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How To Find Design Inspiration On Social Media

Graphic DesignInspirationVisual Design

Image credit: unsplash

Launching your design career starts with a great portfolio. You will want to demonstrate to your clients that your talents are of the moment. And for that, you will need to find out where the design bar is currently at.

If you are just starting out in your creative career, you will need a bank of inspirational ideas to draw from. And that’s where social media comes in. Easy to use, free, and full of some of the most inspirational content on the web — social media is where you can go to top up your design swipe file.

 

Set Up Your Inspiration Folder

You have to be organized in order to be inspired. Find a way to collate your social media journeys into online swipe files.

Evernote has a cool bookmarking tool — but there are also some design specific ones like Dragdis.com which can help you create visual mood-boards.

Speaking of mood-boards, Pinterest is the ideal places to collate visuals and typography into themed boards that can be easily shared and discussed with colleagues and clients. Get a Pinterest widget added for your browser; this will allow you to save and organize your favorite links quickly and comprehensively.

 

Get To Know Your Hashtags

Hashtags are essential for design discovery as they help organize social media content. Start looking around for ones that are worth following and tracking.

Sites like Hashtagify are great for searching hashtags and finding related terms to help you narrow, broaden, and generally improve your searches on social media.

Your hashtag collection may be comprised of several different intentions. If you are searching for photography you may be looking for #blackandwhite images, or then more refined details like #bokeh lens effects. Think on both a micro and macro scale.

To keep the flow of designer tips and sources up-to-date, set up Google Alerts for your preferred target keywords in order to get alerts straight to your inbox.

 

Instagram

As arguably the most prominent social network for sharing visual content, Instagram is a leading source of inspiration for creatives. Regardless of the topic and interests you are most drawn to as a designer, you will be able to search and find a host of inspirational accounts to follow.

It’s THE place to be for anyone with an interest in lifestyle photography, so start commenting and engaging with people.

Image credit: unsplash

Developers at Instagram have now enabled users to save posts they like. You can also follow specific lists of hashtags for easy access. Make the use of these new features.

 

Dribble

Going beyond just a collaborative portfolio site of featured design work, Dribble has a great search and upvote system.

This feature turns the platform into more of a social network for inspirational designers. The site is fantastic for those looking to contribute and get feedback on their ideas in a public setting.

Dribble categorizes favorite works as ‘shots’ throughout their site. These ‘shots’ are screenshots of design works that have attracted a lot of engagement through the site. Popular posts give hints to the hot ideas and trends that may prove to be very popular with consumers.

 

Behance

Digital asset building tools (e.g. Adobe) use sharing platforms like Behance to encourage users to share their best examples with other customers. This kind of user-generated content can offer a massive source of inspiration to fellow designers.

Behance has some useful galleries and categories to follow, and setting up your own portfolio takes next to no time at all.

This is a great site for both creative inspiration and professional networking.

 

Little Big Details

You should also be taking note of feature functionalities and how they can be applied to your projects.

One site, Little Big Details is dedicated to collecting examples of great design when it gets down to the ‘nitty gritty’ of what makes a site work well. The posts are set up as screengrabs and a short blast of text describing the feature:

Don’t forget that design isn’t all about colors and bold graphics — it’s about the small things too.

 

Follow Design Influencers

Find interesting designers and industry commentators to follow online. This will allow you to combine design research with some competitor analysis and social networking. You can learn a lot from design influencers — including how and why they have specialized and found their niche.

James Curran from SlimJimStudios.com is a very talented GIF animator and designer whose Twitter and Instagram are fun and engaging to follow.

Matt Willey tweets a lot of interesting design-related content:

Following accounts like Wiley’s will help you get to grips with industry trends and commentary faster.

 

Lastly, Be Inspired By Social Media Itself

As a designer, paying attention to how the biggest websites and apps in the business solve their UI and UX problems makes sense. As well as taking inspiration from other social media users and networks, look to how the big ones like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat have evolved over the years —  and why.

