12 Best User Generated Sites For Inspiration

Posted in ResourcesApr 03, 08 | 06:16 pm

Mubashar Iqbal

Sites like Digg prove that user generated content works, but aggregating news is one thing, can they inspire you?

Below you’ll find a list of the best user generated sites to visit when you’re looking for a little inspiration.

Flickr

Flickr

http://www.flickr.com

Allows you to organize and share your photographs with others. A great source of visual inspiration (like my collection of inspiring cityscapes), and also a good place to find some free photographs to use in the your next project, but be sure to check the license first.


Deviant Art

Deviant Art

http://www.deviantart.com

One of the largest art communities where you can submit your art, collect favorites, and track your friends and favorite artists.


Carbonmade

Carbonmade

http://www.carbonmade.com

Users build a portfolio of their work for you to view — always good to see what others are doing.


Colour Lovers

ColourLovers

http://www.colourlovers.com

Users select and vote for their favorite colors and color palettes.


Logo Pond

LogoPond

http://www.logopond.com

More logos than you can shake a stick at. Although the users don’t get to select what appears on the homepage (yet — hint, hint!) all the logos that are added to the gallery are viewable. A great place to visit if you’re looking for a little brand inspiration.


Cool Site Collection

Cool Site Collection

http://www.coolsitecollection.com

User powered Web design gallery. Members submit and vote on these submissions to select which designs are featured on the homepage.


Vimeo

Vimeo

http://www.vimeo.com/

A thriving community of people who love to make and share video.


Design Snack

DesignSnack

http://www.designsnack.com

A user-controlled web design showcase, mainly focused on CSS/XHTML (Web Standards) and Flashed-based designs. The members decide which websites are showcased on the front page and which websites aren’t.


Open Source Web Design

Open Source Web Design

http://www.oswd.org

Users share their free web design templates.


Design Float

DesignFloat

http://www.designfloat.com

Yes it’s a lot like Digg, but it’s for designers, with plenty of user submitted inspiration to go round.


Illypads

IllyPads

http://www.illypads.com

A gallery of beautiful illustrations submitted by users.


Open Source Vector Art

Open Source Vector Art

http://www.vectorart.org

Open source vector art design showcase where the community gets to pick the best designs to be showcased on the front page.


Which user generated sites do you get inspiration from?

Share:
  • del.icio.us
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Design Float
  • DZone
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter

Author: Mubashar Iqbal
Mubashar Iqbal is the creator of Most Inspired, a web designer and developer, who has been building websites for over 13 years. You can read his blog at Mubashar Iqbal

inspiring commentary

avatar

April 4th, 2008 at 2:22 amTravis

You forgot a couple goodies Mubs:

http://ffffound.com/

http://www.behance.net/


avatar

April 4th, 2008 at 2:30 amNikesox

Nice collection here!


avatar

April 4th, 2008 at 6:51 am» 12 Best User Generated Sites For Inspiration Webcreatives

[...] 12 Best User Generated Sites For Inspiration Related StuffNiche Galleries77 Resources to Simplify Your Life as a Web Designer65 Resources for Grid-Based Design70 Resources Professional Web Designers Choose to FollowTop 12 CSS Frameworks and How to Understand ThemCSS Development Collection Project 6 Web Design Tips from Leonardo da Vinci101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web SiteThe Evolution of Websites: How 10 Popular Websites Have (And Have Not) ChangedHow to ruin your website in 10 easy steps [...]


avatar

April 4th, 2008 at 7:51 amthomas

Hi,
thx for this list of inspirational resources. i am geeting some inspiration from the sites people submit to my own site: http://sharebrain.info :-)

all the best,
thomas


avatar

April 4th, 2008 at 8:34 amTal

imcandy.com – a video portal that pays.


avatar

April 4th, 2008 at 11:06 amJonathan Smith

How about the

World’s Largest Collaborative Painting?

http://webcanvas.com


avatar

April 4th, 2008 at 12:29 pmigreenspot

nice list, I do visit carbonmade and deviantart, a lot of talented artists there …


avatar

April 4th, 2008 at 1:47 pmMatt G

There’s a great site for independent music called thesixtyone.com.

I’ve found some great music there.


avatar

April 4th, 2008 at 2:44 pmdm

OSWD hasn’t been updated for many months, a better example would be the very active http://www.opendesigns.org/.


avatar

April 4th, 2008 at 4:48 pmNik Chankov

Thanks for sharing some of the services I really doesn’t know :)


avatar

April 4th, 2008 at 11:30 pmlinks for 2008-04-05 « memor.ia blog

[...] 12 Best User Generated Sites For Inspiration | Most Inspired Blog (tags: color design home) [...]


avatar

April 5th, 2008 at 8:32 pmGiles Dawe

Sketchplanet is pretty good for finding pictures:
http://www.sketchplanet.com


avatar

April 7th, 2008 at 1:41 amAZ Web Design Studio

Deviant Art is by far one of the greatest websites for any artist looking for inspiration. When I was in art school I used to check the website for a few hours just trying to get inspired, and 80 percent of the time deviant art really helped get my internal pistons moving.


avatar

April 7th, 2008 at 9:28 am12 Best User Generated Sites For Inspiration | White Sands Digital

[...] all sites that we need/should be visiting daily, at least i know will be visiting them daily now.read more | digg story Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can [...]


avatar

April 8th, 2008 at 5:24 amEnlaces rápidos XXV | Infected-FX

[...] Los usuarios generan inspiraciónUn listado de sitios donde los usuarios alimentan los mismos y que te pueden servir de inspiración. Vía Carrero [...]


avatar

April 10th, 2008 at 11:35 pmwoo

This is another good one.

http://designgrabs.com

It is a social design gallery. Like Delicious for design junkies.


avatar

April 14th, 2008 at 8:16 ambathroombuzz

nice website collections for designers


avatar

February 24th, 2010 at 4:10 amGeneral Chaos

I found a new one http://impressonme.com/

Very simple. Only content.

Fast, no flash, easy to find pictures, tags, categories.