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Most freelancers maintain their success by moving forward: meeting a new client, landing your next big assignment, embracing the latest technology. But sometimes, the best way to gain momentum is to pause and look at what you’ve already accomplished.

Next time you’re faced with a slow day or need fresh inspiration, take a break to see what you can learn from your past.

Review Old Work

Pull out some work you did a year or more ago. Critique it: would you do it the exact same way today? What would you change?  What editorial changes took place after you were finished with it?

But don’t stop there; go ahead and admire projects you’re proud of. Pinpoint what you liked about it or what compliments you received at the time. Apply those traits to some of your current work.

Your old work can also serve as a springboard for new. Consider the sources of some of your old jobs, or how you met some of your previous clients. Brainstorm how you could apply your past ideas to today’s markets.

Backup Day

While you’re reviewing your past work, make sure everything is safely stored. Find new ways to store bulky projects – scan or photograph them, pack them up to store off-site, or shop around for new methods of backup.

With your projects fresh in your mind, update your portfolio or web site with current samples.

Study Your Records

Everyone has their own method for tracking work delivered and payments received. Peruse your records from previous years. You may spot a client you’ve drifted away from, or industry trends worth pursing. Where did most of your income come from five years ago? How different is that from today?

Look for problems that slowed down your progress: clients that are notoriously slow payers, deadlines that kept getting bumped, or other lessons learned.

Forgotten Goals

No one likes to admit it, but everyone has goals that went by the wayside. Pour a cup of coffee and take a hard look at some of your past ambitions. Is anything worth re-visiting? Perhaps with the experience you have today you could tackle a goal that you let go of a year or two ago.

Clean Hard to Reach Areas

Cleaning your work area is a great way to make use of down time, but don’t just clean the surface.  Dig into those drawers that are overflowing with ’stuff,’ or those piles that you’ve pushed farther and farther into the corner.  Pull up the forgotten files or ancient emails hogging space on your computer.

You’ll end up with (obviously) a cleaner workspace, but likely some projects or ideas that still have some mileage in them.

Looking back at your own experiences can be a great way to grow. Next time you’re not chomping at the bit to move forward, take a step back and see where that leads you!

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by Rodrigo Comisarenco.

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One of the most frustrating situations you can encounter as a freelance designer is when you’re all ready to go but the ideas just aren’t flowing! You struggle to retain focus but staunchly refuse to accept defeat, until your screensaver goes on.

Over the last couple of years we’ve done our best to provide sources of inspiration for just this occasion, with articles on getting inspiration such as:

• 34 Places to Get Design Inspiration Online and Off
• 60 More Places to Get Design Inspiration
• 33 New Places to Get Design Inspiration.

One site that has been mentioned throughout is Creattica, a gallery of great design and inspirational imagery. It’s a great place to start with your search for ideas and has a wealth of outstanding design in almost every category imaginable! Today though we’ll go even further afield and look at 25 more sites that might just give you the inspiration you need to make that breakthrough!

Inspiration

Note & Point

Note & Point describes itself as a gallery of Keynote and PowerPoint presentations looking that much better. If you thought that a slide presentation had to be functional and unappealing, think again!

The Book Cover Archive

The Book Cover Archive is exactly what it says on the tin, an extensive collection of book cover designs and their designers. You’re bound to find something that grabs you – maybe enough to make you buy the book!

Printed Piece

Printed Piece describes itself as a full, unique, and creative community-driven platform that connects designers and businesses around the world in the print industry. Less a place to find design ideas, more a place to connect with those who can help you realize your ideas.

Photo Retouching

As mentioned above Creattica is the place to get all kinds of design inspiration! To get new inspiration it’s definitely worth digging deeper and going to places you wouldn’t normally go. For a more unusual but undoubtedly interesting source of inspiration it’s definitely worth checking out the Photo Retouching category.

One Eyeland

One Eyeland is an gorgeous island in the virtual world inhabited by people who shoot for a living. Browsing through the gallery is a delight for photography lovers and is sure to get your creative ideas flowing!

