Inspiration Station: Moods

There are a number of places I  go on-line when I’m looking for inspiration or to get myself in the mood to create. Some of these places I visit daily; others I turn to when I’m stricken with the “blahs” and need a jolt to get me going. These sites are my secret design weapon that helps me stay connected to what’s hot, what’s trending now, and what might trend in the future. What are places you go looking for colors, palettes, mood boards, ideas, etc?

Pinterest
An interesting concept and community. The idea is that members “pin” pictures of things they love (always including a link to the source of the material) and other members can “re-pin” those pictures. You can look at pinned items by themes, or just take in a bit of everything. It’s diverse, always changing, ever evolving, and really allows you to get a look at what people find sweet, fun, popular, yummy…in short, you cannot fail to be inspired by something you see.

Fave Up
Cutting edge design trends organized into many, many categories.  There’s so much stuff here, you can’t help  spending time browsing. I always keep a notebook handy in case inspiration strikes.

Design Seeds
Color palettes which include the photo that inspired them. No HEX numbers, but you can grab the photo, take it into Photoshop or your graphics editor, and make your own.  Beautiful! And btw, they have a Facebook fan page.

The Color Collective
More color palettes, once again with the photos that inspired them. I like this idea better than just blocks of color for some reason. It’s easier to visualize on a greeting card. No HEX numbers either, but I find most of these sites don’t include that information. However, it’s pretty easy to get once you snap up the image for reference.

WHAT’S YOUR INSPIRATION?