Instagram is a class-act in compact visual design — and more and more ecommerce brands and online store builders are including Instagram-like imagery and layouts as a way to organize and sell products.

Why? Because it’s a super engaging and ultimately familiar layout for the user. Take this lesson on board when creating your own designs — you have a lot to learn from social media.

 

Social media is an essential source for design inspiration, as the medium favors concise messages. Starting a social media design collection will encourage you to begin critically evaluate design as you get on with everyday life. Implement what you have learned and start following and interacting with the design community as you advance further in your design career.

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The Best Places to Find Visual Design Inspiration Online

InspirationVisual Design

A few weeks ago we published The Best Places to Find UX/UI Inspiration Online, the first post in a series where we’re diving into the best places to find creative inspiration across the web. Like we said then, there are a lot of ways to find inspiration online. A. Lot. If you’re just getting started as a designer, it can be downright overwhelming and nearly impossible to focus when there are so many amazing sites showcasing incredible design work just a few clicks away.

This week we’re moving on to Visual Design, another highly in-demand creative skill (if you’re curious about the difference between UX and Visual Design, check out this article). From Branding and Identity to Typography and Color Theory, we’re aggregating the best sources from across the web. Get ready to bookmark!

The Best Visual Design Educational Tools and Services

If you’re just starting to build up your Visual Design skills, here are a few of our favorite platforms for learning the basics of Visual Design. Remember to learn the fundamental concepts that inform the decisions designers make before you try to perfect your technical skills. By focusing on fundamentals first, you’ll progress much more quickly than if you dive headfirst into Photoshop before understanding the basics.

  • Skillshare Design Courses – probably the best known creative education site out there today, Skillshare paved the way for incredibly high quality creative classes from well-known and accomplished professionals.
  • Learn Design the Hard Way – an awesome (and free) design course intended to teach the basics of Visual Design to aspiring creatives. Taught in Sketch, this is an awesome primer for anyone just getting started.
  • Treehouse Design Courses – Most people know Treehouse for their amazing coding classes, but they also have a quickly growing repository of Design classes designed for beginners and intermediate designers.
  • Udemy Design Courses – Similar to Skillshare, Udemy has a huge repository of awesome design courses from big name and independent designers around the world.
  • Brit + Co – Brit + Co is a platform that operates in a similar space to Skillshare, with a strong focus on creative courses for all levels of designers. They have a ton of classes on DIY creative skills, in addition to Visual Design, Lettering, and Illustration.
  • Skillcrush – Skillcrush was started by a few amazing self-taught female developers and designers who wanted to create a platform that provided aspiring creatives with the tools and knowledge they need to build their dream careers.
  • Coursera Design Fundamentals – One of the original online learning platforms, Coursera teaches courses from acclaimed universities around the world.
  • Tuts+ – One of the largest repositories of educational resources and tutorials on the web, they’re especially well known for their coding tutorials, but like Treehouse, also have an excellent collection of Design courses!

The Best Visual Design Blogs and Websites

Next up are some of our favorite Visual Design-focused blogs and sites on the web. Find a few you like and add them to your morning routine. Not only do they feature awesome visual inspiration, but they’re also a great place to find interviews, videos, and more from some of the best known Visual Designers in the world.

  • Smashing Magazine – One of the largest design blogs on the internet, Smashing publishes dozens of articles every week on topics ranging from design trends to interviews with famous designer founders.
  • It’s Nice That – We love It’s Nice That! Always quirky and constantly surprising, the UK-based site publishes all that is unique in the design world, from amazing branding deep dives to profiles of up-and-coming design talent around the world. They also have a new site called Lecture in Progress whose mission is to provide graduating design students with the tools they need to launch their creative careers.
  • Creative Boom – Creative Boom is another UK-based design inspiration site whose mission is to provide inspiration and useful tips and resources for people trying to build creative careers.
  • Onextrapixel – Onextrapixel focuses on providing resources to make the jobs of designers and web developers just a bit simpler.
  • Speckyboy – Another amazing resources full of interviews, tips, collections, and tutorials for designers at every level of their career.
  • Beautiful Pixels – A site focused on showcasing the best User Interface work being created around the world. A must visit for any visual designer trying to expand their expertise!
  • Creative Bloq – An incredibly active design site that publishes dozens of articles every week about Graphic Design, Web Design, Typography, and everything else design-related!
  • Booooooom – Focused on showcasing truly unique and downright wild design work, Booooooom is a great place to go to be reminded of just how diverse the creative world is.
  • Abduzeedo – What list is complete without the versatile Abduzeedo, an amazing collection of inspirational work from designers, illustrators, and artists in every facet of the creative world.

