When you’re feeling stuck or drained, it’s hard to be creative on demand. Here are some resources to spark visual inspiration and ideas.
You’ll discover fresh ideas for designing elearning, presentations, job aids, learning portals, and manuals. Here are 21 ways to spark your imagination with visuals. While generating ideas takes work, it’s fulfilling and builds your creative skills. Don’t let AI steal this from you.
What are your favorite creative thinking resources? Please share the tools or methods that inspire you in the Comments so we can all benefit from each other’s creativity.
1. Advertising
Even if you feel overwhelmed by advertising, you may discover that some of the most creative graphic and video designs originate from these sources.
2. AI-Generated Images
If you are inspired by AI-generated graphics, explore a few AI art galleries.
3. Album and CD Covers
Well-designed album covers distill emotion, identity, and story into a single striking image. They’re a rich source of inspiration for bold imagery, typography, and creative composition.
- 100 Obscure and Remarkable CD Covers
- Album Covers from Designspiration
- Best Album Covers and What We Can Learn From Them
- Pinterest Album Cover Pinboards
4. Animation
Use animations intentionally to clarify concepts and boost engagement when motion graphics support learning. They can illustrate complex ideas and capture your audience’s attention.
- 14 Animated Infographics
- Behance Motion Graphics
- Collection of Animation Examples on YouTube
- Dribble Animations
- Vimeo Animation and Motion Graphics
5. Book Cover Designs
You may find inspiration for visual metaphors, typography, composition, and conceptual thinking from book covers. Designers often communicate an entire theme or narrative with a single image.
- 30 Awesome Book Cover Design Ideas
- 50 Eye-catching Book Cover Ideas
- Best Book Covers of the Last Decade
- Book Cover Archive
- Book Cover Design Ideas
6. Children’s Books
Children’s books can inspire playful styles, visual storytelling, and character design. They often demonstrate simplified communication. Children’s books also demonstrate how visuals can support comprehension and imagination.
- Childrens Book Covers
- Children’s Book Cover Projects
- Childrens Books Pinboards
- New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books
- World Illustration Awards for Book Covers
7. Comics
Comics require a surprising level of sophistication. They combine visual storytelling, sequencing, dialogue, and composition. They can inspire narrative, character design, and visual communication. For insight into creating comics, see: Using a Comic Book Style for Learning.
8. Current Trends
Staying current with design trends requires balance. While clients expect a modern look, adopting every trend can date your work. Aim for an approach that suits your audience, content, and organization. Below are several sites to help you discover current design trends.
9. Design Museums
Design museums showcase approaches to typography, industrial design, interaction design, illustration, and visual communication across different periods and cultures. Walking through one, in person or online, may provide just the spark you need.
- Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
- Design Museum Holon
- Design Museum of Denmark
- Die Neue Sammlung
- Museum of Arts and Design
- The Design Museum, London
10. Graphic Design Around the World
Exploring graphic design from different cultures can expand your visual vocabulary and introduce fresh approaches to color, symbolism, typography, and composition. For additional countries or regions, go to Pinterest or Behance and enter your search term.
- African Graphic Design
- African Design Projects
- Asian Graphic Design
- Indian Design Projects
- 25 Japanese Graphic Design Examples
- Japanese Graphic Design
- Latin American Graphic Design
- Mexican Graphic Design
- Middle Eastern Graphic Design
- Middle Eastern Design Projects
- Polynesian Design Projects
- Swiss Modern Graphic Design
- Swiss Style
11. Graphic Design Books
Start a collection of visual design books with lots of examples for inspiration.
- 8 Design Books that Every Creative Person Should Read
- 10 Great Design Books I’ve Never Read
- 30 Design Books You Have to Read
- 45 Best Graphic Design Books
- Graphic Design Books for Inspiration on Amazon
12. Graphic Design Portfolios
Browse designer and artist portfolios at these sites that serve as platforms to showcase creative work and collections. They provide visual inspiration for ways to tackle visual design challenges.
