Top 10 Sites to Help Develop Your Creative Side

If you're a professional looking to find fulfillment outside of the daily grind, you now have a whole host of websites to help you develop your creative side. These sites will not only inspire you with their visually intoxicating imagery, they'll often provide real-world tips on how you can actually execute on ideas. So whether you're someone who needs to find creative fulfillment or if you just want to step outside your comfort zone, get involved with these online communities and you might just be surprised by what you'll find.
1. My Modern Metropolis

My Modern Metropolis is where art enthusiasts and trendspotters connect over creative ideas. It's based on three core principles - to share, to inspire and to connect. They conduct in-depth interviews with new and established artists and find the stories going on behind-the-scenes. It's a great place to start if you're looking to develop your creative side.

2. FFFFOUND!

Ask any modern-day artist or designer which website they visit for creative inspiration and most likely he or she will say FFFFOUND! It's an image bookmarking site that's invitation only, meaning you can't just register yourself, you have to be personally invited to start posting. Though this may seem exclusive, it actually helps to keep the integrity of the site high, making sure there are no unsolicited spammers. Everyone is free to browse the site.

3. Smashing Magazine

If you're an aspiring or professional web designer and developer, you'll thoroughly enjoy the creative content on Smashing Magazine. This website is very thorough - showing off the latest trends in website design as well as giving best practices. They also have some great articles like Take The Initiative and Create Your Own Projects or Breaking Down Doors: Promoting Yourself To Dream Clients.

4. PetaPixel

Run by Michael Zhang, a photographer and programmer, PetaPixel is a great blog for the photography enthusiast. The site keeps up-to-date on all the latest cameras and accessories as well as the latest trends and developments happening in the digital photography world. It's a great place for the tech-savvy digital photographer to take their hobby to the next level.

5. SwissMiss

Tina Roth Eisenberg is the Swiss designer who runs SwissMiss. Tina's minimalist aesthetic comes through not only in the way she designs and presents her website but in the sites and products she chooses to highlight. Tina puts on events called Creative Mornings in New York, LA and other major cities around the world where she asks a leader in their field to share their story. These monthly morning gathering of creative types starts with a 20 minute lecture and is followed by a 20 minute group discussion. A great event to go to get your creative juices flowing.



6. Grain Edit

Grain Edit is your spot if you love being inspired by retro work from the past. By focusing on what design looked like from 1950s to 1970s, this website shows us how contemporary designers have taken that inspiration one step (or several steps) further. Read their interviews to learn more about these artists and designers and what it took for them to develop their creative side.

7. Yanko Design

Yanko Design is a web magazine that shows you the latest and greatest concepts in modern design. In their words, "It's about the cutting edge and the classic, the new and the rediscovered." What Yanko does very well is show concepts that have the potential to reach a wide audience. Their content makes you believe that imagination and creativity are almost endless, giving you a real appreciation for many different areas but most notably for product design.

8. Abduzeedo

Abduzeedo is a great place to not only find inspiration but Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials so you can start making your own designs. Run by Fabio Sasso, a graphic and web designer from Brazil, Abduzeedo's name means abducted in Portuguese because it "records his abduction by the world of design." If you just need a quick bout of inspiration, check out his Daily Inspiration posts which shows some fantastic imagery submitted by Abduzeedo's writers and users.

9. Behance

Behance.net is an online platform for creative professionals and aspiring professionals. The website is organized in a way that allows its members to create their own multi-media portfolio, showcasing their work for millions of visitors to see. These visitors include creative companies and journalists as well as fellow artists and designers. By connecting creative people together, the website allows for instant feedback from your peers. For those who want to see the best on Behance, you can browse by most viewed or most appreciated.

10. The 99%

Under the Behance umbrella is The 99%, the "research arm and think tank." It's named 99% after Thomas Edison's quote "genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." The website is all about execution - giving you useful tips in articles like "5 Rules for Mindful Creativity" or "Balanced People Don't Change the World." 99% also puts on an annual conference where they bring together some of the greatest modern-day minds to talk about what it took to make their ideas come to fruition.

What's your favorite site to get your creativity game on?

See more My Modern Met posts:
Top Tech Tools to Save You Time and Money
Top Apps to Make Your Photos Pop
10 Apps to Enhance Your Offline Experience

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Alice Yoo is the founder and editor in chief of My Modern Metropolis, a place where trendspotters and art enthusiasts come to connect over creative ideas. After graduating from UCLA with a Bachelor's in Economics, Alice received her MBA, worked in advertising for MTV and Outdoor Channel and then started My Modern Met in 2008. With over 2.5 million page views per month, My Modern Met has become an art, culture and lifestyle destination for the modern man and woman.