 

The Best Logo, Branding, and Advertising Inspiration

If you want to be a well-rounded Visual Designer, you’ll need a strong understanding of branding and identity design. Understanding what makes a strong visual brand is crucial to excelling in Visual Design, so we’ve pulled together a few of our favorite sites that showcase the most exciting branding and identity design from companies in every industry imaginable.

  • Brand New – If you’re looking for inspiration for your newest logo or branding project, look no further than Brand New. An incredible showcase site featuring examples of some of the coolest and most unique branding work being done today.
  • For Print Only – Similarly, if you’re working on a print design project, this site will be your new best friend. Showcasing amazing posters, business cards, and more, For Print Only features only the best of the print design world.
  • Ad Collector – Take one quick look at this site featuring the most original work being done in advertising and you’ll be left wondering why most of the ads you see online and on TV are so mediocre. Rest assured – there is a ton of inspiring work being done in advertising, and this site is your best bet to stay on top of it.
  • Identity Designed – Rather than just showcasing tons of great branding design, Identity Designed does deep dives into some of the most interesting branding being done around the world.
  • Logo Design Love – another great aggregator of beautiful logo work on the web and in print.

 

The Best Lettering, Color, and Typography Inspiration

It might seem obvious, but understanding the value of lettering and typography in Visual Design is a crucial skill for any Visual Designer. Here are a few of the best sources of Lettering and Typography inspiration on the web.

  • Typographic Posters – You might not be familiar with the concept of typographic posters, but take a quick look at this site and you’ll never be the same. Typographic Posters keeps its focus very specific, showcasing the most interesting typography-based poster design submitted by members worldwide.
  • Typewolf – If you’re interested in deepening your knowledge of the vast variety of typefaces that have been created, look no further than Typewolf. They curate resources on typography and mix them with recommendations and lists of the best fonts for any situation.
  • Typeverything – Anything and everything related to typography and fonts. From tutorials to interviews to lists, they’ve got it all!
  • Paletton – A bit unlike the rest of the sites on this list, Paletton is an incredibly versatile tool that lets you create amazing color palettes for any project.

The Best Visual Design Inspiration Aggregators

One of the easiest ways to get inspired is by checking out some amazing design aggregation tools. These sites pull in work from designers around the world and ensure that you’ll never have a lack of visual inspiration when working on a new project.

  • Designspiration – A simple and beautiful stream of design work from artists around the world. With amazing work ranging from typography to logo design to illustration, Designspiration is a must visit when seeking inspiration.
  • The Design Blog – a site that showcases a curated selection of the best design and branding work from individuals and studios around the world. They also love featuring young designers so keep them in mind if you’re hoping to have your work showcased!
  • The Best Designs – This site curates a daily list of unique websites from all corners of the internet. They also showcase not just designs, but designer and workspaces as well.
  • Niice – Ever wanted a tool to easily create a moodboard for a client or project? Well, Niice is the solution! Generate moodboards based on keywords, colors, or vibes.
  • Behance – Not much to say about Behance – if you’re a designer, you’ve definitely heard of them.
  • Dribbble – Same thing with Dribbble. Find jobs, post your work, engage with others, and more.
  • Template.net – Never run out of templates for your SME business enterprises! When you have limited time and money to run a successful work, creating templates on your own may cost you a lot. At Template.net you don’t have to worry about your work requirement because it provides you free ready-made templates for the successful running of your work.

