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Discussion on: (How) Do you improve your creativity/designer skills?

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James Turner

I'm not sure how it happened but I stumbled upon Steve Schoger on Twitter ages ago and I am so glad I did. He posts lots of super helpful tips that can take an OK design to something great.

He recently released a book called Refactoring UI which contains all the design knowledge he and Adam Wathan have acquired up until now. I have found it an incredible resource!

A few specific resources though which I have found helpful for projects too:

  • unDraw: Open-source illustrations for every project you can imagine and create
  • Font Awesome: Super extensive icon library
  • Hero Patterns: Custom SVG patterns - this is also by Steve
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Dávid Szabó

OK, that lady who did unDraw is crazy.... She is awesome to making all these accessible for everyone!

Thanks for these suggestions, they are awesome!

I've been thinking about buying Refactoring UI for a while, I've seen it before and I feel like I should get the book.... Do you own a copy? How good is it?

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turnerj profile image
James Turner

Yeah, unDraw is an amazing resource. I've been working on two new websites recently with a few images from that site. I plan to use several more in the near future.

Yep, I own a copy of Refactoring UI and I find it great! It is over 200 pages with sections talking about how to start a design, how to work out hierarchy of elements in the design, layout & spacing, working with text (eg. fonts, line length, link colours), using shadows and working with images.

It is great to look through at many different stages of a project. It helps with inspiration but also helps with polishing up something you've already built.