1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,880 Hey, hello, it's Jules and welcome to the pool party. 2 00:00:02,880 --> 00:00:07,680 We are continuing our series on branding, effective branding and design for DIY artists, 3 00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:11,480 entrepreneurs and people who want to create an artist's alter ego. 4 00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:16,480 So we've talked a lot about the tactical specifics of branding, getting into brand values, 5 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:20,120 picking your name and then what I think your first logo should be. 6 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:22,240 All those episodes are up on the podcast. 7 00:00:22,240 --> 00:00:27,640 And today we're going to dive deeper into resources for inspiration, making mood boards 8 00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:30,640 and websites for collecting inspiration. 9 00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:33,360 Because I'm going to give you a little bit of a secret. 10 00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:38,720 Being a designer and having a refined taste is just honestly knowing what is out there, 11 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:41,680 who made it and the reasons why they chose it. 12 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:46,880 Being a designer is a little bit of selecting inspiration and finding ways to whittle down 13 00:00:46,880 --> 00:00:51,080 and hone your client's desires into a good product. 14 00:00:51,080 --> 00:00:55,940 So whether or not you are a designer or you're someone who works with designers, you're going 15 00:00:55,940 --> 00:01:00,440 to want to know what you want and you're going to want to know how to describe that to the 16 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:02,040 people you work with. 17 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:03,280 I'll give you an example. 18 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:07,820 You wouldn't go to a hairstylist and tell them that you wanted anything, like whatever 19 00:01:07,820 --> 00:01:08,960 they think is good. 20 00:01:08,960 --> 00:01:10,440 You like their style. 21 00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:12,560 Somewhere between an afro and a wolf cut. 22 00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:16,240 If you're just saying things like that because you heard it online, hate to break it to you, 23 00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:20,380 an afro and a wolf cut are two very different hairstyles. 24 00:01:20,380 --> 00:01:24,180 And sometimes I see people wanting to work with a designer and they just don't know how 25 00:01:24,180 --> 00:01:25,840 to describe what they want. 26 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:31,560 We spend honestly days and weeks even getting into the nitty gritty of what they want and 27 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:32,640 how to choose it. 28 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:36,960 And I think it's wasted time that people could just spend looking inspirational on their 29 00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:39,200 own, not paying a designer. 30 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:41,320 And it saves us both time and frustration. 31 00:01:41,320 --> 00:01:45,360 Let's go ahead and get into an overview of resources for inspiration. 32 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:50,720 I'm going to talk to you about a few different places to look for resources and inspiration. 33 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:57,040 The first category of websites is going to be websites for collecting inspiration, mood 34 00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:00,120 boards, and seeing what designers have out there. 35 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:04,960 And then there's a second category of websites, which I consider to be not websites where 36 00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:10,640 you would necessarily create a mood board, but where you would find inspiration for websites, 37 00:02:10,640 --> 00:02:13,080 seeing what kind of websites are out there. 38 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:17,800 And the reason why I think this is a big category is because your website is typically the first 39 00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:20,720 point of entry that people find your work online. 40 00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:23,200 And if it's not that, it's a portfolio. 41 00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:26,480 So maybe you meet someone and then you send them your website. 42 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:30,280 You want your website to succinctly describe, showcase who you are. 43 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:34,120 And there are a lot of great examples online, so we can take inspiration from all these 44 00:02:34,120 --> 00:02:35,120 websites. 45 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:39,240 And then there are a few places that I like to look in order to find good inspiration. 46 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:45,080 The next category of websites I'm going to recommend to you today are color, sock photo, 47 00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:46,480 and icon websites. 