DesignersMX is a new kind of online inspiration platform. Made by designers, for designers to source inspiration in music, books, videos, design and photography.

Started back in 2011 by designers Blake Allen and Josh Sullivan, DesignersMX was about finding and sharing new music through like minded creatives. It allows you to create playlists from online music services like Spotify and radio, you can upload a unique cover design for each playlist, then share it with fellow designers.

The project evolved gradually into a big creative inspiration mix, a cross-over project between other online inspiration platforms like Behance or Pinterest, but more focused on original artworks from new designers.

This is no FFFFOUND [ http://ffffound.com/ ], most creative works are especially made for this website. This is almost a community, artists discovering other artists, most of them being creators, not just “creative consumers”.

You can find lots of new people to collaborate with here. Each user has a profile page with their contact info and the works they upload. Users here are called ‘mixers’.

Creativity is mostly connecting the dots, taking inspiration from different sources and repurposing it, mixing it into other works. A web designer can be inspired by a retro poster, a video director can take ideas from the music playlists and come up with brand new concepts for new videos and so on.

I like this platform because is not too known, always fresh with new works – a little ‘gem of inspiration’. When on the lookout for a new style, or a certain mood, I can browse the website or maybe listen to a mixed playlist and inspiration strikes.

Beyond the visual inspiration, the platform can offer a lot of musical inspiration.

Indie music is at home here, you can discover new music artists that can always fuel your creativity with a new vibe.

DesignersMX is a great starting point if you’re looking for album cover inspiration, some of the artworks are quite stunning:

http://designers.mx/

designers.mx

designers.mx

The Videos section is full of the latest music videos, commercials, creative interviews and talks, random student video projects and lots more:

In the Books section you can find indie books on creativity, self published projects and the Photos section can spark ideas even for senior art directors that think they’ve seen almost everything.

The last and maybe the biggest section is Design, with works ranging from retro posters to simple illustrations, fine print projects, infographics, icons and UI designs so keep on scrolling (the site uses infinite scrolling allowing to explore easily, with one click preview of each post – good UX design if you’re in a hurry and you want to scroll fast through hundreds of works).

designers.mx

designers.mx

With the need of designers to be constantly inspired (while listening to good music), DesignersMX is a great starting point and a great resource to bookmark and review daily.

Links:

http://designers.mx

http://www.joshsullivan.me/

https://twitter.com/BlakeAllen

by Dragos Gavrila

Dragoș Gavrilă is a Freelance Designer. Specializing in Graphic & Interactive Design, Typography, Illustration & Graphic Art. Also an online curator of image and music, cultural informer, occasional writer, lover. Currently living, working & playing in Bucharest, RO.

More http://grafician.launchnext.com/