The world of a designer is vast, ever-changing, and forever growing as technology and creativity evolve. Most designers struggle daily to find the balance between inspiration, their creative ideas, and what clients want. The latter is one of the key factors of a designer’s life, as that is what affords us the opportunity to do what we love while still paying the bills.
Success in the design field can be broken down into three simple yet effective steps: Be Inspired, Learn, and Showcase & Profit! This is, of course, is much easier said than done, but time and dedication will definitely pay off in this case. With that, here are nine sites to help you be inspired, refine your techniques, and continue to thrive in the ever-changing world of design!
Be Inspired
Creattica
http://creattica.com/
Creattica is a design and inspiration gallery that showcases submitted work from designers around the globe. This site includes inspirational designs and free templates in various fields including HTML/CSS Designs, Icon Design, Photography, and Advertising. The submissions are easy to browse and search, allowing visitors tons of time to take in the amazing works and even download free templates and icons. This is also a great and free way to show off your creations and direct clients to your site.
Artician
http://www.artician.com
Artician is an art and design community and network for creative professionals to easily manage and showcase their work. The site allows individuals to create a free online portfolio that can be shared throughout the web via social networks and various other tools. Artician allows you to follow and connect with your favorite designers, photographers, and other creative artists via their huge community. There are lots of discussion boards, tutorials, and more to keep site visitors coming back for inspiration and information, while allowing artists to showcase their work and eventually gain clients.
Behance
http://www.behance.net
Behance is one of the leading platforms for creative professionals to showcase and manage their online presence. The Behance Network allows creative artists to manage and share their portfolios via a variety of social sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The site is used by industry leaders to display their creations in a clean and professional manner, and large companies regularly look for talent via the joblist. This makes it one of the best ways to get your work seen by corporations such as Nike, Microsoft, MTV, and Amazon.
Learn
PSDTuts
http://psd.tutsplus.com/
Psdtuts+ is a Photoshop blog showcasing some of the most well-detailed tutorials on the web. This is, by far, one of the best sites for learning and honing your Photoshop skills and being inspired by other artists’ work. The Tuts sites’ community is vast and ever-growing so there is always someone out there to help. The tutorials are always well written, detailed, and cover various tips and techniques. Designers can submitt their own tutorials to the site to gain recognition and get paid at the same time.
Smashing Magazine
http://www.smashingmagazine.com
Smashing Magazine delivers useful and innovative information to Web designers and developers using an almost unimaginable amount of articles, tutorials, best practices, and techniques from a variety of development and design areas. The site also houses a directory, access to published books, and an updated job board with listings for full-time and freelance positions in design, development, and other areas.
Abduzeedo
http://abduzeedo.com/tutorials
Abduzeedo features design inspiration and tutorials, and was created by Brazilian designer, Fabio Sasso. The collection includes detailed Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, and other design software tutorials. Abduzeedo also has tons of inspirational posts to browse through and interviews with amazing designers from across the globe.
Showcase & Profit
Themeforest
http://themeforest.net/
Themeforest is the largest marketplace for website templates, WordPress, eCommerce themes, and more. Creative artists and professionals can easily upload and showcase their work on the site, allowing visitors to purchase and download with a simple click of the mouse. This well-known, highly visited site makes it one of the best ways to profit from your designs and creative work. You can also check out their other marketplaces to sell different file types such as audio, video, photography, 3D, and more.
Authentic Jobs
http://www.authenticjobs.com/
Authentic Jobs is one of the leading employment sites for creative professionals to connect with small and large scale companies on the web. Individuals can find tons of full-time, part-time, and freelance opportunities for a variety of positions ranging from internships to senior level creative and development roles.
99Designs
http://99designs.com/designers
99designs is a leading marketplace for showcasing creative work and building a client base. The process is simple: clients post a project description, launch a contest, and designers create and submit their work based on this description. Clients then choose the best submissions, allow the designers to tweak their work, select a winner, and pay for the project! Designers can quickly gain clients by constantly providing great work and gathering excellent feedback.