48 00:02:46,480 --> 00:02:52,160 And these are websites where you can get basically photos, experiment with colors, get a variety 49 00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:56,560 of different visuals in order to experiment with your own brand. 50 00:02:56,560 --> 00:03:00,000 And then there's a fourth category of websites I want to talk to you about. 51 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:06,360 And these are the websites where I feel you can source high quality creatives and also 52 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:13,000 find a good mix of creatives to work with, templates, and educational tools. 53 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:15,960 There's going to be a lot of overlap between these websites. 54 00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:23,000 Let's go ahead and get into the first category, which is websites to create mood boards. 55 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:24,460 This mood board category. 56 00:03:24,460 --> 00:03:27,000 The first website is Arena. 57 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,040 Arena is geared towards designers, artists. 58 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:34,980 It's more of a bespoke Pinterest and it can get a bit artsy fartsy, but Arena is a great 59 00:03:34,980 --> 00:03:40,520 place to essentially collect whatever visual inspiration you like online. 60 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:45,720 What it's good for, a lot of artists and designers think of like your Brooklyn tattoo artists 61 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:46,720 or interior designers. 62 00:03:46,720 --> 00:03:51,360 I would actually say maybe more graphic designers than interior designers use Arena. 63 00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:56,000 And so if you want to take a look at what they're using and what inspires them, this 64 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:02,040 is a great website to find folks like that and take a peek at their mood boards. 65 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:04,980 Another website I will recommend is Pinterest. 66 00:04:04,980 --> 00:04:10,120 This is a pretty obvious one, I think, but I use Pinterest even as a designer. 67 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:14,760 And I think Pinterest has just been around for so long that it's easy to collect different 68 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:16,400 mood boards for inspiration. 69 00:04:16,400 --> 00:04:20,680 I think their mood boarding tool is pretty advanced and you're going to want to create 70 00:04:20,680 --> 00:04:26,640 a lot of different varieties of mood boards for your font, colors, image, types, etc. 71 00:04:26,640 --> 00:04:30,520 And so I think Pinterest is great at this and they have some pretty advanced tools for 72 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:33,560 organizing, which I find is most important. 73 00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:35,560 Thirdly, Behance. 74 00:04:35,560 --> 00:04:40,720 Behance is mostly geared towards I think digital designers, graphic designers, folks who use 75 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:44,740 Adobe might use Adobe Photoshop Suite in creating. 76 00:04:44,740 --> 00:04:50,200 But they have a pretty good mood boarding tool where you can create categories of inspiration 77 00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:51,640 that you find. 78 00:04:51,640 --> 00:04:56,800 And the quality of work that you find on Behance will be top tier because a lot of these designers 79 00:04:56,800 --> 00:04:58,400 are industry designers. 80 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:03,400 And so it's a great place to look for inspiration, but just keep in mind that this is going to 81 00:05:03,400 --> 00:05:05,520 be at the higher end of design. 82 00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:09,940 And if you're starting out, your goal as an entrepreneur or an artist may not exactly 83 00:05:09,940 --> 00:05:12,080 match these people where they're at. 84 00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:16,080 Therefore this category of websites, we're just looking at places where you can create 85 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:18,840 an account and collect inspiration. 86 00:05:18,840 --> 00:05:23,920 And I think this is important because it's going to help you find overlap in visuals 87 00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:24,920 that you like. 88 00:05:24,920 --> 00:05:29,120 Going back to that hairstyle example, you want to know if you want bangs or if you don't 89 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:30,640 want bangs, that's one decision. 90 00:05:30,640 --> 00:05:35,400 But if you want bangs, you're going to have to decide if you want side swept bangs, you 91 00:05:35,400 --> 00:05:37,840 want blunt cut bangs, you want razored bangs. 92 00:05:37,840 --> 00:05:39,400 There's a lot of different styles. 93 00:05:39,400 --> 00:05:44,520 And then so what I find these websites are good for is then once you've made that baseline 94 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:48,320 decision, okay, I want bangs, what style of bangs are out there? 95 00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:53,280 And then I would basically create a mood board for that and then collect all the styles and 96 00:05:53,280 --> 00:05:56,800 photos of a specific type of bang that you like. 97 00:05:56,800 --> 00:05:59,000 So then you could take it to your hairstylist. 