One can only design their faux greatest hits album cover so many times.

March 15, 2010 8:12 AM

I am looking for sources of "design prompts" - like writing prompts but for graphic/web/etc. design.

Worth1000 is an idea, but sometimes the challenges are more on the gimmicky side. Something like an open Layer Tennis game would also be good if it exists.

There are also a ton of daily photo prompt-type sites and those might be good for ideas, but I'm thinking more about "make something in Photoshop/Illustrator" or "make quick and dirty website".

What other sources of these types of exercises exist? (thanks!)

posted by stefnet to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Try looking up jobs on freelance websites. Usually they'll have requests for individual works. That way you can get practice in and (maybe) make some money.
posted by fizzzzzzzzzzzy at 9:05 AM on March 15, 2010

Try looking up contest or scholarship award stuff that requires students to create an original work. For instance, in my field ASID has a student publication that hosts a big design contest at least once a year. It's a great way to keep my brain in the game while I play stay-at-home mom for a few years :)
posted by wwartorff at 9:45 AM on March 15, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks fizzzzzzzzzzzy - I guess I should have clarified a little bit. I, personally, do freelance and 9-5 design work. I'm specifically looking for stuff with no monetary/contractual strings attached, i.e. stuff that would take the fun out of just playing around.

However, I suppose there is something to looking at the requests and using those as prompts, but not actually submitting them to anyone.
posted by stefnet at 9:45 AM on March 15, 2010

I am interested in the answer to this.

I have looked online a bit and have found this about.com page to be the closest thing to what you (and I) want. The suggestions are pretty cheesy and there are not many of them, but It is not a bad place to start.
posted by AtomicBee at 9:54 AM on March 15, 2010

It's mostly geared towards product design/industrial design, but core77 runs a series of one-hour design challenges.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:20 AM on March 15, 2010

You could try the Gridcosm, which has been profiled a few times here.

Having been a part of this in the early years, I would say it went a long way in helping me learn Photoshop. It's been slow recently but needs some new blood!
posted by jeremias at 11:13 AM on March 15, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone, for your help. I'm kind of surprised at how few options there are out there. I ended up deciding to just occasionally put the word out to friends to see if anyone needs a logo/website header/etc. with the following caveats:

- I do little bit of design for you for free.
- I retain right to use it in my portfolio if I'd like.
- You get one round of critique/revision.
- Work is done at my leisure.
- You do not pay me and you can either use it or not use it.
posted by stefnet at 12:08 PM on March 19, 2010