Fashion Served

Whether you’re someone who is ‘On Trend’ or just a casual follower of fashion, a browse through the gallery of Fashion Served won’t disappoint. Look for something that catches your eye and be inspired!

Industrial Design Served

As with Fashion Served, Industrial Design Served is another site showcasing curated content from the Behance Network. Industrial Design Served itself features top work in categories such as product design and industrial design.

Typography Served

The final site in this list from the Behance Network is Typography Served – a beautiful showcase of simply the best typeface design, lettering, and illustrated typography. Typography Served highlights just how immense the impact of a typeface can be!

Visual Complexity

Visual Complexity is a site that is simply beyond fascinating. These gorgeous visual representations of complex networks will fascinate, intrigue, and almost certainly ignite your creativity.

Flowing Data

Following on from Visual Complexity’s information design we now take a look at Flowing Data, which aims to highlight how designers, programmers, and statisticians are putting data to good use. While the site’s layout is less enticing the visual representations of information are just as fascinating and will keep you occupied for hours if you’re not careful!

Information Is Beautiful

Information Is Beautiful is another fantastic site devoted to Information Design. Enthralling information made to look fantastic – just be careful you don’t lose a whole day here!

Pattern Tap

If you’re looking for specific ideas and inspiration for user interface design then Pattern Tap may be just the thing! It describes itself as aiming to satisfy and encourage the inspiration needs of interface designers.

The Postage Stamps! Pool

The next three places we’ll look at are pools of inspiration from within the wonderful world of Flickr. First up is The Postage Stamps! Pool, which is an extensive collection of intriguing stamps.

The Oodles of Doodles Pool

For many of us a collection of doodles is the inevitable consequence of an idea rut. If you want to move on from your own doodles and see what others have been doodling then Oodles of Doodles is the place to head – you may just find something that will get you back on track!

The Pretty Sketchy Pool

For even more sketches and doodles from the world of Flickr  be sure to check out The Pretty Sketchy Pool!

Buamai

The next four sites are all image bookmarking sites of one sort or another and great sources of visual stimulation. The first one to check out is Buamai, a brilliant array of curated images from a closed collective of artists, graphic designers, programmers, architects and fashion designers based in various cities around the world.

We Heart It

We Heart It lets you create an online album (a Heart) with your favorite images and videos. It ’s a creative community of people who love to share interesting images and videos and is fully searchable!

Vi.sualize.us

Vi.sualize.us follows on naturally from We Heart It as another social bookmarking community. As with We Heart It, you can search the posted images or browse through the most popular tags for something that catches your eye.

FFFFound

FFFFound is a visually stripped back site that not only allows the users to post and share their favorite images found on the web, but also dynamically recommends each user’s tastes and interests for an inspirational image-bookmarking experience!

Ads of the World

Ads of the World describes itself as an advertising archive and community showcasing fresh campaigns daily from around the world. Think about those adverts that ignited your curiosity about a product and delve into Ads of the World for some nuggets of advertising gold!

siteInspire

siteInspire is a curated showcase and CSS gallery featuring the best web design today. Browse their gallery of gorgeous websites and let your imagination go!

Packaging of the World

If you’re looking for a more unusual source of ideas and inspiration then Packaging of the World may be the perfect thing! It describes itself as a packaging design archive showcasing the best, most interesting, and creative packaging work worldwide and it doesn’t disappoint!

HTML5 Gallery

HTML5 Gallery is a great showcase of modern web design and allows an interesting look into how people have interpreted and implemented the specification.

HDR Creme

HDR Creme hails itself as the first reference website for HDR photos that lets you share your works with other people, watch thousands of pictures and learn through tutorials about High dynamic range imaging. Really good HDR photos can look truly stunning and HDR Creme allows you to search its extensive archive and browse by tag, location, camera, and user.

Minimal Sites

For those of you who can’t stand cluttered and over-fussy web design, Minimal Sites will be a breath of fresh air! At Minimal Sites they truly believe that less is more and showcase those sites that achieve their goal of “doing more with less”.