98 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:04,280 And we can take this example onto designers where you might find that you like this really 99 00:06:04,280 --> 00:06:09,800 specific type of book cover and you see it used a lot, but in different styles, you want 100 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:14,320 to take that to your illustrator or your book cover designer, but you're going to need a 101 00:06:14,320 --> 00:06:16,200 place to store all these images. 102 00:06:16,200 --> 00:06:20,040 And rather than just keep them on a folder on your computer, it's nice to have it online 103 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:24,160 so you can send it to a lot of different designers, get their thoughts. 104 00:06:24,160 --> 00:06:28,320 And that's why I like holding mood boards on websites, it's easier to share. 105 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:34,560 Alright, so beyond mood boarding, the next category of websites is solely for finding 106 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:39,920 inspiration for websites and these design materials. 107 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:46,040 The first two website recommendations I'm going to give you are for mostly digital design. 108 00:06:46,040 --> 00:06:47,040 That's Dribbble. 109 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:51,600 Dribbble with three Bs, D-R-I-B-B-B-L-E. 110 00:06:51,600 --> 00:06:59,120 And Dribbble is a website that a lot of user experience designers who work with apps, websites, 111 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:00,760 they showcase their work. 112 00:07:00,760 --> 00:07:04,960 And I would say that a lot of the work here tends to be a bit more startup and corporate 113 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:05,960 focused. 114 00:07:05,960 --> 00:07:09,560 So keep that in mind that is going to dictate what kind of work you see. 115 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:14,200 There are also a lot of freelancers and folks out there who use this website to showcase 116 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:15,840 their UX work. 117 00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:20,400 And I think if you're making a website from scratch, if you are a startup, this is a good 118 00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:22,440 place to look at design. 119 00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:26,020 I don't think this is the only website you should look at, however, because you are going 120 00:07:26,020 --> 00:07:28,720 to see a lot of startup and corporate style design. 121 00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:34,320 And I think sometimes that causes folks to feel like their product should only look like 122 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:35,840 the things they see on this website. 123 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:38,660 So this is just one resource I think you should use. 124 00:07:38,660 --> 00:07:44,440 The next website I'm going to recommend in the vein of user experience and online website 125 00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:47,720 design is godly.website. 126 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:52,560 It's G-O-D-L-Y dot website, regular way you spell website. 127 00:07:52,560 --> 00:07:59,840 And godly.website has a lot of websites landing pages for designers, production studios, creatives. 128 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:04,560 And I like this website because they're beautiful websites with fantastic motion design. 129 00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:08,400 If you want to work with a motion designer or someone who's really good at adding in 130 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:13,480 motion into landing pages, this is a great website for seeing what those interactions 131 00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:14,480 look like. 132 00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:19,600 I'm throwing a lot of terms out here in this podcast, like interaction designer, user interface 133 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:23,920 designer, and all of these designers basically work with digital. 134 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:28,640 So if we're talking about the experience of a website, that is user experience, and then 135 00:08:28,640 --> 00:08:32,920 there is some user research that goes into understanding what kind of experience people 136 00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:33,920 want. 137 00:08:33,920 --> 00:08:36,080 These are just more specific categories of designers. 138 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:38,880 So keep that in mind and don't get too caught up on it. 139 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:45,800 Alright, another website that I would recommend for design inspiration is Designspiration. 140 00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:48,000 And I'm going to tell you why I like this website. 141 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:53,480 It has a lot of different design inspiration from, I would say mostly print products. 142 00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:59,680 So graphic design, type, this is more classical design focusing on your print deliverables, 143 00:08:59,680 --> 00:09:00,880 but even tote bags. 144 00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:04,800 One great thing about this website is that you can break down the design inspiration 145 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:06,840 into categories of color. 