Here at Syndctd, we strive to be pioneers of the digital marketing stratosphere — we live and breathe all things digital. We relish in social media and spend our days researching industry news and insights. In addition to our roles as digital aficionados and strategists, we are, first and foremost, creatives. Design is the forefront of most of our work, and we ourselves are design-centric people. We consume things based on their designs, and we study the design of everything around us.
However, it’s always challenging to keep the one’s mind in a creative state. To keep our creative juices flowing, we leverage our expertise in the digital field to regularly feed us inspiration. The internet has an abundance of resources for those looking for inspiration or even searching for a new skill to pick up, and one of our favorite things to do is to learn from (and through) the digital world. Many of our lessons come from studying those successful in the industry, but we also learn by picking up new skills and tricks. Here are a few of our favorite online resources for those navigating the creative world of design and code.
All Things Code and More
Whether you’re new to the development world or just looking to spruce up your already masterful skills, Codeacademy is a great resource. Their online community has over 24 million learners from all over the globe. From HTML and CSS to Ruby and Python, each language has its own online course that is broken down into interactive lessons. In each lesson, you learn industry jargon and perform coding tasks to generate changes on a preview screen. Its interactive platform serves as a great model for learning, and best of all — it’s free!
Created by design legends Jessica Hische and Russ Maschemeyer, Don’t Fear the Internet is a catalog of beautifully designed and exceptionally organized videos to help beginners navigate the web design world.
Want to learn how to make a lightbox or need a refresher on how to use Photoshop? TutsPlus is a great resource for that. From beginner level coding tips to information on Google Adwords optimization, this website provides some awesome, free online tutorials and subscription-based video courses.
Chris Spooner has an extensive blog with tutorials for the graphic designer looking to up their game. From cool Illustrator and Photoshop effects to free brushes, one can get both inspired and lost when perusing his articles.
For the Creative Ruts
Don’t know how to setup your website’s blog? Need some inspiration for your homepage? Visit Site Inspire to see amazing work being done across the globe.
Whether you’re tackling a UI project for the first time or you’re an award-winning veteran, Pttrns is a great resource for mobile designers and developers. Pick up inspiration from the latest iOS or Android designs on this platform.
Sometimes you just want to see a variety of cool things that people have designed, and Designspiration is the place for that. From typographic posters to skillful packaging, this curated site has it all.
Pinterest is a great platform to get inspired. The database is user generated, and you can save/pin inspiration to personal boards. No need to remember the website’s name, just go to your board and find the pin.
If all else fails — we go old school. A mini notebook (or a Google Doc) is always handy for jotting down thoughts or keeping lists. If something makes us go “Ooo” or “Ahh”, we’ll keep a record of it, whether it’s a cool animated website or a clever Instagram post. It may even be the way our neighbor decorates his front yard! Regardless of what inspires us, we learn to take notes and fuel our own flames; that’s what gets us out of our creative ruts.