Ink
Deck

Insp·01

Awwwards

Daily awards for web design, judged and scored. Good for seeing where the craft bar sits.

awwwards.com Insp·02

SiteInspire

Tightly curated web showcase, filterable by style, type and industry. Very little noise.

siteinspire.com Insp·03

Behance

Full project case studies rather than single shots. Best for branding and editorial work.

behance.net Insp·04

Dribbble

Fast visual scroll of UI, icons and lettering. Treat it as a mood source, not a spec.

dribbble.com Insp·06

Are.na

Slow, quiet research boards. Build channels of references and connect them over time.

are.na Insp·05

Pinterest

The widest net for moodboards. Search in specifics — "1970s packaging", not "cool design".

pinterest.com Insp·07

Savee

Image board with a strong art-direction bias and far less commercial clutter.

savee.it Insp·08

Cosmos

Visual collection app that surfaces related work as you save. Strong for mood building.

cosmos.so Insp·09

Land-book

Landing pages sorted by category and color. Useful when you need layout precedent fast.

land-book.com Insp·10

The Brand Identity

Identity work with the thinking attached — interviews, process shots, rollout detail.

the-brandidentity.com Insp·11

Identity Designed

Archive of brand identity case studies, heavy on print and packaging applications.

identitydesigned.com Insp·12

Brand New

Rebrands reviewed with an actual opinion. Read it to sharpen how you critique work.

underconsideration.com

Type·01

Google Fonts

The free workhorse library, with variable axes and easy self-hosting downloads.

fonts.google.com Type·02

Fontshare

Free-for-commercial-use faces with real personality. The fastest way out of default type.

fontshare.com Type·03

Velvetyne

Libre type foundry with experimental, opinionated display faces. Free to use and modify.

velvetyne.fr Type·04

Uncut

Curated open-source type, presented as a specimen wall you can scroll and test.

uncut.wtf Type·05

Collletttivo

Italian open-source foundry. Small catalogue, high hit rate for editorial projects.

collletttivo.it Type·06

Font Squirrel

Licence-checked free fonts plus a webfont generator for converting your own files.

fontsquirrel.com Type·07

Typewolf

Type in the wild, with the pairings named. The best reference for what actually works.

typewolf.com Type·08

Fonts In Use

Archive of typefaces in real projects, indexed by format, industry and period.

fontsinuse.com Type·09

Fontpair

Ready-made display and body combinations when you need a pairing in two minutes.

fontpair.co Type·10

WhatTheFont

Upload a photo or screenshot and it identifies the typeface. Handy for client references.

myfonts.com

Colr·01

Coolors

Generate and lock palettes with the spacebar, then export to any format you need.

coolors.co Colr·02

Adobe Color

Harmony rules, palette extraction from images, and built-in accessibility checks.

color.adobe.com Colr·03

Color Hunt

Hand-picked four-color palettes. Fastest option when you just need a starting point.

colorhunt.co Colr·04

Huemint

Generates palettes against a real layout — brand, poster or web — instead of bare chips.

huemint.com Colr·05

Khroma

Train it on colors you like, then it only shows you combinations in that direction.

khroma.co Colr·06

Happy Hues

Palettes shown as a working page, so you can see which color does which job.

happyhues.co Colr·07

Realtime Colors

Drop your palette onto a live site mockup and judge it in context before committing.

realtimecolors.com Colr·08

WebAIM Contrast

Check text against background for WCAG AA and AAA. Settles arguments about legibility.

webaim.org

Asst·01

Unsplash

Free high-resolution photography. Search by color to match an existing palette.

unsplash.com Asst·02

Pexels

Free photos and stock video in one library, with fewer of the same overused frames.

pexels.com Asst·03

Rawpixel

Restored public-domain art, vintage ephemera and botanical plates. Great for collage.

rawpixel.com Asst·04

The Noun Project

Enormous icon library covering obscure concepts other icon sets never bother with.

thenounproject.com Asst·05

Lucide

Clean open-source icon set with consistent stroke weight. Copy as SVG straight out.

lucide.dev Asst·06

Phosphor Icons

One icon family in six weights, from hairline to filled. Rare flexibility for a free set.

phosphoricons.com Asst·07

Iconify

Searches two hundred-plus icon sets at once. Start here when nothing else has the shape.

iconify.design Asst·08

unDraw

Editable vector illustrations that recolor to your brand hex before you download.

undraw.co Asst·09

Transparent Textures

Tileable grain, paper and noise overlays. The cheapest way to kill a flat digital surface.

transparenttextures.com Hero Patterns

Hero Patterns

Repeating SVG backgrounds with adjustable color and opacity. Copy-paste ready.

heropatterns.com

Tool·01

Figma

Where most layout, UI and handoff work happens now. Free tier covers solo projects.

figma.com Tool·02

Photopea

Opens PSD, AI, Sketch and XD files in the browser. Free rescue when you lack the app.

photopea.com Tool·03

Squoosh

Compress images with a live before-and-after slider so you can see the quality you lose.

squoosh.app Tool·04

SVGOMG

Strips the junk out of exported SVGs. Often cuts file size by half with no visible change.

jakearchibald.github.io Tool·05

remove.bg

Cuts subjects out of photos automatically, including hair edges. Good enough for comps.

remove.bg Tool·06

Vectorizer.ai

Converts raster logos to clean vector paths when the client only sent you a JPEG.

vectorizer.ai Tool·07

Haikei

Generates SVG blobs, waves, grids and stacked shapes you can tune and export.

haikei.app Tool·08

Blobmaker

One job, done well: organic blob shapes as SVG, with controls for complexity.

blobmaker.app Tool·09

Mockup World

Free PSD mockups for packaging, stationery, signage and devices. Check each licence.

mockupworld.co Tool·10

Type Scale

Preview a modular type scale at a chosen ratio and copy the CSS out. Two-minute job.

typescale.com

Lern·01

It's Nice That

Daily coverage of new work across illustration, type and identity. Broad and current.

itsnicethat.com Lern·02

Eye on Design

AIGA's magazine. Writes about design history, labour and politics, not just visuals.

eyeondesign.aiga.org Lern·03

Creative Review

Long-running UK title covering advertising, branding and the business behind the work.

creativereview.co.uk Lern·04

Practical Typography

Butterick's free book on setting text properly. Read the summary of key rules first.

practicaltypography.com Lern·05

Thinking with Type

Ellen Lupton's companion site. The clearest primer on letter, text and grid there is.

thinkingwithtype.com Lern·06

Letterform Archive

Digitised type specimens and graphic design history, photographed at absurd resolution.

letterformarchive.org Lern·07

Design Observer

Essays and criticism about why design decisions matter beyond how they look.

designobserver.com Lern·08

Refactoring UI

Concrete fixes for interface work — spacing, hierarchy, depth. Aimed at non-UI designers.

refactoringui.com