Take it from me, the creative process can be challenging at the best of times.

Sometimes, ideas spark. Other times it can take hours to come up with your design concept - especially when working with others.

If ideas don’t always come to your mind right away, sometimes taking a break can help and frankly be great for your mental health. Take a short walk or change your work environment. Maybe your brain needs a quick reboot. Or maybe you need a boost of inspiration.

Here’s a list of some of my favourite design inspiration websites you could use for new project ideas, art references, design trends or to simply adore pretty designs.

Pinterest

Pinterest is an image sharing social media service designed to enable the saving and discovery of images, GIFs, and videos in the form of pinboards. No only can you find different design inspiration, but even home deco, recipes, styles, and almost anything you can think of.

I like (and frequently use) Pinterest because of its broad range of content. I have boards for almost anything and find it user friendly enough to keep coming back. Having saved access to all my pins, in different boards makes it easier to come back and find the inspiration as well! Meaning I don’t have to endlessly search my photos.

behance

Behance is another popular social media platform (owned by Adobe) to showcase and discover creative work. You can find designers’ original work and creative processes internationally.

I only recently discovered Behance through my university. I like the idea of being able to also easily share your own work and creative processes behind through the integrative portfolio.

panda

Panda works to bring design websites and other communities together in one place. You can even customise your homepage with your favourite websites, discover the best tools, resources and inspirations.

I like that Panda collates everything into a newsroom so you can see what’s going on with the world of design specific to your individual needs.

site inspire

Site Inspire aims to showcase various website designs for inspiration for web development. You can even search styles, types, and subjects to refine your inspiration.

I like Site Inspire for the search functionality that saves a lot of time, especially when dealing with client briefs

Designinspiration

Designinspiration is similar to Pinterest offering a scrolling feed of design and photography inspiration.

I like it especially when I’m not sure what I’m looking for. I can scroll until something catches my eye.