Welcome to The Creative Brief. Your newsletter to help you be more creative and stay inspired.

In this issue:
📚 3 Resources for Better Inspo
🎵 World’s First Album Art
🍕 Epic Pizza Shop Branding
💡 How to Have Good Ideas

3 Resources for Better Inspo

These are three of the absolute best resources for visual creatives. Moodboards? Check. Design inspo? Check. General vibes? Check. Even better they are all totally free.

Are.na

Most underrated tool for visual creatives.

Not enough people know about or use Arena, and they should. Think of it like Wikipedia meets Tumblr. The key is to chase rabbit holes and use it as a discovery tool to find some of the best inspo.

If you need somewhere to start, follow Elizabeth Goodspeed. Absolutely prolific Art Director that has the most wonderfully curated Arena boards.

Savee

Highly curated resource for design + art direction inspo.

I have shared it before, and I’ll share it again. Savee is another excellent resource for art direction, idea generation, design references, and just general visual excellence.

You can follow individuals and create your own boards. I use this tool at some point on every single project.

Eyecandy

Incredible web + social resource fo visual techniques.

Eyecandy is an ever expanding database of over 5,000 GIFs representing the very best visual techniques in the world of filmmaking.

New techniques and shots are regularly broken down in detail on their Instagram as well, so they are excellent as an educational tool, or to help build decks and moodboards for your next project.

World’s First Album Art

Alex Steinweiss designed what is considered to be the first album cover in 1939.

While working as Columbia Records first ever Art Director, he convinced the Imperial Theatre to change their marquee signage one evening to get the shot.

Albums to this point were typically packaged and sold in simple paper or cardboard sleeves. Over a decades long career Steinweiss created thousands of record covers and shaped the world of album art as we know it.

Epic Pizza Shop Branding

This pizza spot in Finland took a bold approach with their branding.

Sitko Pizza launched in 2022 with a stark black & white brand identity. At the core of the striking design system is a ball of pizza dough that can be stretched and squished to fit the desired medium.

Incorporating elements of the counterculture, punk rock and horror films they've created an identity system that is truly unique to the artisan pizza space

A little bit pizza, a little bit rock & roll. What are your thoughts? 👀 🍕

How to Have Good Ideas

🚫 Try to brainstorm a good idea.

✅ Regularly brainstorm as many ideas as possible.

"The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas" - Linus Pauling

The inverse of this is also true. The absolute WORST way to have a good idea, is to sit down at your desk and set out to crack the code. To have your divine “aha” moment.

The solution? Keep thinking. Keep dreaming. Keep getting inspired. The good ideas will flow. They just might be stuck behind a few bad ones.

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What have you been inspired by lately?

Talk soon!
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