Inspiring Instagram accounts to avoid creative block
These accounts should help cut through the sensory overload of Instagram and provide inspiration if you are at a creative ebb.
@coverjunkie – editorial
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Run by Jaap Biemans, @coverjunkie is an account that celebrates the best of magazine cover design. Offline, Biemans works as an art director for Volkskrant Magazine in the Netherlands. He says designing covers is the “acest thing to do” and describes the process as “an intuitive way of thinking, a way of observing and questioning the subject”. A scroll down Bieman’s account reveals covers from around the world and across all subjects from Bloomberg Businessweek, to a Singaporean zine called Rubbish.
@accidentallywesanderson – interiors
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As the name suggests, @accidentallywesanderson is an Instagram account inspired by the film director and his quirky-quaint creative style. Each post features a different place found around the world, with a look that could have been cut from one of Anderson’s films. Interiors inspiration then is common and surprisingly diverse: recent features include the “strawberry milkshake-coloured” interiors of a Singaporean train station and an Italian pastry shop. With many of the posts giving a nod to Anderson’s love of pastels, it’s also a good place to pick up colour palette ideas too.
@subliming.jpg – typography
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The founder of @subliming.jpg, New York-based designer and art director Tessa Forrest, describes the account as “letting colour and feelings lead the way”. Forrest’s posts are mainly typographic explorations of written messages as well as some colourful photoshoots. Variety is her winning formula with posts ranging from a Miles Davis quote in green and white sans serif, to a monochrome Albert Einstein passage in a swirly serif script. Many of the text posts have a philosophical bent to them, meaning it might be helpful for those in a real creative slump.
@unnecessaryinventions – product
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While it might not provide much practical inspiration, the imagination and light-hearted approach of @unnecessaryinventions is full of whimsy and irreverence. Perfect for the frustrated product designer. It’s run by Matty Benedetto, who describes himself as “the product designer who designs and creates the internet’s most unnecessary things”. When it comes to how useful or not Benedetto’s products are, you can judge for yourself: recent posts include the “Plantstation 5”, a set of custom faceplates for the latest Playstation so you can plant flowers on the console; and the Sizzling Scooper, a spoon with an integrated lighter to help melt that first scoop of ice cream from the tub.
@designseeds – colour
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Jessica Colaluca first set up Design Seeds in 2009, after a career working in corporate design for the likes of Ford, Reebok and Timberland. Throughout her previous work she says she had always catalogued her colour work in an endless supply of sketch books, and Design Seeds is the online output of this work. Each Seeds post features an image and a break down of the colours included with HEX codes for reference.
@blank_poster – graphics
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Billed as an “open creative platform”, the @blank_poster account encourages creativity by giving its followers a random single-word prompt each week. Those up for the challenge then are tasked with designing a poster based on that word. Past prompts have been as diverse as “gravity”, “cold” and “private”. The styles the different posters sport are equally as varied – expect to see colourful modernism, monochrome surrealism and altogether more experimental efforts in equal measure.
@presentandcorrect – photography (and organisation)
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Running alongside its eponymous online stationery shop, @presentandcorrect is a good source for colour, art direction, photography and – of course – organisation. Posts speak to a natural human desire for order: think perfectly aligned edges, colour-coordination and good storage. Also included in the account’s feed are the odd idiosyncratic picture, like a tree made of traffic lights, making it a fruitful source of inspiration.
@idea.ltd – print
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Another account which features cover design in all its glory, @idea.ltd is run by Idea, a bookseller with offices in London. It’s more focused on books than magazines, and is the place to go for vintage cover design inspiration. Expect lots of photography, film stills and typography from past eras. Recent book cover designs featured by the account include Cats Around the Zodiac and a 1978 sneaker catalogue.
@swatch_bharat – colour and graphics
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Kawal Oberoi told Design Week last year that he initially established @swatch_bharat as a way to record the daily examples of Indian graphic design he sees. Oberoi says Western influences mean these examples are on the decline in many parts of the country, so the account is a chance to preserve and find inspiration from them. Posts each come with colour swatches and are organised into series. He says they’re open for anyone to take inspiration from.
What are you favourite accounts to kickstart inspiration? Let us know in the comments below…
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