After 15 years of design experience, I am always looking for new ways to find creative ideas. I always have some go-to but others are new and I find that it is good to revise this every year. Here are some of the methods and places that I go to.

Below are the 5 creative tools for ideation:

1. Pinterest > No brainer here. This platform has been an important part of creative ideas and being able to save and go back to ideas. And it is where I do an initial idea thought and/or if there is something that I am trying to figure out a new way to look at. Like an Earth logo, get ideas on how others tackle that and generate something new from there.

2. Magazines or e-brochures > This is old and with the current climate it is hard to get into a store but I would go into stores and look at how business outside my company and see how they handle product information, layout, stories, etc. I would look at bride dresses, bikes, surfing, video games, for those ideas to bring a different thought pattern to what is existing in the company I am in.

3. Envato > There are a lot of divisions to Envato but they provide a wealth of templates, music, images, etc. But it is a great place to generate ideas and jump-started projects. I always like sites that allow you to save collections to create areas to go back to for quick ideation.

4. Awwwards.com > In terms of the latest and greatest in innovation and ideation for websites this to me is the go-to. I love that they are constantly adding and it is global. Allowing you to see sites that you would never stumble upon elsewhere. Great for website or app ideation.

5. Behance.net > Of course Adobe itself has a lot of great resources but Behance is another great avenue to look at other designers and how they handle all types and mediums of creativity. Also, a great place to not just ideate but connect with other creative people. Filter and sorting for this site have gotten better and the recommendations are highly topical, which is similar to the search patterns on Pinterest.