Share Your Ideas

Hopefully some of these sites will help you get that kick of inspiration you need!  All of us have different things that help us get our creativity flowing. Feel free to share your favorite sources of inspiration!

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Product Description
Design Basics presents creative and innovative design in an affordable format. This book presents inspiring, contemporary projects—and explores particular aspects of graphic design. With examples of work ranging from brochures to packaging, to self-promotion, this book is a sure source of inspiration for all graphic designers. In Design Basics the reader will be presented with the inner workings of graphic design while the focus is on layout, type and color…. More >>

Design Basics: Ideas and Inspiration for Working with Layout, Type, and Color in Graphic Design

Pull up a bean-bag chair and let me tell you a story. Everyone runs out of inspiration some days. When it starts to happen, I step away from the screen and head to my bookshelf or local library for a kid’s book. There’s nothing like feeding your inner child to get the creative juices flowing.

Children’s picture books take you back to that time in childhood when you were not afraid to try new things. They also inspire with beautiful artwork, design, and storytelling. They’re filled with uncluttered inspirations and creative thoughts.

It could be a book from when you were a wee thing or books you’ve discovered recently. Find your inner child again. I’m positive it will help your work. It’s definitely helped mine.

Here are 6 picture-book classics that I love. Are any of these books familar?

What Do People Do All Day?

Do you remember Farmer Alfalfa, Huckle Cat, and the other inhabitants of Busytown? Or perhaps you grew up loving another Richard Scarry book like A Day at the Airport or Cars and Trucks and Things That Go?

• Learn more about Richard Scarry
• Buy the book

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

“In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf.” Eric Carle makes incredible use of color and book design, with minimal text. Who knew painted tissue paper and collage work could come to life like this?

• Read this Eric Carle interview
• Buy the book

The Bears’ Picnic

“Mother bear, put your apron away, we are going to go on a picnic today.” Written and illustrated by Jan and Stan Berenstain, this is the epic tale of the Berenstain bears’ quest for the perfect picnic spot. Remember when Papa Bear gets fried by lightning?

• Learn more about Jan and Stan Berenstain
• Buy the book

The Snowman

This beautiful tale of a boy and a snowman is told without words. Raymond Briggs is a wonderful illustrator and storyteller, with many beautiful books including Fungus the Bogeyman and Ethel and Ernest, the story of his parents.

• Read this Raymond Briggs interview
• Buy the book

The Paper Bag Princess

Out of the many books by author-illustrator pair, Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko, this is my favorite. When a dragon burns down the castle and carries off Prince Ronald, Princess Elizabeth must rescue him.

• Learn more about Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko
• Buy the book

Where the Wild Things Are

I can’t leave out this classic from Maurice Sendak. Apparently, the wild things were originally horses, but Sendak couldn’t draw them well, so he switched to monsters. According to Sendak, he based them on his relatives.

• Listen to this Maurice Sendak interview
• Buy the book

I’m sure I’m missing some classics on this list. Which children’s books inspire you?

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A “5th-grader-friendly” collection of clips and making-of footage from notable visual effects films of the past century. Originally intended for educational use as an introduction to a classroom lecture. The music track is “Rods and Cones” from the album “Audio” by Blue Man Group. 1900 – The Enchanted Drawing 1903 – The Great Train Robbery 1923 – The Ten Commandments (Silent) 1927 – Sunrise 1933 – King Kong 1939 – The Wizard of Oz 1940 – The Thief of Bagdad 1954 – 20000 Leagues Under the Sea 1956 – Forbidden Planet 1963 – Jason and the Argonauts 1964 – Mary Poppins 1977 – Star Wars 1982 – Tron 1985 – Back to the Future 1988 – Who Framed Roger Rabbit 1989 – The Abyss 1991 – Terminator 2: Judgement Day 1992 – The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles 1993 – Jurassic Park 2004 – Spider-Man 2 2005 – King Kong 2006 – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest 2007 – Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End 2007 – The Golden Compass 2008 – The Spiderwick Chronicles 2008 – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button