146 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:11,960 So if you're trying to experiment with what a certain color would look like in reality 147 00:09:11,960 --> 00:09:17,280 on your tote bags, on your books, you can search for a specific color and then get a 148 00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:23,280 look and feel for how that would expand across all these different mediums. 149 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:25,520 So Designinspire is good for that. 150 00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:29,560 And then basically what I recommend is like looking at these websites, the first two websites 151 00:09:29,560 --> 00:09:35,260 I recommended, Dribbble and Godly website, are mostly going to be your website examples. 152 00:09:35,260 --> 00:09:39,440 So if you're working with a web designer, ideally you already have a branding package 153 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:40,440 done. 154 00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:43,280 Your branding is done, you can just send it to your web designer and then you're going 155 00:09:43,280 --> 00:09:48,240 to pick a couple of websites that you like as inspiration and then talk it over with 156 00:09:48,240 --> 00:09:49,240 your designer. 157 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:53,840 Okay, there are a few more websites to go over, two more categories. 158 00:09:53,840 --> 00:09:59,520 In this next category, we're going to talk about websites for finding stock imagery. 159 00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:04,240 And I wanted to mention this because you might be familiar with if you, but if you're getting 160 00:10:04,240 --> 00:10:10,120 into creating content online, blogging, you're going to want to use imagery and photos that 161 00:10:10,120 --> 00:10:11,680 you're allowed to use. 162 00:10:11,680 --> 00:10:16,340 And the best way to do that is to take your own photos or to use imagery that you can 163 00:10:16,340 --> 00:10:20,560 use for free just by accrediting the artist who shot the photos. 164 00:10:20,560 --> 00:10:23,560 And the first two I'm going to recommend are pretty well known. 165 00:10:23,560 --> 00:10:25,800 It's Unsplash and Paxels. 166 00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:31,760 Unsplash has a lot of photography that is shot by photographers who don't mind having 167 00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:34,220 their work used for stock imagery. 168 00:10:34,220 --> 00:10:38,600 This is one of the ways I would say that photographers can also get their work out there. 169 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:42,740 And if they don't mind their work being used for free, someone might use your work in a 170 00:10:42,740 --> 00:10:46,480 website and then they'll credit you and that is free exposure. 171 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:50,520 And I believe in that type of free exposure more than I believe in working for free. 172 00:10:50,520 --> 00:10:52,360 And then there's also Paxels. 173 00:10:52,360 --> 00:10:57,380 Paxels also is shot by studio photographers, but I would say that these images are a lot 174 00:10:57,380 --> 00:10:58,600 more evergreen. 175 00:10:58,600 --> 00:11:03,960 So they're the type of images that you could probably cut out and then place in an ad and 176 00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:07,240 it looks as though it's studio shot photography. 177 00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:12,480 So you'll find like plain pens, you'll find plain studio images of different types of 178 00:11:12,480 --> 00:11:17,760 people from let's say senior citizens to young teens, students. 179 00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:23,560 So if you're looking to find stock photography on broad categories of people or products, 180 00:11:23,560 --> 00:11:25,520 Paxels is great for that. 181 00:11:25,520 --> 00:11:30,840 All right, third website stock photo recommendation is Death to Stock. 182 00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:32,600 Now Death to Stock is not free. 183 00:11:32,600 --> 00:11:37,560 It is a subscription service, but I love this website because the creatives who make this 184 00:11:37,560 --> 00:11:43,020 work put a lot of attention to detail into creating work that you might actually want 185 00:11:43,020 --> 00:11:44,360 to look at. 186 00:11:44,360 --> 00:11:49,340 This is a type of stock photography that I feel is like made by content creators, people 187 00:11:49,340 --> 00:11:53,120 who might have a background in cinematography or storytelling. 188 00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:58,040 I feel these are the types of videos and images that you could put a really good poetic voice 189 00:11:58,040 --> 00:11:59,980 over on top of. 190 00:11:59,980 --> 00:12:05,240 And if you're creating a podcast and you have a very specific emotional storyline, Death 191 00:12:05,240 --> 00:12:06,760 to Stock is great for this. 192 00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:13,400 Death to Stock might also be good for selecting vibe-y videos that you want to add to an e-commerce 193 00:12:13,400 --> 00:12:14,400 website. 194 00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:20,120 So let's say that you have a Shopify that sells sunscreen brands to people who like 195 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:23,160 to go to the beach but care about the ocean. 