum

Do you ever find yourself lurking on reddit.com/r/rarepuppers and want the client to know about your love of doggos? If so Doggo Ipsum is the perfect generator for you! This ipsum generator contains words such as “fluffer,” “bork,” and “smol.”

3. Coffee Ipsum

Do you find yourself in the breakroom making coffee more often then you are at your desk? If so, Coffee Ipsum should pair well with your caffeine addiction. This ipsum generator contains words such as “cappuccino,” “arabica,” and “crema.”

4. Pirate Ipsum

Did you just binge watch all five Pirates of the Caribbean movies this weekend? Then ye’ best commandeer this Pirate Ipsum generator for yer next bounty. This ipsum generator contains words such as “squiffy,” “matey,” and “starboard.“

5. Office Ipsum

You know those hour long meetings that should have been an email? Now you can relive all those meetings using this Office Ipsum generator. This ipsum generator contains words such as “bandwidth,” “deliverables,” and “synergy.”

Have Fun!

A quick Google search can help you find many more unique ipsum generators. Now go have some fun adding some personality and humor to your mockups!

5 Quirky and Useful Lorem Ipsum Generators is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

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1. Bulleted Lists

Problem

Bulleted lists are a great way to summarize your talking points, but often look boring and outdated in slideshows.

Solution

Break up the bulleted list’s text into columns across the page with icons above them. The icons help you quickly communicate the information while also keeping things interesting!

2. Column Text

Problem

Sometimes there is a need for text to be split into two columns on a slide. Although there might not be a lot of text, it can still look like a wall of text to the viewer.

Solution

Use a light grey background and draw two white rectangles to type the text into. You can also add a subtle drop shadow to the rectangles and add images to help separate the columns even more.

3. Screenshots

Problem

Screenshots can often look weird on a slide. If there are multiple screenshots on a slide, it can be daunting trying to keep them organized.

Solution

Place the screenshot(s) onto a picture of the device associated with it. Here is a tool that I use to do exactly that mockuphone.com/#ios. You can also combine web and mobile screenshots to give the slide a more organized look.

4. Multiple Images & Text

Problem

Sometimes you need to use more than one image to get your point across. When you start adding in the images, they may be different shapes and sizes, and it makes the slide look like a weird collage.

Solution

Crop or mask the images so they are the same size and arrange them in a grid-like fashion to either the right or left side.

5. Tables

Problem

The default table styles are often way too wild and can be distracting.

Solution

I personally like to keep my tables as simple and minimal as possible. I do this by removing any outlines, gradients, and drop shadows. I then use a simple bright colored header row with alternating light grey rows to help differentiate the contents of the table.

Conclusion

Hopefully by following these tips you can create a beautiful slide presentation. If you need further design help be sure to check out my posts on selecting colors and fonts.

A Designer’s 5 Basic Tips to Improving your PowerPoint Slides is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

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1. Flat UI Colors

Flat UI Colors is a great tool if you are looking for a quick color to use.

There are 14 palettes to choose from, 13 of which are based on various countries’ preferences. The palettes each have light and dark versions of each color. When you’re ready to use a color, simply double-click on it to automatically copy its hex value.

2. Coolors

Coolors is great for randomly generating color palettes.

Simply press the spacebar to generate new colors. You can even adjust the hue, saturation, and brightness of each color to further refine the palette. The tool also allows you to easily export the colors in numerous ways.

3. Adobe Capture CC app

Adobe Capture is perfect for capturing colors from the outside world.

This app uses the camera on your device to create color palettes. Simply aim your phone at the colors you want to sample and press the shutter button to capture them. You can then make any adjustments to the colors and send the swatches to your CC library. The app is available for iOS and Android devices.

4. Chroma.js Color Scale Helper

Chroma.js Color Scale Helper is my personal holy grail color tool.

This tool allows you to easily create multi-hue scales. You can input hex values and then adjust the step count to create a perfect gradient between the colors. I mainly use this tool whenever I need a specific amount of varying colors for maps or charts.

5. Photoshop Polygonal Tip

Did you know that you can use photoshop to create color schemes from photos?

Say for instance you like the colors in a sunset photo. Open that photo in photoshop and go to Filter/Pixelate/ Crystallize, then adjust the slider to 180. This will create a polygonal pattern, which you can use to sample the colors using the eyedropper tool.

Creating color palettes can seem daunting at first, but with the right tools at your disposal, you can find the best colors for your design. What are your favorite tools to use? Let me know down in the comments!

A Designer’s Top 5 Color Tools is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

Being a frugal graphic designer by nature, I am always on the hunt for good open-source and/or free tools and utilities. So although I can’t give everyone a free car over the internet, I can share my list of favorite free design tools. What follows are my top free stock photo sites, templates, fonts, and extensions I love and use on a daily basis.

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PS – As a bonus, I also included a couple free photoshop actions that I created!

Free Stock Photos

1. Pexels

Pexels is always the first place I look when I need to use a stock photo. A big problem I have with stock photos is that many of them are way too cheesy. Pexels’ photos, however, have a very realistic quality to them, and are completely royalty free and do not require an account, credits, or attribution.

2. Unsplash

Unsplash is very similar to Pexels. Unsplash’s photos are high resolution and all around beautiful. The photos on Unsplash are also royalty free and do not require an account, credits, or attribution.

Free Templates

3. Visage

Visage makes it easy for anyone to create beautiful visual content. Visage is my go-to tool for creating infographics and charts. The ability to add your brand’s style to keep it consistent is what makes the graphs you can create with Visage so great.

4. Adobe Spark

Adobe Spark is another great tool that allows anyone to create social graphics. You start with entering in the text and choosing a graphic size. Then you have the ability to spin a wheel that randomly changes the design until you like it.

Free Fonts

5. Google Fonts

Google Fonts has a great catalog of free and open sourced fonts. This means you can use any of the fonts however you please, and not have to worry about the licensing. My favorite Google fonts are Montserrat, Lato, Raleway, and Cabin.

6. Font Squirrel

Font Squirrel is also a great database for free commercial-use fonts, and they even has a tool to help identify fonts. My favorite Font Squirrel fonts are Bebas Neue, Nexa Rust, and Caviar Dreams.

Free Chrome Extensions

7. WhatFont

WhatFont is my favorite chrome extension for graphic design. WhatFont allows you to hover over a font on a website and instantly find out what the font is. It also can give you some useful information such as the font size, weight, line height, and color.

3 Bonus Free Photoshop Actions

Photoshop actions are like filters that you can apply to your photos in Photoshop. Using actions allows you to save time and quickly add cool pre-defined effects to the photo.

Chicago Photoshop Action

This Chicago action adds a nice cinematic “teal and orange” look to your photo. It also adds a slight matted contrast. Perfect for photos in the city!

Hawaii Photoshop Action

This Hawaii action adds a cross process look to the photo. It also sharpens and adds a nice matted contrast. Perfect for landscape photos!

OBX Photoshop Action

This OBX action adds a turquoise summer haze look to the photo. It  also brightens the photo and reduces some of the contrast. Perfect for photos at the beach!

Download the Actions!

There you have it, my favorite free design tools and utilities. I hope they can benefit your design needs as much as they have benefited mine!

7 Free Design Tools to Create Impressive Graphics is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.