15 Apps to Kickstart Your Creativity
Need a creativity makeover? Well the answer may be right in your hot little hands. That’s right, your touch devices can be more than just a date with Angry Birds. They could be the key to your creativity reboot.
1. Evernote
We use it to create shared project notebooks where we organize design elements, articles and examples of functionality with team members. Anyone shared on the notebook can add new notes. Plus, it works on almost every computer and smart phone.
2. Instagram
Every picture looks better with Instagram. And it’s a great place to catch visual inspiration from the photographers you follow. Right now it’s only available for your iPhone but we hear that they’re cooking one up for Androids.
3. Pinterest
Snap, moodboards gone wild! You can create boards based on any project or interest… recipes, fashion, books. One of the best inspiration sources is the daily stream of goodies that come from the people you follow. There’s nothing like inspiration from your pin-up-peeps!
Sometimes it’s just a matter of finding the right tool for the job. Interactive designers and web developers will love this web app with tools for layouts, swatches, and color palettes.
5. SketchPad
Don’t let your ideas slip away. Jot or sketch them down with SketchPad for iPad. You can also easily email your sketches or notes as PDF files to share.
Another sketching app that lets you draw, shade, and color in your sketches. This one has a ton of sweet extras and is available for both Android and iPad users.
7. Moodboard
Another app for building inspiration boards for your iPad. A super simple interface makes it easy to add photos, text, color swatches, and more. It’s also easy to print, save, email, and Facebook share your moodboards.
8. Omnigraffe
This all-knowing app for Mac and iPad lets you easily create sketches, wireframes, and relationship maps.
9. MindNode
Clarify your brainstorming with easy mind maps for your mac or tablet. These maps outline relationships and can embed related file links. You can also export them as PDF, PNG, and text files.
10. Adobe Ideas
This is a digital sketchbook with teeth. It works with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, lets you choose and save color themes, and play with vectors and layers. Basically, in design speak–it’s awesome. Plus it’s available for Androids and iPads.
11. iMockups
We heart this iPad app for quick wireframes and mockups for iPhone and iPad apps. It’s a little inception-esque… using an iPad app to build another iPad app, but it works.
12. GuitarToolkit
The right sound can definitely set the creative mood–especially if it’s coming from you. This iPhone app is a killer guitar tuner with interactive chord sheets, drum patterns, and custom instruments to match your playing styles.
13. kuler
What could be cooler than color inspiration? Look no further! This app generates color themes so you can experiment with different variations and browse thousands of different color themes. The online web app is free. They also have an Android tablet app.
14. Skitch
This app should be called idea sharer. It lets you mark up images and screenshots so you can quickly share them. We sling our skitched images through atLarge chat for visual brainstorming.
15. Gamestorming
If you’ve mixed up your brainstorming with gamestorming, you’ll love The Gamestorming Card Deck. It’s frequently updated with new games and tips. If you have no idea what we’re talking about, read our Innovate with Gamestorming post. Sorry, Android users–right now this is only available for the iPhone.
So these are the apps we use to kickstart our creativity but we’d love to hear about the apps you lean on for creative problem-solving. Please give us a shout-out!
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