196 00:12:23,160 --> 00:12:27,160 You can find a lot of really great imagery of people hanging out at the beach here and 197 00:12:27,160 --> 00:12:31,920 it's going to create a really nice vibe and you do have to pay for these videos and images 198 00:12:31,920 --> 00:12:36,720 as a subscription, but it's definitely going to be a lot cheaper than paying for content 199 00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:38,880 to be made bespoke for you. 200 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:42,440 And I really don't think you should pay for bespoke content when you're just starting 201 00:12:42,440 --> 00:12:43,440 out. 202 00:12:43,440 --> 00:12:48,960 I think it's more important to cheaply and efficiently nail down a sense of vibe in order 203 00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:52,600 to start out because ultimately it's most efficient. 204 00:12:52,600 --> 00:12:53,600 It's going to save you money. 205 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:54,960 It's going to save you time. 206 00:12:54,960 --> 00:12:59,480 Alright, let's say that you are looking for colors. 207 00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:05,040 This last website I'm going to recommend in the inspiration category is Coolors. 208 00:13:05,040 --> 00:13:08,320 That's C-O-O-L-O-R-S, Coolors. 209 00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:13,000 And Coolors is really great for showing you palettes of colors and honestly I'm going 210 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:14,120 to tell you something. 211 00:13:14,120 --> 00:13:17,520 If you listen to the branding episode, you know how I feel about colors. 212 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:22,420 I think that you should pick one color and it needs to really make sense for your brand 213 00:13:22,420 --> 00:13:25,120 and then that color can be paired with black and white. 214 00:13:25,120 --> 00:13:27,000 Easy, simple, done, recognizable. 215 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:31,560 Sometimes you're going to want to create more complex artwork and Coolors will show 216 00:13:31,560 --> 00:13:34,120 you different palette schemes. 217 00:13:34,120 --> 00:13:38,460 So that's going to be like multiple colors, at least more than one, like three, six, seven 218 00:13:38,460 --> 00:13:40,080 colors that look good together. 219 00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:43,760 Personally, I think this is overkill, but if you're an illustrator and you're creating 220 00:13:43,760 --> 00:13:47,640 complex artwork, you're going to want to see what these colors look like together. 221 00:13:47,640 --> 00:13:53,800 You can get the color codes for digital work and I think this is a great website for digital 222 00:13:53,800 --> 00:13:57,720 illustrators to use if you want to experiment with different color palettes. 223 00:13:57,720 --> 00:14:02,080 Let's say you need to have all those colors because you need a highlight, a shade, and 224 00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:03,080 more. 225 00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:06,360 You can't just create your work with one color and you don't want to. 226 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:07,680 Coolors is a great website for that. 227 00:14:07,680 --> 00:14:11,760 Again, you're going to see a lot of different colors though, and so be mindful of why you 228 00:14:11,760 --> 00:14:15,540 need multiple colors altogether and you need this inspiration. 229 00:14:15,540 --> 00:14:18,540 It's a good place to start, but again, I'm going to tell you if you're just starting 230 00:14:18,540 --> 00:14:23,360 out with branding, just choose one color and make it so simple and then only use Coolors 231 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:27,800 if you're working with someone who works with a lot of color and you need to decide together 232 00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:29,480 if those colors are going to look good. 233 00:14:29,480 --> 00:14:32,840 It'll help you decide really quickly which direction you want to go in. 234 00:14:32,840 --> 00:14:37,360 And it's also helpful for seasonal work that probably deals with more colors. 235 00:14:37,360 --> 00:14:41,420 For example, a winter palette versus a spring, summer and fall is probably going to take 236 00:14:41,420 --> 00:14:44,920 a lot more inspiration from colors that change naturally. 237 00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:47,120 But that's another reason why I'd recommend Coolors. 238 00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:49,800 It's good for seasonal brand campaign colors. 239 00:14:49,800 --> 00:14:53,640 All right, we are on our last category of website now. 240 00:14:53,640 --> 00:15:00,240 And this last category is a good place to find designers, artists, creatives, and templates. 241 00:15:00,240 --> 00:15:03,500 The first website I will recommend is Creative Market. 242 00:15:03,500 --> 00:15:08,680 If you are DIY Daniela and you're looking to make your own branding package, let's 243 00:15:08,680 --> 00:15:12,920 say that you already know what you like, but you just don't have the time to curate all 244 00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:17,080 the resources, you can buy a template off of a designer. 245 00:15:17,080 --> 00:15:22,760 And with that license, you're allowed to create your own pitch deck from their work. 246 00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:26,040 And I think this is a really great way to get started, especially if you don't have 247 00:15:26,040 --> 00:15:28,520 time for a larger branding exercise. 