It’s a good thing to look for inspiration outside of the usual online web design galleries and books—and it’s easier to be original this way. Here are some unusual Flickr groups to find inspiration.
Flickr groups
Flickr is an invaluable source of inspiration: I try to save some time almost every day to just wonder through the thousands of beautiful photos and designs uploaded by truly amazing artists.
One of the good things about Flickr is the infinity of subjects that it covers, and that is especially evident when browsing groups. Some Flickr groups are precious collections of powerful visual pieces that we have access to at any time and for free (it’s cheaper than buying books on the subjects!).
So how can you draw inspiration from these groups and apply it to web design? In a million different ways:
- Look at different ways of organizing information
- Take inspiration from the colour pallets
- Figure out what doesn’t work and how you could translate some improvements to the web
- Find solutions for other problems that can have a parallel on a website design, …
Unusual Inspirational Flickr Groups
Vintage Cookbooks
994 members, 5,251 photos (to this date)
Pictures of vintage cookbook covers and page illustrations, from wacky to wonderful. Pamphlets, menus and old cooking advertisements and ephemera are also welcome!!
Manuscripta mediaevalia
165 members, 1,186 items (to this date)
Postage Stamps!
556 members, 5,521 items (to this date)
Postage stamps from all over. I like collecting stamp but I do not have a large collection. HEre is a group to share those beautiful stamps you or someone you know have to many without wearing the stamp book.
Character Doodles
675 members, 8,205 items (to this date)
Doodles are necessary for art to survive. They serve almost as waste removers, churning out the bizzare, raw ideas that pop into our heads and planting them on paper. Doodles act a way to see what the person was thinking at the time, what they were feeling and how they got their ideas for bigger pieces of art. So if you can think of nothing better to do when you are sitting at a desk at school or at work then filling a sheet with wild characters and patterns or whatever else you think of, then be cool and join this group.
Oodles of Doodles
389 members, 4,374 items (to this date)
Did you know doodles are healing? Did you know doodles can help you work through ‘baggage’ cluttering your subconcious mind? I got the idea for this group from www.sacreddoodles.com.
Post your doodles here. I don’t want ‘professional and polished’ I want ‘honest and spontaneous’.
Let’s make this a family safe place so all ages can use it. In other words, if you wouldn’t want your grandmother or a child to see it, please post it elsewhere.
Mail Art
811 members, 5,769 items (to this date)
The envelope is the musuem. Share photos or scans of art sent through the postal service.
Handmade Envelopes
270 members, 571 items (to this date)
Handmade envelopes, including those made for practical purposes or as art, using paper, fabric, or other materials. If it’s an envelope and you made it yourself, it goes here!
Vintage Wallpaper
255 members, 609 items (to this date)
Share vintage wallpaper here! It can be scanned from your own remnant rolls or even photographed on walls just about anywhere. Anywhere you can capture the image of vintage wallpaper, we’d love to see! Reproduction wallpaper accepted into the group as well at this time.
Fruits – Japanese street fashion
1,672 members, 1,138 items
The group for lovers of Harajuku street fashion – made famous by the book Fruits. Please post only photos of street fashion in Japan rather than catwalk fashion, vaguely Japanese girls in normal clothes or (especially) just underwear!
Japanese Fabric
570 members, 4,204 items (to this date)
A place to upload your Japanese fabric photos. I place for us to see what is available. A place to be inspired.
You can share…..
Swap pics.
WIP pics.
Crafting pics.
Fabric swatch pics.Enjoy…
LOMO street photography
309 members, 546 items (to this date)
Shootin’ everyday life on streets, only lca alowed.
The Art of Tattooing…
1,419 members, 5,664 photos (to this date)
Showing off you best work as a Tattoo Artist,Tattooed Person ,or just a fan of epidermal Art . Human bill boards of emotions, thoughts and memory’s. Expressing one self though the art of Tattooing.
Azulejos de Portugal
321 members, 2,924 items (to this date)
A photographic tour of Portuguese tiles (aka azulejos), which adorn the inside and outside of many of our buildings.
