Hello future me (and you, dear reader)

Chinese New Year officially starts today and I know you might find it challenging to get your head back in the game. So here’s a curated list of inspirational websites to browse after you’ve collected your red packets and recovered from reunion dinners.

None of these are AI-driven. There’s enough of that going around, check these out:

1. Cosmos

It’s basically a professional Pinterest. No shade against Pinterest, but the overall feed has gotten a lot more memeish in recent years alongside AI artworks. Cosmos offers the same layout with a fresh perspective that’s definitely catered towards creative professionals looking for something sleek and clean.

2. Designspiration

The most interesting thing about this site is that you can find images based on similar colour palettes – which isn’t something I’ve seen on any creative collective so far. That aside, it has a specific variety of topics ranging from 3D, international typography, movie posters and sports photography.

*Personal reminder to browse through the packaging and Japanese design section.

3. The Creative Independent

This is an archive of post-it notes by creatives, and has entries with dates as early as 2016. There’s an impressive range of creative professionals (cookbook author, DJ, choreographer, game designer, etc) sharing their personal journeys and/or advices for people stepping into the scene. What a thoughtful project, and a great place for aspiring creatives to understand their craft from a different perspective.

4. Godly / Landbook

As a website builder, my default spot for inspiration has been Awwwards and Lapaninja. Both of which are amazing, but it’s gotten wordier and more Behance-esque recently. On the other hand, Godly and Landbook cut through the noise by making the platform extremely visual and interactive. I haven’t had the opportunity to look through everything, but both of these sites will be my latest eye-candy.

5. Soot World

A friend of mine shared this one. It’s a spatial directory which allows you to look up keywords, create your own soot world as reference or explore another person’s world based on your references or interests. You can also group similar images together in your search. I think it’s a fun concept and worth checking out at least once, but it’s not practical for efficiency imo.

Bonus 1: Directors Library

I stumbled on this one by chance, it’s a goldmine for cinematographers. It’s very official, there are heaps of of music videos, campaigns, TV & film. I was paying more attention to the website’s layout more than the content and can vouch for the effective interface – clean and to the point.

Bonus 2: Active Theory

This website is insane. Words don’t do it justice, just click the link. Huge props to the team.

Alright, that should set off a wave of inspiration for you. If you didn’t get lost in the links and came back to read this final paragraph, I’d like to wish you a prosperous year ahead full of meaningful hardships and adventure.

Horses don’t stop, they keep going.
新年快乐，祝你马到功成，身体健康，财气满满，四季平安 。