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Hi there, My Name is Alex Buga, I'm from Bucharest Romania, and I am a design-addict - in the good way. I work as a Creative Director at MB Dragan - (True) Interactive Agency.
INSPIRATION FOR THE NON-INSPIRED DESIGNER
The purpose of this article is to make a mini-survey of how you manage your inspiration library. Come on… don’t deny it. We all know you make a screenshot of every cool website you see and archive it somehow.
The question it how your archive it? What makes your method so special ?
For example I use iPhoto to import my screenshots, and then I tag them by different criterias: cool-layout, cool-colors, cool-type, etc.
I also use our agency’s Flickr pro account to import the photos there in a private set that only family can access. We then added all the team members’ accounts as family members to allow them to view all the goodies. Actually I came up with this idea, and I’m the only one using it. But it’s worth it.
How do you, creative designer that you are, archive your inspirational goodies ? Let all the world know about your great method !
13 COMMENTS
Ben Jacob 2008 03 17
I use my EverNote to take screen shots of website+ a small description of the site, Evernote also has the capacity to add my notes to multiple categories and sub categories based on color, Style, Art, Language etc..
And I export the Inspiration category separately to share with my friends. Ah yes the EverNote 3.0 has a capability to sync with web too, I love it, But Private
Adrian | Rubiqube 2008 03 17
I can’t. My blue-prints were in my head. http://www.alexbuga.com/site/images/smileys/smile.gif
You can always find what you need online. There are some many showcase websites / aggregators, that I find it unnecessary to bookmark these things.
Actually, I keep some inspiration bookmarks on del.icio.us, but just stuff that’s still under the radar and not so popular. Once they surface, I usually delete them.
Avasilcai Daniel 2008 03 20
Nu fac screenshot-uri deci nu la orice site, mai cate unu pe ici pe colo dar e interesant ca idee, de obicei le bag in mag.nolia pe categorii. La culori folosesc adobe kuler mai noi dar in general ma uit la paletele de culori de pe color lovers. Mai am si niste carti de grafic design
“logo lounge 3” , “best of broshure design 9” si altele de genul asta , pe care le rasfoiesc din cand in cand
Dan Qwerkie 2008 03 21
Ah the sweet irony!
I found this site whilst browsing cssbeauty.com to get some screenshots of inspirational website design. And behold! - an article on the very subject.
Sweet irony aside, I actually use FastStone Capture to do ‘active window’ PNG screen caps and add keywords in Bridge which is awesome. When I get a new project I can then filter them by style (dark, white, big-images, typographic, 1col, 2col, blog, shop etc etc). Bridges excellent filter and preview functions work really well for this kind of thing.
Woosniff 2008 03 21
I use a site called Design Grabs. It allows you to bookmark sites while you browse (with a bookmarklet) and it automatically grabs a screenshot. You can add a description and tags as well. You can also browse the other members grabs and the most popular grabs. It is pretty handy.
Alex Buga 2008 03 21
@ Dan Qwerkie - It’s the same method that I’m using in iPhoto
@ Woosniff - Great addition to my bookmark list, man ! Thanks !
Sergiu Tauciuc 2008 03 22
Unfortunately, I don’t yet have the habit of seeking inspiration on a regular basis. But maybe with these tips, I’ll get into it.
And since I don’t do it actively, I was also thinking: is there a way for a photo or a design screenshot to be delivered as a wallpaper to my computer every day? Or is there something that comes close to that?
Nathan Beck 2008 03 22
I never thought of actually categorising with screenshots, it seems like a lot of effort!
I actually use the good old fashioned bookmarks toolbar folders on Firefox. Within those folders I just break everything down into different styles - usually based on colour scheme.
There are so many awesome CSS galleries out there - I’ve always been a big fan of CSS Remix but there are plenty. I also buy books with index’s of beautiful websites - eg. “Web Design Index by Content” is an awesome book, now in it’s 3rd year. It’s so useful when I’m looking for new inspiration for a site design. It never leaves my desk!
But maybe some clever developer with too much time on his hands somewhere will develop a nice app or plugin where you can take screenshots, attatch notes and archive them easily and quickly. I know there’s other different solutions out there (like del.icio.us!), so they’ll probs do for now.
Nathan
ps - awsome looking site Alex - you have provided inspiration for my next design!
Ruben de Vries 2008 03 22
I use this thing… it’s called a “folder” or something. No really, it’s a complete mess over here. I tried to add some new folders within the other folder to point out some sort of categories but I’m too lazy to do that. Thanks all, for these inspiring methods to pursue my non-inspiring hunt for inspiration.
Alex Buga 2008 03 24
I use screenshots because sites tend to change over time, and if you suddenly remember you visited a site with a wood background and a green lamp in the header, you will be very disappointed when you see that the designer got another idea and changed the layout.
Bart-Jan Verhoef 2008 03 25
I keep screengrabs in local folders on several computers (home, work, laptop), andI filter those every once in a while after which I upload my fav’s to flickr (http://flickr.com/photos/subdued/sets/72157594400550743/).
Now I’ve got around 1200 screengrabs online, and no decent way to browse through them. So, any tips to do that are very welcome http://www.alexbuga.com/site/images/smileys/wink.gif.
Haiming 2008 04 14
I use SU ,and use my firefox bookmarking first.until my system blow uo.I feel mad…
Polo 2008 03 16
Personally only I use my del.icio.us account with the firefox plugin for bookmark beautifull websites (for my inspiration ^^). It’s very easy to archives with a lot of tags same colors, layout (1, 2 or 3 colums), ... The interest is you can look this with differents computers (work, home, friends, ...) but in compensation you need an internet connection ...
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