And finally, some amazing Visual Designers to follow on social media…

Finally, here are a few lists of some of the most exciting designers to follow on social media. If you’re just getting started in design, it’s important to start engaging with designers you like and trying to understand what motivates and influences them. Following some of your favorite designers on social media is a great way to become a part of an active community of creatives online!

So there you go – dozens of amazing sources of creative inspiration to get you through any creative challenge that’s thrown at you! Our goal at RookieUp is to help designers find inspiration, build their portfolios, and land their dream jobs. If you ever need a bit of personalized feedback, you can chat with any of the Visual Design mentors at RookieUp! And if you want some additional help as you get started, answer two questions here and we’ll send you a personalized action plan and mentor recommendations tailored to your goals!

Until next time, when we’ll dive into Web Development inspiration!

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The Best Places to Find UX/UI Design Inspiration Online

InspirationUX/UI

Wherever you are in your creative career, drawing inspiration from the world around you is crucial if you want to continue improving in your field. As a creative, it’s important to remember that inspiration can come from anywhere — a sign you see on your way to work, the shape of a tree in the forest, etc. You never know when you might see something that inspires your next great idea. And one of the most surefire ways to draw inspiration from others on a daily basis (other than talking to a UX mentor) is by fully leveraging the incredible sources of creative inspiration on the internet.

This article is the first in a series where we’re going to dive into the best ways to find creative inspiration online. From UX Design to Lettering to Branding to Visual Design, there are millions of incredible people, websites, tools, and galleries online for every creative persuasion and we’re going to share the best so that your daily internet browsing is filled with easy inspiration. We’re going to focus on sharing:

  • The best websites that pull together galleries of amazing projects from other creatives
  • The best blogs and websites focused on providing tips and articles related to each field
  • The top lists of creatives in each field to follow on social media
  • The best creative tools, educational resources, and online teachers for each field

So sit back, relax, and get ready to bookmark like crazy. This week, we’re starting off with User Experience and User Interface (UX/UI) resources. And here we go…

 

The Best UX/UI Inspiration Aggregator Sites

 

To get things started, we’ve put together a list of some of the best sites that aggregate together the most inspiring work from UX designers around the world and present them all in one beautiful endless scrolling grid. These are great sites to visit every few days to see what’s new in the world of UX Design.

  • SiteInspire – This showcase site features several new websites every day. If you want to keep up on current web design and UX trends, SiteInspire is the place for you.
  • Web Design Inspiration – This site is focused on showcasing, you guessed it, web design inspiration! People can submit their site and the site owners select a handful to feature every week.
  • The Best Designs – This site curates a daily list of unique websites from all corners of the internet. They also showcase not just designs, but designer and workspaces as well.
  • Niice – A mood board generator that pulls in design and UX projects from a bunch of different sites. A fantastic way to get started whenever you’re about to dive head first into a new major web design project.
  • Behance – One of the largest social networks for designers, they have a huge repository of UX work that other UX designers have uploaded.
  • Dribbble – Similar to Behance, Dribbble is a social network + showcase tool for designers. You’ve probably heard of it 😉
  • Awwwards – Probably the best known “daily website winner” site, Awwwards lets visitors vote on the best websites of the day (and week… and month… and year). And you’d better believe they have tons of sites with amazing UX/UI.
  • Panda – A bit different than the rest, Panda lets you aggregate not just awesome UX designs into one visual grid, but also different websites from the creative world. If you use Panda the right way, you may never need to visit another website again.

 

The Best UX/UI Educational Tools and Services

If you’re in the early days of your UX journey, here are some great resources to help you learn the basics of User Experience design. One of the most important things you can do when you’re just getting started is to spend time ensuring you understand the fundamentals of what constitutes a strong user experience. These tools will help you learn just that.