248 00:15:28,520 --> 00:15:33,500 I would say at least know what you like and Creative Market has a lot of examples and 249 00:15:33,500 --> 00:15:36,160 naming for like certain vibe types. 250 00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:39,800 There are a lot of trends these days and I think Creative Market is really good at nailing 251 00:15:39,800 --> 00:15:40,800 the trends. 252 00:15:40,800 --> 00:15:45,160 But one thing I would say to be wary of is try not to choose something that is too trendy. 253 00:15:45,160 --> 00:15:49,680 A lot of times I think people who don't know what their branding is or what they want to 254 00:15:49,680 --> 00:15:52,240 represent, they just try to go for something trendy. 255 00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:58,000 And I think when you go for something that's trendy, you're going to appeal to mass market, 256 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:03,260 to mass audiences based on that trend immediately, but your longevity in that style is going 257 00:16:03,260 --> 00:16:04,360 to be really low. 258 00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:08,880 Honestly, that style of design might only last you a few months and that's really not 259 00:16:08,880 --> 00:16:13,160 ideal if you're trying to create a body of work that lasts longer. 260 00:16:13,160 --> 00:16:18,320 I would say, however, if you do like a specific style of design that you see from a creator 261 00:16:18,320 --> 00:16:22,380 on Creative Market, this is a great way to get connected with designers that maybe you 262 00:16:22,380 --> 00:16:23,380 want to work with. 263 00:16:23,380 --> 00:16:27,920 And then you could pay them their by project rate or their hourly rate to continue working 264 00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:30,480 with them based upon a style you like. 265 00:16:30,480 --> 00:16:36,160 These folks are also really good at creating assets for a wide variety of online platforms, 266 00:16:36,160 --> 00:16:38,000 mainly because that's what they do. 267 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:42,560 They sell these templates and I'm sure some folks would not mind creating a bespoke for 268 00:16:42,560 --> 00:16:47,240 you with a price attached to it, but that's for you to negotiate and figure out. 269 00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:51,720 All right, the next website I'm going to recommend to you is I Love Creatives. 270 00:16:51,720 --> 00:16:55,280 It's all one word and I Love Creatives does a lot of different things. 271 00:16:55,280 --> 00:16:58,040 They have an online job board. 272 00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:04,080 They have a directory of creatives, that's designers, copywriters, content creators for 273 00:17:04,080 --> 00:17:08,360 TikTok and Instagram, and a lot of folks who are freelancers who do a lot of different 274 00:17:08,360 --> 00:17:09,360 things. 275 00:17:09,360 --> 00:17:10,960 This is another great place to hire someone. 276 00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:15,200 Let's say if you need like an all-in-one marketing person, I Love Creatives is really great for 277 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:16,720 finding folks like this. 278 00:17:16,720 --> 00:17:21,320 If you're finding you actually really love creative work and you want to do more of this 279 00:17:21,320 --> 00:17:25,820 as a freelance job or you need a little bit more training, but you don't have time to 280 00:17:25,820 --> 00:17:32,320 go back to school, I Love Creatives has courses that you can enroll in on Squarespace design, 281 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:37,040 photography, content creation, copywriting, and I think these are good ways of getting 282 00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:38,760 curated content. 283 00:17:38,760 --> 00:17:42,760 But I will also tell you, I pay for courses, I do, and I have paid for I Love Creatives 284 00:17:42,760 --> 00:17:46,640 courses on how to use Squarespace and customize it more. 285 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:51,040 I think that helped me create more bespoke websites for people who only want to create 286 00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:52,040 on Squarespace. 287 00:17:52,040 --> 00:17:56,960 But I think only pay for a course if you actually decide that's what you want to do for the 288 00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:01,960 next three to six months, because there is a curve of time to where you need to acquire 289 00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:02,960 a new skill. 290 00:18:02,960 --> 00:18:07,440 So you're going to be spending maybe 30% of your time learning that skill or 20%, depending 291 00:18:07,440 --> 00:18:09,360 on how you allocate your time. 292 00:18:09,360 --> 00:18:14,720 And after that, you're going to experience a startup period where it's going to take 293 00:18:14,720 --> 00:18:20,000 time to advertise that you have this skill in order to get clients to work on those projects. 294 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:24,440 So starting a course is not necessarily an efficient use of time if you're trying to 295 00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:28,360 include a new category as a service for you as a freelancer. 296 00:18:28,360 --> 00:18:29,480 That's just my belief. 