All the references to create a graphic project or any other type of project are essential to achieve a more effective result, with the arrival of Internet A whole world of both graphic and theoretical information has opened up that can help us develop our projects. From social networks to pages specialized in graphic arts and creative networks, Internet It is a great ally to expand our information and be our ally.
When we talk about references we talk about copying, a reference is nothing more than information on a subject that has already been graphically resolved before with the aim of serve as a stimulus to develop new projects. If we take references from a logo on the sea sector, what we seek is not to copy that logo but to see how they resolved the idea of representing our concept "sea" graphically: colors, shapes, style, etc. For example, if we take the logo of Nike we see that it represents the speed of a sword cutting the wind, therefore we assume that the sport is related to speed. We will see some of the most used portals when looking for graphic references.
When we have to fight a blank paper it is necessary to soak up creativity to stimulate our minde and awaken our creative capacity, for this we have multiple ways of look up visual references. We can search for references in the most traditional way: museums, books, magazines ... etc or do it from specialized portals for this purpose. From social networks to pages dedicated exclusively to the branch of creativity they offer us endless ideas for future projects.
Let's see the following reference portals:
- Pinterest (references of all kinds)
- Behance (Adobe creatives network)
- deviantART (artists)
- Instagram (Social)
- Flickr (Photography)
- 500px (Photography)
- Tumblr (social and artists)
Each of these portals offer us references and the possibility of making us a account for free and to always be up to date on graphic issues.
When it comes to looking for references, we always do it thinking in advance about what we are looking for What is our project about? What I need? Is there something similar? Asking ourselves questions about what we want can help us search for references efficientlyFor example, searching by tags is a good way to get inspired by issues related to the project we have in mind. Suppose we are interested in creating an illustration / montage / graphic work based on surrealism, to have enough references we can search with the word «surrealism» as label In the portal Pinterest (or in any other) with this search we will obtain general references where we will get all kinds of projects with this tag, the ideal is to search after specific artists that we have seen in this first general search.
Therefore, when we do a search for graphic references, the ideal is to do it as follows:
- First, general to have a search with many artists that they touch that subject.
- Second focused on a specific artist to find the same style.
Pinterest turns out to be a powerful ally as it is a social network that allows users to quickly create a board (album) with content on a specific topic, thus always having a personal catalog. If you want to have other types of graphic references and resources you can read this mail.
Search for references with the aim to inspire us to see how they have resolved graphic themes on various concepts is something that we can solve through this type of portals. Suppose we need to create a logo about the sea and we want to know how they have solved this problem graphically before, for this what we can do is write in Pinterest The label "sea logo" will give us many references of logos on this subject related to the sea and will help us to better visualize the idea.
Search by categories is something that always helps a lot when it comes to finding references about specific topics, the platform deviantART It has a search engine for references that will help us to search for specific content.
Another way to search for references is to do it from our great friend Google Through a general search for a topic, for example if we want to carry out a surreal illustration project we can write in Google: surrealist artists, later we write down those names and we can search for them in the portals previously seen in this post.
Whatever our project we have multiple options to inspire and motivate our minds in search of creative solutionsTaking advantage of the power of the networks is something that we should not miss.