  • UX Beginner – A great resource for anyone just starting their UX journey, with tutorials, tips, and projects for beginners to improve their skills. An awesome resource to make the UX educational journey a bit less daunting.
  • 52 Weeks of UX – A fantastic project that goes through a different UX lesson every week for a year. Take it in over the course of a year or breeze through it in a week! It’s up to you.
  • UX Mastery -Another great resource for people early in their UX careers, their site offers hundreds of articles and classes. Most importantly, they also have a Slack community where aspiring UX designers can gather and share learnings, tips, and projects.
  • DailyUI – an email-based resource that sends you a UX project to work on every day for 100 days. Carefully planned and elegantly executed, this is a great resource for anyone trying to improve their UX skills via simple projects.
  • Hack Design – an amazing resource for anyone trying to become a designer. They curate projects from lots of different designers across the industry and also feature a crowdsourced toolkit where you can easily see the top tools used by UX designers across the world.
  • Springboard – Springboard is a fantastic online bootcamp that now offers UX courses. Their design education pairs self-directed learning with ongoing feedback of your projects.
  • Skillshare UX Courses – Skillshare has a ton of amazing UX courses taught by some inspiring and accomplished designers. The perfect place for a beginning UX designer to fully immerse themselves in.
  • Udemy UX Courses – Udemy, like Skillshare, also has tons of great UX courses, some paid and some free

The best UX-focused Blogs and Websites

Next up are some of the best blogs and websites that feature awesome interviews, tips, tutorials, and thought pieces about the User Experience world. These sites are great to check into every week or two to get caught up on new trends in UX. We’d recommend finding a couple of the sites you like most and joining their email newsletters so you can get the best articles each week delivered to your inbox!

  • UI Movement – A great site that curates 5 of the nicest UI animations daily and emails them to you. Too easy!
  • UX Mag – A repository of amazing articles, interviews, events, and even job postings for the UX industry!
  • UX Booth – A well-researched and in-depth site, UX Booth focuses on research-driven User Experience articles and interviews and is a fantastic resource for anyone looking to take their UX expertise to the next level.
  • UX Movement – A fantastic blog that focuses on articles that show how user interface design can impact user behavior. A great resource for people starting in the field or designers with years of experience.
  • UXADAY – A crowdsourced list of the best resources, tools, and sites for aspiring UX designers to visit!
  • UXDesign.cc – One of the largest Medium publications focused on UX, this is a great resource for in-depth writing from a bunch of different UX Designers.
  • UX Pin – The blog of the UX tool UX Pin is full of helpful articles and tips from designers in and outside of the tech world.
  • Boxes and Arrows – A fantastic resource for UX designers, this site focuses on articles relating to design principles, frameworks, and methodologies.

And finally, a few lists of the best UX/UI Designers to follow on social media

To wrap things up, we’ve put together a few lists of the best UX designers to follow on social media! The creative community is very active on platforms like Twitter, Medium, and Instagram, so we’d recommend following a handful of great designers so you can get inspired every time your finger inadvertently clicks on a social media icon on your phone. 😉

 

By now, your bookmark list should be bursting at the seams, but that’s a good thing! The broader you cast your nets, the more diverse your inspirational sources will become and the more varied and informed your work will be. At RookieUp, our goal is to help aspiring designers find the inspiration they need to succeed. If you ever need a bit of personalized feedback or inspiration, you can chat with any of the UX mentors at RookieUp! And if you want help choosing the right mentor, take a look at this article about how to choose the perfect design mentor.

Until next time!

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10 People Every Aspiring Designer Should Follow on Twitter

Graphic DesignIllustrationInspiration

When you’re learning design skills, one of the most important things you can do is to surround yourself with inspiration on daily basis. Sometimes that means going down a never-ending hole of YouTube tutorial videos or taking a walk around your city, but one of the easiest ways to see a diverse set of design styles every day is by curating your social media feeds. The creative world in particular is incredibly active on Twitter, so if you want to become a part of the design community, Twitter is a great place to start. We’ve put together a list of 10 awesome people that everyone aspiring designer should follow on Twitter, so that every time you subconsciously click the Twitter button on your phone, you’ll be engulfed in a world of inspiration and new ideas.

