Graphic Design Ideas To Inspire You For Creating Great Designs
Great
graphic design has its easy day and its hard days. It can be hard to find
inspiration for your graphic design ideas.
You can
get creative block or just find your current design lackluster.
The
busyness of your everyday life can be overwhelming. There’s dozens of reason
why graphic design project ideas can stagnate. It happens to everyone.
What
you need to do is figure out how to kick your brain into gear. Here’s some
ideas for graphic design inspiration to get your ideas flowing.
Time Your Work Well
A lot
of people find that late morning is the best time to get creative work done.
After lunch, people tend to be sleepier and less productive, making morning a
much better time to work. The first day of the work week isn’t very productive
either, though you can use Monday mornings to throw ideas in catch-up sessions.
This are general guidelines about productive times to work, and
there are a lot of people out there who find afternoons more productive and
Mondays to be the day that’s the best to get things done. It all depends on
you. The key is to pick a time to do work that works best for you.
Look To New Things for Graphic
Design Ideas
While
graphic designs trends can be helpful in figuring out what direction you need
to go, you can also find inspiration in things outside of design trends.
Relying solely on current design trends can result in designs that are
unoriginal and highly derivative. Those designs can also become dated very
quickly.
Look
for other sources for inspiration, from the great outdoors to the forms you see
around you to your children’s drawings. Anything can give you good new graphic
design ideas.
Tell Your Team Everything They Need
Everyone involved in the project should know everything that in
the design brief. Be very transparent and don’t hold anything back. Let your
team know it all, even things that don’t seem important.
Just make sure they know that it is secondary information. Full
disclosure of the details of the project creates a sense of trust and also can
open up the floor for new ideas from everyone. Sometimes an off-hand comment on
something can give you a new graphic design idea.
Ask Questions about the Brief
Part
of coming up with new ideas is analyses. Ask questions of every element
of your design brief. This may seem to add time to your design process, but it
can be an important element to polishing the design brief or giving your chance
to bring some new life to it.
Some
example questions: does this completely answer the brief? Is this a good
solution? Are we being objective? Take the time to see your own subjective
biases in the brief and do some serious analyses of your final design brief.
Sit Around a Real Table
A
proper table can make a big difference to the productivity of a creative
graphic design team. Don’t have everyone sit around a coffee table. While it
might be fashionable to hotdesk and sit in easy chairs, it’s not really helpful
to getting things done for your graphic design idea.
Scattering
your team like you’re working out of a living room is not a good idea.
Conversation gets broken up and ideas become fractured between sections of the
team. A real table meeting brings everyone closer together, allowing for
graphic design ideas to flow freely between them.
Encourage Design with Physical
Creative Elements
While
clutter-free, minimalist graphic design studios are in fashion in modern
graphic design, try including items like paint, brushes, paperboards, and
scalpels. Give your team something that they can use with their hands as they
work through graphic design ideas. Offer your team different textured papers
and other similar elements for them to see what they are actually like.
Different
colored paints can call to mind what colors look like when not on a computer
screen. Having graphic design become something solely generated by a computer
can make the process seem unreal and disconnected from the physical world.
Offering these physical design tools helps everyone remember that graphic
design is a physical experience.
Be Honest With Your Team
Let
people know what you really do think of their suggestions. If someone is very
much behind an idea and they know no one else is, this atmosphere of honesty is
going to make sure it is really a good ideas before bringing it to the table.
Communication
should always be polite and professional. A lot of how people will take you
letting them know a graphic design idea is not optimal will come down to how
you communicate with them.
Use Word Games to Stimulate
Creativity
Use
what are often called ‘essence words’ to generate a list of ideas. These words
should summarize the personality, spirit, and message you’re trying to
communicate with your graphic design idea. Some of these words might seem
crazy.
Temperature
words like ‘cold’ or ‘warm’, for instance, might be a good fit for what you’re
trying to convey, but they might also seem strange for a list of words about
graphic design. Put them down on your list of essence words anyway. In a day or
two you might find that they resonate with your graphic design ideas.