297 00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:35,280 I think that if you want to be a freelancer, and this could be like a whole other podcast, 298 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:37,800 start with skills that you already have that you're good with. 299 00:18:37,800 --> 00:18:42,360 And so one thing I will say is just do not get distracted. 300 00:18:42,360 --> 00:18:47,520 Remember your mission, remember your brand values, your reason for being, and go on these 301 00:18:47,520 --> 00:18:51,120 websites, have fun, take a look at all they have to offer. 302 00:18:51,120 --> 00:18:55,040 But inspiration at the end of the day is just inspiration. 303 00:18:55,040 --> 00:18:58,360 Inspiration will help you create more refined branding. 304 00:18:58,360 --> 00:19:03,560 It'll help you communicate with other designers and artists, but it is not your work. 305 00:19:03,560 --> 00:19:08,880 Staying stuck in mood boarding and inspiration is not you doing the work that the brand represents. 306 00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:14,360 Okay, so we talked about four broader categories of resources for inspiration today, and this 307 00:19:14,360 --> 00:19:15,800 is a hefty episode. 308 00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:19,200 We're going to talk more about mood boarding at another episode. 309 00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:23,320 I considered including it on this one, but I don't want to overwhelm you with all the 310 00:19:23,320 --> 00:19:25,520 information that is out there. 311 00:19:25,520 --> 00:19:29,480 So let's just go ahead and review the four categories of websites. 312 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:34,880 The first category is websites for collecting inspiration, making mood boards. 313 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:38,160 That's Arena, Pinterest, and Behance. 314 00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:42,960 Second category is website inspiration and general design inspiration. 315 00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:48,680 Those websites are Dribbble, Designspiration, and Godly website. 316 00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:54,240 Third category of websites is places to find stock and color inspo, and that's Death to 317 00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:57,520 Stock, Pexels, Unsplash, and Coolers. 318 00:19:57,520 --> 00:20:03,200 And then the last category of websites is for the all-around freelancers, creatives, 319 00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:07,440 DIYers, and that's Creative Market, and I love creatives. 320 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:08,840 Go ahead and take a look at these websites. 321 00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:14,840 I would encourage you to break down each category into a 30-minute browse just so you can see 322 00:20:14,840 --> 00:20:16,080 what's out there. 323 00:20:16,080 --> 00:20:21,640 You'll be able to know what these inspiration websites are, and a lot of artists, freelancers, 324 00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:23,300 creatives work with these websites. 325 00:20:23,300 --> 00:20:26,480 So now when you talk with them, you'll know what these websites are. 326 00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:30,480 You won't just be racking your brain trying to understand what they're saying. 327 00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:33,760 And I think seeing is understanding, so look these websites up. 328 00:20:33,760 --> 00:20:36,440 And again, don't spend too much time on these websites. 329 00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:42,000 Use them for their intended purpose, but give yourself some guardrails, maybe 15 minutes 330 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:46,520 per website, and choose your categories wisely so that you do not get distracted. 331 00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:51,100 All right, so that has been our episode on resources for inspiration. 332 00:20:51,100 --> 00:20:56,100 If you are further along in your branding process, I hope this helps you to narrow down 333 00:20:56,100 --> 00:20:58,480 where you want to go with your aesthetic look. 334 00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:02,480 I hope it helps you keep your inspiration organized. 335 00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:07,280 And furthermore, if you need more help with beginner branding tools, you can listen to 336 00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:12,200 the big episode on effective branding for entrepreneurs and DIY artists. 337 00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:16,640 And if you find that you might just need a little bit more help with values, name, and 338 00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:19,000 logo, there are episodes on that as well. 339 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:20,800 Thank you so much for listening today. 340 00:21:20,800 --> 00:21:23,740 My name is Jules, and this has been the pool party. 341 00:21:23,740 --> 00:21:28,520 If you need more help with branding, if you have any questions, you can contact me on 342 00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:30,360 my portfolio website. 343 00:21:30,360 --> 00:21:37,760 That's juliaespero.me, J-U-L-I-A, Espero, E-S-P-E-R-O, dot, that's a period, me. 344 00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:51,280 Thanks for listening, and I'll talk to you next time.