Jessica Hische

Jessica is an acclaimed lettering artist whose work you’ve probably seen all over the place, even if you didn’t realize it was hers. Her style spans from typefaces to postcards to logos. If you’re curious about the business of lettering and want to see how one of the greats got to where she is now, definitely add her to your list. She also has an amazing course on Skillshare if you’re hungry for more!

Meg Lewis

Meg is a designer and the founder of Ghostly Ferns, a Brooklyn-based creative studio. Her work is friendly and diverse, and she’s an amazing person to follow if your dream is working for yourself or opening up your own studio (or if you want to catch her infectious positive vibes). She also happens to have some amazing intro Skillshare classes for new designers.

WomenWhoDesign

Alright, this isn’t actually one person but is instead an amazing list of HUNDREDS of incredible women in the design community. The brainchild of Jules Forrest, a designer at Sequoia, WomenWhoDesign is an incredible filterable site showcasing the most inspiring women in the creative community, from Founders to Illustrators to Art Directors.

Fabio Sasso

Fabio is a multi-faceted creative who brings new meaning to the phrase ‘multi-tasker’. He simultaneously runs the gorgeous design inspiration site Abduzeedo while also serving as a design lead for Google Play. His Twitter feed is an inspiring wall of constant design inspiration as he features the work of dozens of designers and illustrators every week.

Jared Erondu

Jared is the Head of Design at Lattice and an unstoppable force in the design community. Despite a busy work life, he is constantly releasing a steady stream of exciting new projects like Playbook and the High Resolution podcast for the creative community. If you’re a new or aspiring designer looking to draw inspiration from someone who’s accomplished so much so quickly, Jared is the perfect person to add to your follow list!

Hayden Aube

Hayden is a vector illustrator and designer who has worked for a number of clients around the world and now devotes a large portion of his time to teaching aspiring designers the basics, from Vector Design to Adobe Illustrator to Character Design. He puts out weekly “Creative Nibbles” on his Twitter feed designed to teach basic digital design skills in a short period of time. You can also chat with Hayden via his RookieUp mentor page if you want some personal feedback or advice!

Rogie King

Rogie’s work really speaks for itself. Just take a quick glance at his design work for AI social media scheduling tool Yalabot or the wildly unique design of his personal portfolio site, and you’ll be hooked. His “collaborative funhouse” project Super Team Deluxe is the cherry on top of an amazing repertoire of work every young designer should check out!

Dann Petty

Dann is a freelance designer who spends as much time giving back to the community as he does designing! His impressive career has taken him to companies like Google, Airbnb, and Medium, and he recently launched Freelance.TV, a project where he traveled 10,000 miles across the United States interviewing freelancers about their experiences. Dann is a must-follow for any aspiring freelancer!

Kristy Tillman

Kristy is the Head of Communication Design at Slack and the creator of TomorrowLooksBright, a creative resource and newsletter for Black women around the world. Somehow she still has time to volunteer on the Steering Committee of Code2040, a nonprofit organization focused on increasing access and opportunities in the tech industry for women of color everywhere. Kristy’s Twitter feed is a nonstop tour de force of design thinking and ideas, and is an awesome source of inspiration for anyone looking to break into tech!

Evan Eckard

Evan is a freelance digital designer and illustrator with over 20 years of experience creating amazing design work for clients around the world. Evan runs Adobe’s weekly livestream on YouTube and devotes a huge amount of his time to helping young designers improve their work. He also offers 1-on-1 mentorship if you want to schedule individual video chats with him to get feedback on your work and boost your design game.

Tina Roth Eisenberg

Tina has done it all. From running the highly successful design blog Swiss Miss to starting the designy temporary tattoo company Tattly and building Creative Mornings into a global creative event community, looking at her list of accomplishments can be downright exhausting! Which is why she’s an absolutely essential person for anyone looking to build a career in the creative industry to follow. Her story is hugely inspirational and she’s a constant source of inspiration, especially if you’re interested in building a creative business from scratch!

Dan Mall

Dan is a creative director and entrepreneur whose list of accomplishments ranges from co-founding SuperBooked, a tool that helps you find gigs from people in your network, to SuperFriendly, a unique creative agency focused on helping global brands connect with their customers through beautiful design. Dan is constantly being interviewed by podcasts, YouTube shows, and more, so if you’re looking for design tips from one of the greats, check out his feed for a never-ending sea of inspiration.