13. Information Graphics and Visualizations
Infographics can concretize abstract concepts and large amounts of data. However, they are not accessible to screen readers so you must provide a text-based alternative, such as a long description, transcript, or HTML version, ensuring all data is conveyed. The following sites provide a variety of ideas for infographics.
- 30 Inspiring Infographics
- 60 New York Times Graphics
- Bloomberg Graphics
- Cool Infographics
- Flowing Data
- Information is Beautiful
- National Geographic Infographics
- Our World in Data
14. Interactive Graphics
If you’d like to experiment with different types of interactions, explore these interactive graphics. They demonstrate ways to engage learners through exploration, feedback, animation, and user control. They also demonstrate creative ways to reveal information progressively.
- AP Interactive News Graphics
- Explorable Explanations
- Google Arts and Culture Experiments
- Interactive Infographics on Pinterest
- Knight Lab Projects
- Minute Labs
- Observable Notebooks
15. Label Design and Packaging
Packaging design is unique because it combines typography, color, and illustration within very tight space constraints. Similar to signage, it’s useful for studying how designers communicate quickly and clearly.
- BP and O
- Lovely Package
- Packaging Design Inspiration
- Packaging of the World Creative
- Wine Label Designs
16. Magazines
Magazines are excellent sources for studying layout, typography, spacing, color palettes, and image treatment. Their editorial designs can inspire ideas for eLearning screens, presentations, and job aids. Also, see this example for using a magazine layout for eLearning.
17. Photography
Browse professional photography sites for inspiration on composition, lighting, mood, color, texture, and storytelling.
- 500px
- British Journal of Photography
- Designspiration: Abstract Photography
- Lens Culture
- National Geographic Photography
- PhotoVogue
- The Eye of Photography
- World Press Photos
18. Poster Design
Posters combine typography, imagery, and layout into a single, attention-grabbing composition. They’re useful for studying hierarchy, focal points, color palettes, and visual storytelling.
- 50 Poster Designs from Canva
- 59 Poster Examples
- 60 Poster Design Ideas
- Hollywood Posters on Pinterest
19. Presentation Slide Decks
Presentation galleries provide excellent examples of slide composition, typography, and the effective use of images and diagrams. They can inspire ideas for both presentations, training, and eLearning designs.
- Bright Carbon
- Design to Present
- Duarte Design
- Envato Templates
- Ethos3
- Nolan Haims Creative
- Speaker Deck
20. Typography
There’s so much to learn about type. Before you use it as a dominant graphical element, check these sites for inspiration. In addition, see What Font Should I Use? for the basics of typography. If you must manage a lot of text, see Designing Text-based Information.
- Awwwards (Typography)
- Designspiration: 3D Typography
- Fonts In Use
- Httpster Typographic
- Siteinspire: Typographic Websites
- Typewolf
- Typographica
- Typographic Posters
21. Wayfinding
Wayfinding guides people through spaces using signs, maps, symbols, and visual cues in environments like airports, campuses, hospitals, and museums. Designers use hierarchy, typography, icons, spatial organization, color coding, and environmental context to help people find their way.
- Applied Wayfinding Projects
- Behance Wayfinding Collection
- City ID
- Mijksenaar
- Pinterest Wayfinding Collection
- RSM Design
Bonus 1: Website Design
Explore website galleries to find creative strategies for learning portals and vertical designs. Notice how designers guide attention and organize information through layout, spacing, and visual hierarchy. They are also good examples for studying interaction and navigation.
Bonus 2: Street Art
On LinkedIn, Jordan Brown suggested finding inspiration from street are in your community. If you’d like to expand that to street art around the world, see the sties below.
Bonus 3: Even More!
Kevin Thorne suggested these ideas:
- Restaurant menus
- Midcentury advertisement
- Architecture
- Nature
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