Take a Break
Sometimes,
the best thing to do is step back from your graphic design project and let everything
sink in. If you have the time, share ideas, then give yourself and your
team a few days to sleep on them. This gives everyone a chance to turn the
ideas over in their heads and properly evaluate them.
The
following brainstorming session is usually much more productive. There is also
often more visual material to work with, allowing for better communication of
the graphic design ideas.
What Are Some Current Graphic
Design Trends to Look At?
While
trends come and go, knowing what’s hot can be a big help in finding inspiration
for your graphic design project ideas. Here’s a list of some of the most recent
graphic design trends.
80s Inspired
Graphic Design
Retro
graphic design has been a staple of the past decade. This graphic design trend
taps into nostalgia, often blending with recent technological advances for a
really amazing look.
The
bold and lively color palette of the 80s has seen a recent rebirth. Neon colors
and dark colors are both optimistic and boldly in your face. The 80s was a boom
decade, a period of arcades and sci-fi movies that look retro and wildly
imaginative now. There’s a childhood comfort and futuristic optimism to these
80s inspired graphic design ideas.
Arts and Craft
Styled Patterns
The
sleek, flat designs of the past decade are about to give away to more
individualized design. Consumers are getting tired of the simplified layouts
that have saturated the market in the past few years.
Include
patterns, prints, and an overall arts and crafts inspired feel. Combing these
elements with flat design can create products that are both vibrant and
ultra-contemporary. Expect to see nature-inspired patterns like plant patterns
and marbled patterns. Use painterly patterns next to simple text in printed
media for a great look.
Bold Colors
Light
and neutral colors like gray and black are giving way to more bold bright
colors. Pantone has declared this year the year of Greenery, so you can expect
to see that color show up in many graphic design portfolio ideas.
To
make the best of this change, use colors found in nature and crank up their
intensity. Use these bright colors against traditional neutral backgrounds to
give your graphic design ideas a fresh new look that doesn’t deviate too far
from tradition, especially if you’re working with an established and successful
brand.
Color Transitions
Multi-colored
transitions of color in the register is becoming increasingly common, even in
small graphic design elements like logos and buttons. Color transitions are
much more visually interesting and eye-catching than flat colors.
A
lot of major companies and brands have started adopting the use of color
transitions for just about everything, so expect to see a lot of it in both
print design and web design.
Asymmetric
Layouts
As a
part of the pushback against minimalist layouts, asymmetry had begun to feature
prominently. More often than not, graphic designer break the rules of symmetry
to create deliberately unbalanced designs. If you were to draw a lien between
the two halves, they would not look the same, which has been common or a very
long time in graphic design ideas.
These
graphic designs are fascinating to look at and have lively aspect to them,
especially in combination with interesting patterns and vibrant colors.
Duotone
Composition
These
designs consist of two bright colors. They are very noticeable, and pulling
them well off can require quite a bit of skill. The end result can be
absolutely amazing. You can use any two colors you like for a good look, but
for an even more striking effect, use two contrasting colors.
Low-Poly Designs
Inspired
by graphic design in video games, this graphic design trend has now found its
way into all fields of graphic design. You’ll find it more and more on ads,
banners, business cards, flyers, and even clothing. It’s a very cutting edge
for of graphic design, since it uses geometric shapes and colors to create the
look and feel of a 3D design.
What Are Some Good Graphic Design
Portfolio Ideas?
When
it comes to your graphic design portfolio, make sure there is a lot of
diversity in the ideas you present. Only show off your best work, especially
the designs that have been a big success.
Make
sure the images are clear, high resolution, and are presented so they look
their best. Black background usually work better for mage galleries, since they
help the colors of the images stand out better, but you should experiment to
make sure.
Ending thoughts on graphic design
ideas
It’s
far too easy to let yourself fall into a graphic design rut when you’re having
a hard time and inspiration dries up. Try our ideas and inspirations to help
you get back into your graphic design groove.
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