Daniel Howells

Daniel is a web designer + developer who has designed gorgeous web experiences for clients like YCN. He’s also the creator and curator of web design inspiration site Site Inspire. If you’re an aspiring web designer interested in the intersection of design and development, or just want to have your feed filled with gorgeous websites every day, Daniel is a great guy to follow!

Nick Kennedy

Nick is background painter and designer who works at Disney Interactive and has spent the better part of a decade as an illustrator in the entertainment industry. Nick’s whimsical style will inspire even the most grid-focused of designers and probably make you want to go watch Moana again. He’s also an active participant in the illustration community on Twitter, so his page is a gateway to work by dozens of other amazing artists. You can also schedule 1-on-1 mentor chats with Nick here!

 

Okay, who are we kidding? We couldn’t stop at just 10 (if you were counting, there are actually 13 amazing creatives in this list)! Twitter is a treasure trove for aspiring designers, and it’s easy to get lost for hours discovering incredible artists and creators around the world. If you’re looking to follow even more awesome people on Twitter, just do a quick search on the site for titles like “Illustrator” or “Designer” and filter by ‘People’ and you’ll be greeted by a never-ending list of the awesome creatives who make Twitter their main destination online. If you’re an aspiring designer looking to get some personalized help, check out the Design Mentors on RookieUp, a platform we built to make it easy for you to chat with successful creatives who can help you achieve your creative goals!

 

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10 People Every Aspiring Designer Should Follow on Twitter

Graphic DesignIllustrationInspiration

When you’re learning design skills, one of the most important things you can do is to surround yourself with inspiration on daily basis. Sometimes that means going down a never-ending hole of YouTube tutorial videos or taking a walk around your city, but one of the easiest ways to see a diverse set of design styles every day is by curating your social media feeds. The creative world in particular is incredibly active on Twitter, so if you want to become a part of the design community, Twitter is a great place to start. We’ve put together a list of 10 awesome people that everyone aspiring designer should follow on Twitter, so that every time you subconsciously click the Twitter button on your phone, you’ll be engulfed in a world of inspiration and new ideas.

Jessica Hische

Jessica is an acclaimed lettering artist whose work you’ve probably seen all over the place, even if you didn’t realize it was hers. Her style spans from typefaces to postcards to logos. If you’re curious about the business of lettering and want to see how one of the greats got to where she is now, definitely add her to your list. She also has an amazing course on Skillshare if you’re hungry for more!

Meg Lewis

Meg is a designer and the founder of Ghostly Ferns, a Brooklyn-based creative studio. Her work is friendly and diverse, and she’s an amazing person to follow if your dream is working for yourself or opening up your own studio (or if you want to catch her infectious positive vibes). She also happens to have some amazing intro Skillshare classes for new designers.

WomenWhoDesign

Alright, this isn’t actually one person but is instead an amazing list of HUNDREDS of incredible women in the design community. The brainchild of Jules Forrest, a designer at Sequoia, WomenWhoDesign is an incredible filterable site showcasing the most inspiring women in the creative community, from Founders to Illustrators to Art Directors.

Fabio Sasso

Fabio is a multi-faceted creative who brings new meaning to the phrase ‘multi-tasker’. He simultaneously runs the gorgeous design inspiration site Abduzeedo while also serving as a design lead for Google Play. His Twitter feed is an inspiring wall of constant design inspiration as he features the work of dozens of designers and illustrators every week.

Jared Erondu

Jared is the Head of Design at Lattice and an unstoppable force in the design community. Despite a busy work life, he is constantly releasing a steady stream of exciting new projects like Playbook and the High Resolution podcast for the creative community. If you’re a new or aspiring designer looking to draw inspiration from someone who’s accomplished so much so quickly, Jared is the perfect person to add to your follow list!