Child’s Art
487 members, 4,199 items (to this date)
i’ve always been intrigued with children’s drawings/paintings. from scribbles with ink to saturated colorful fingerpaintings. children are artists in the truest form. they are so utterly free, no constraints!
i have countless scribbles and drawings of my daughters to look at. she never stops. i love it and want to share. the abstract part of it is particularily interesting.
so please if you have a child’s art to share please do. share what you see or what the artist has said about each piece. it’s always interesting to know the age of the artist but not necessary. let’s say (as a guide line) 12 and under. sounds good, they’re still young enough to eat free at most places. hee hee
Pretty Sketchy
517 members, 110 items (to this date)
Sketchbooks are not about being a good artist, they’re about being a good thinker. In the spirit of awareness, I’ve set up a Flickr group for this very purpose. Post one, and only one, spread/page from your sketchbook. It’s always fun to see how everyone else’s mind works.
stencils
1,424 members, 30,869 photos (to this date)
it is a group for stencils you see in public.
Mid-Century, Modern Interiors
3,095 members, 8,382 items (to this date)
Furnishings and interiors — both mid-century modern and current designs inspired by the clean mid-century aesthetic.
Particularly interested in your images of rooms featuring pieces by Bertoia, Braakman, Deam, Eames, Ekselius, Heywood-Wakefield, Jacobsen, Juhl, Kagen, Kjaerholm, Knoll, Loewy, McCobb, Noguchi, Nelson, Paulin, Pucci, Risom, Saarinen, Schultz, Van der Rohe, Vignelli, Vodder, Wegner, Wormley, etc.
1950’s Interior Design and Residential architecture
1,283 members, 3,263 items (to this date)
This is for those of us folks who are remodeling (restoring?) 1950’s homes. Welcome are current 50’s homes, (interior and exterior) and the good and bad of ALL 50’s design (not just mid-century modern).
Vintage decorating
1,064 members, 7,390 items (to this date)
Do you love decorating with pieces of the past? Do you enjoy using family heirlooms or vintage finds from antique stores or flea markets to add charm to your home? Show us the ways you incorporate vintage treasures into your home decorating!
home dressing and useful art
1,747 members, 14,756 items (to this date)
Home dressing, it’s a group for all of the beautiful things and handmade works who dressing the house ,even… food ,bags, clothings at home ,before and after upgrading,small corners at home, patios, old vintage collections at home and all those littel things who makes the house ,a cozy home.
Gorgeous Cupcakes
1,276 members, 11,161 items (to this date)
Gorgeous cupcakes that are unique, stylish & a cut above the rest! Post pictures of your gorgeous cupcakes! (but please not too many of the same cupcakes – we don’t want to overload the site). Enjoy!
Not enough cupcakes?
More Groups
These groups may not be as unusual as sources of inspiration, but they are still a good step away from a web design gallery:
Art Nouveau
1,011 members, 5,417 photos (to this date)
Bienvenue! This group is for Art Nouveau in all of its forms, both architectural, artistic, domestic and portable. You may include both your own Art Nouveau photographs and those of others illustrating Art Nouveau.
Folk Typography
1,107 members, 601 items (to this date)
Folk Typography, aka “outsider typography”. Surprising, original letterforms created by people who are not designers, typographers, calligraphers, or graffiti artists– in other words, people outside of all traditional schools of typographic influence. The unschooled world is full of unwitting innovations. Let’s find them and celebrate them!
Found Type
2,317 members, 17,056 items (to this date)
This is a collection of typography found in everyday life. signs, signage, hand-lettered signs, anything that inspires you.
Signpaintr
560 members, 3,691 items (to this date)
Signpaintr is dedicated to the lost art of sign painting and hand-drawn lettering.
Pictures posted here celebrate the lovingly-crafted typography of yesterday’s (and today’s) hand-painted signs and lettering.
An emphasis is placed on skilled design and quality craftsmanship. And no computer or machine-made typography allowed!
Further reading
For more design-related groups you can checkout Vandelay Design’s blog post with a list of 99 Flickr Groups for Design Inspiration.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this list, and can find some new ways of being inspired on Flickr.
These are only a few of my favourite groups. What are your favourite groups?