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I’ve collected screen shots, links, quotes and other design related items over the years in the hopes of using them for design inspiration on future projects. The problem is, I’ve got this “stuff” stored everywhere: Evernote, delicious, PowerPoint slide decks, local and online file storage locations… it goes on.

Ideally I would be able to browse visually as well as search by tags or text. I suppose that sounds a lot like Evernote, but I’m interested in even better alternatives (if they exist).

Has anyone figured out a unified repository that works as an inspiration library?

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I'm probably a bit messy here; I just have a folder in my browser bookmarks called 'inspire' where I dump links. I browse through it in quiet periods and rename the links to relevant tags so I can refer back to it whenever I need them. Nothing more complex than that for me though.

I'm in my browser all the time anyway so it seems the best way of doing it. You can sync your bookmarks to other browsers / devices so you've always got that list there whenever you want it.

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I capture a screen shot and save it to an Inspirations folder. I browse through it regularly.

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  • I should really start doing this myself... – Ben Brocka Nov 16 '11 at 16:50
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I use SnagIt to take screenshots of things that inspire me, and then tag them in the program so that I can later search for images based on tags. It has some pretty useful features including saving longer webpages that don't fit on a single screen as a single image, as well as simple and fast image editing.

There is a mac version out.

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I use LittleSnapper and Voila on MacOSX for my inspiration collection and browsing. You can create dynamic folders (e.g. by tags) and annotations.

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I use a notebook within Evernote.

  • Evernote is cross platform (but machine based so doesn't need an internet connection)
  • It allows screenshots and text to be captured easily from various browser extensions or just copy / paste
  • It is free so long as you don't hit the fairly spacious limits
  • You can share notes if you want.
  • There are iPad / Android apps, so I can sync photos and mobile content as well.
  • Notes are tagable and searchable.
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I also use LittleSnapper on MacOSX which as sysscore mentions has the advantage of allowing you to tag images and create collections, so you don't have to sift through a huge folder of links or images. I actually save my LittleSnapper archive to Dropbox and link to it from all the machines that I use LittleSnapper on (i.e. home and work) so that it effectively acts as a single repository. You could of course do all this with Evernote, but for some reason I have never managed to stick with it!!

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Honestly, I mostly use books.

UX and web design make out to be these wacky and new fields, but really, they are solidly grounded in art, graphic design and psychology. I have a large library of actual printed books, not the Kindle editions, and I refer to them constantly.

On the web, I use the same methods as listed by the other respondents here ... evernote, bookmarks, screenshots, etc.

But my point is that the web is often an echo chamber. I find the best true inspiration comes from a visit to a museum, watching people in a busy cafe, or sitting down with a fine art book for rich visual food.

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I'm also in the browser and have categorized into many folders such as Creative design/graphic design/Logo deign/Typography/Books/UX...etc. And what ever i have found interesting/inspiring i keep on bookmarking those sites and visit them every day as content gets updated everyday on any site which also keeps us upto mark with industry.

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