Hayden Aube

Hayden is a vector illustrator and designer who has worked for a number of clients around the world and now devotes a large portion of his time to teaching aspiring designers the basics, from Vector Design to Adobe Illustrator to Character Design. He puts out weekly “Creative Nibbles” on his Twitter feed designed to teach basic digital design skills in a short period of time. You can also chat with Hayden via his RookieUp mentor page if you want some personal feedback or advice!

Rogie King

Rogie’s work really speaks for itself. Just take a quick glance at his design work for AI social media scheduling tool Yalabot or the wildly unique design of his personal portfolio site, and you’ll be hooked. His “collaborative funhouse” project Super Team Deluxe is the cherry on top of an amazing repertoire of work every young designer should check out!

Dann Petty

Dann is a freelance designer who spends as much time giving back to the community as he does designing! His impressive career has taken him to companies like Google, Airbnb, and Medium, and he recently launched Freelance.TV, a project where he traveled 10,000 miles across the United States interviewing freelancers about their experiences. Dann is a must-follow for any aspiring freelancer!

Kristy Tillman

Kristy is the Head of Communication Design at Slack and the creator of TomorrowLooksBright, a creative resource and newsletter for Black women around the world. Somehow she still has time to volunteer on the Steering Committee of Code2040, a nonprofit organization focused on increasing access and opportunities in the tech industry for women of color everywhere. Kristy’s Twitter feed is a nonstop tour de force of design thinking and ideas, and is an awesome source of inspiration for anyone looking to break into tech!

Evan Eckard

Evan is a freelance digital designer and illustrator with over 20 years of experience creating amazing design work for clients around the world. Evan runs Adobe’s weekly livestream on YouTube and devotes a huge amount of his time to helping young designers improve their work. He also offers 1-on-1 mentorship if you want to schedule individual video chats with him to get feedback on your work and boost your design game.

Tina Roth Eisenberg

Tina has done it all. From running the highly successful design blog Swiss Miss to starting the designy temporary tattoo company Tattly and building Creative Mornings into a global creative event community, looking at her list of accomplishments can be downright exhausting! Which is why she’s an absolutely essential person for anyone looking to build a career in the creative industry to follow. Her story is hugely inspirational and she’s a constant source of inspiration, especially if you’re interested in building a creative business from scratch!

Dan Mall

Dan is a creative director and entrepreneur whose list of accomplishments ranges from co-founding SuperBooked, a tool that helps you find gigs from people in your network, to SuperFriendly, a unique creative agency focused on helping global brands connect with their customers through beautiful design. Dan is constantly being interviewed by podcasts, YouTube shows, and more, so if you’re looking for design tips from one of the greats, check out his feed for a never-ending sea of inspiration.

Daniel Howells

Daniel is a web designer + developer who has designed gorgeous web experiences for clients like YCN. He’s also the creator and curator of web design inspiration site Site Inspire. If you’re an aspiring web designer interested in the intersection of design and development, or just want to have your feed filled with gorgeous websites every day, Daniel is a great guy to follow!

Nick Kennedy

Nick is background painter and designer who works at Disney Interactive and has spent the better part of a decade as an illustrator in the entertainment industry. Nick’s whimsical style will inspire even the most grid-focused of designers and probably make you want to go watch Moana again. He’s also an active participant in the illustration community on Twitter, so his page is a gateway to work by dozens of other amazing artists. You can also schedule 1-on-1 mentor chats with Nick here!

 

Okay, who are we kidding? We couldn’t stop at just 10 (if you were counting, there are actually 13 amazing creatives in this list)! Twitter is a treasure trove for aspiring designers, and it’s easy to get lost for hours discovering incredible artists and creators around the world. If you’re looking to follow even more awesome people on Twitter, just do a quick search on the site for titles like “Illustrator” or “Designer” and filter by ‘People’ and you’ll be greeted by a never-ending list of the awesome creatives who make Twitter their main destination online. If you’re an aspiring designer looking to get some personalized help, check out the Design Mentors on RookieUp, a platform we built to make it easy for you to chat with successful creatives who can help you achieve your creative goals!