5 Online Communities To Help You Find Creative Inspiration

Looking for a little creative inspiration? Start here!

It’s easy to get stressed out when you’re building a new product, and one of the symptoms is tunnelvision. We keep repeating the same things hoping we’ll uncover new solutions. As they say, “It’s hard to read the label when you’re inside the bottle.” Having a creative eye allows you to stand apart from your competition by recognizing and implementing the latest techniques in visual branding.

And fortunately the Internet is chockablock full of creative communities to help you de-stress, refresh and easily tap into a wealth of new ideas. Below are five of my favorite creative communities that will inspire, amaze and help you learn from the most dynamic creative professionals anywhere in the world.

This Brazil-based website has morphed into one of the world’s top destinations for graphic designers, illustrators and visual creatives. Adbuzeedo means “abducted” in Portuguese, and it’s tagline used to be, “Abducted by design.” Spend even a few minutes on the site, and it’s not hard to see why.

The site’s combination of graphic design tutorials, “Daily Inspiration,” free font packs and expert interviews could easily suck up your day–if you let it.

Whether you’re looking for Grand Theft Auto-inspired fan art, or stunning wall paper for your computer monitor, Abduzeedo is the place.

Dribbble showcases the latest trends in logo design, graphic design and illustration, and answers the question, “What are you working on?”

While the Apple iTunes store is a cluttered mess, Dribbble is a fantastic place to admire the technique and elegance of mobile apps you’ll probably never have a reason to download.

Dribble is also searchable by color, by tag and by keyword. Look up a word like “bread,” and I promise you’ll be astounded by how illustrators across the globe creatively interpret one of our most common foods.

Behance allows photographers, illustrators, product designers and industrial engineers to highlight their best work, and to appreciate the work of others.

Behance portfolios also allow users to show their finished work as well as the steps in the design process, and the elements that inspired them.

Behance caught the attention of software maker Adobe, which recently purchased the website and assets for $300 million. Clearly communities of intelligent, creative people are extremely valuable.

Smashing Magazine is the premier online destination for professional web designers. With an emphasis on cutting UX and UI for mobile and desktop web, as well as hands-on walkthroughs of techniques, Smashing Magazine is where to go to see the future appearance of the Internet before it goes mainstream.

Smashing Magazine is also a great place to learn how other creative professionals solve problems in their business, such as when it makes sense to charge clients for submitting a bid.

Motionographer is where you can go to find a curated selection of the world’s top digital filmmakers showcasing their animation, motion graphics and moving image projects. Whether hand-drawn or computer-enhanced, The Motionographer team selects the most inspiring, creative and groundbreaking work, and spotlights the “reels” of top independents and studios.

Whether your job is creative, repetitive or somewhere in between, it’s great to see how other people visualize the world around us. Going back to the well from time to time can improve our mood, stimulate new thoughts, and make us appreciate how big and abundance the world really is.