I’ll let you peek at mine.
Because as messy as it looks, that’s actually where taste comes from (for me). Years of looking, at sites, at type, at the way someone else solved a problem I haven’t hit yet, until enough of it sits in the back of my head that when a project needs an answer, I already know where to look.
Taste is the thing that can’t be prompted into existence. It’s judgment, knowing which of the ten “correct” options is the right one for this brand, this moment, this feeling. It’s restraint. It’s knowing what to cut.
This is that list. Not the taste itself (nobody can hand you that), but the raw material: the tools, foundries, and references I actually bookmark and go back to when I’m building toward it, kept the way I use them, not the way a directory would organize them.
I’m always happy to share it, even though it sometimes feels like handing over the keys, like this is the part I’m not supposed to give away. But the truth is, this list is just where I start. What happens after, the years of doing it, the taste that comes from all that looking, isn’t something a link can hand you. So here it is.
Tools
I’ll keep adding to it, keep cutting what stops being good. It’s a resource for me first. You just get to see it too.
Logo
- — A curated collection of logo inspiration and brand identity references.
- — An AI logo generator that spits out clean, on-trend marks in seconds — a fast way to test a direction or give a budget-conscious client something workable without a full design process.
- — Canva’s logo template library — pre-built, customizable starting points for when someone needs a decent mark fast and isn’t looking for original brand work.
Typography
- — A font pairing tool for matching heading and body fonts.
- — An independent New Zealand foundry behind well-known editorial typefaces like Tiempos, Söhne, and Founders Grotesk.
- — A foundry of clean, trend-conscious typefaces (Neue Montreal, Kyoto) used by brands like Apple and Netflix, with free trial licenses.
Colours
- — A colour palette generator for creating harmonious colour combinations.
- — A fast and easy tool for generating and testing colour palettes.
- — A tool for creating lighter and darker variations of any colour.
- — A palette-building tool for exploring how colours work together.
- — A creative colour resource for gradients, palettes, and visual effects.
- — A simple collection of ready-made modern colour palettes.
- — A curated collection of ready-made color combinations to steal and use in your own work, from the team behind Mymind.
Photography
- — An AI image and video generation tool for cinematic visual creation.
- — The AI image generator known for its distinct, painterly output — good for mood boards and visual direction.
- — A massive library of simple, consistent icons for nearly any concept, plus stock photos.
- — Free, high-quality stock photography with no attribution required.
Illustration
- — Subtle, minimal illustration supporting interaction without overwhelming the interface.
- (referenced for Forge and Spark)
Patterns
- — A free library of tileable background textures and patterns, downloadable under Creative Commons licensing.
Motion and Scroll Choreography
- — A tutorial on building a scroll-driven animated image grid using GSAP, ScrollTrigger, and Lenis.
- — A federal nutrition site that uses dramatic photography and a pyramid-style scroll narrative to move from crisis stats to guidance, unusually cinematic for a government site.
- — An autonomous vehicle company’s site built on striking parallax scroll, using real-world driving footage to make an AI platform feel physical and cinematic.
- — A community registry of thousands of React components and templates, built to drop straight into AI coding tools like Cursor or Claude Code.
- — A front-end playground for experimenting with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
- — A daily-updated archive of UI patterns and components.
- — A component that pins a container in place while text reveals progressively as you scroll past it.
Design Guidelines + Systems
- — A curated GitHub collection of useful design resources.
- — A collection of public design systems and component libraries.
- — A source of modern interface and visual design inspiration.
- — A curated library of UI, UX, and product design resources.
- — Fragment-based product and process showcase that makes design philosophy feel like a product.
- — IBM’s spacing and layout grid, built on an 8px/2x scale for consistent UI density across products.
- — Mailchimp’s style guide for web interface components, from buttons to layout.
- — Mailchimp’s official logo, color, and brand asset kit.
- — a large, crowdsourced directory of real brand style guides pulled from actual companies, from majors like Apple, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks down to smaller niche brands.
- — A case study on RISD’s first unified brand identity, built to hold 140+ years of creative history in one flexible system.
Website Design Inspiration
- — A gallery of award-winning websites and interactive experiences.
- — A showcase of websites with exceptional front-end and visual design.
- — A visual inspiration platform for interface and product design.
- — A curated gallery of beautifully designed websites.
- — A collection of high-quality landing page inspiration.
- — A reference library of real app and product UI screens.
- — A gallery of high-quality one-page websites.
- — A curated showcase of contemporary web design.
- — A moodboard and creative inspiration platform.
- — A visual search engine for design inspiration and ideas.
- — A visual discovery platform for moodboards and references.
- — A curated newsletter and archive of design articles and tools.
- — A Webby Awards series spotlighting standout WordPress-powered sites and the stories behind them.
- — A library of 4,000+ ready-to-use website sections, hover effects, and SVGs.
- — A gallery of standout website designs
Super Creative Websites
- — A platform for connecting with verified creative talent for hire. Your note: clean layout.
- — An AI-powered CRM, EHR, and billing platform built for behavioral health practices.
- — Your note: I like the testimonial section, otherwise I don’t like the site.
- — Your note: super cute one pager with micro animations.
- — A creative studio website known for bold motion and storytelling. Your note: micro animations, one page.
- — A visually distinctive website reference for design inspiration. Your note: nice micro animations on the cards.
- — A robotics company site for autonomous delivery, logistics, and warehouse robots.
- — An AI platform automating administrative work (payment posting, scheduling) for medical practices.
- — A preventive health company offering comprehensive one-day diagnostic assessments.
- — An AI platform automating patient referral intake and scheduling for specialty medical practices.
- — A consumer health platform offering lab testing and biomarker tracking.
- — A low-carbon fertilizer company’s site, notable for clean minimalist typography and leading with real field-trial data instead of marketing claims.
- — A design Company
- — A Portuguese leather tannery’s about page, built around an animated brand timeline and factory visualization with heavy scroll storytelling.
- — An independent design studio known for award-winning, motion-driven digital storytelling for major brands.
Hero Inspiration
- — A curated collection of landing page hero sections pulled from real sites, for inspiration.
- — An Amsterdam brand and digital design agency building identity systems for design-led brands like Vitra and Tony’s Chocolonely.
- — A software platform for renewable energy project development, hero built around the line “Where projects take shape.”
- — A premium Brazilian cachaça brand, sold in bottles. (flagged above, double check this is the reference you meant)
- — A wearable respiratory monitor, hero leads with “Listen to your breath and shift your state in real time.”
- — An AI grid-management company for utilities, hero is dark and data-forward with live alert-style status indicators. (flagged above, double check this is the reference you meant)
- — Coinbase’s blockchain platform. Your note: love the animations, like line drawings. (couldn’t confirm the animation detail from a text fetch, but the rest of the site checks out)
Portfolio Inspiration
- — An award-winning studio producing 3D visual storytelling and interactive brand experiences, genuinely interesting animation work.
- — An in-home pet care site (dog walking and sitting in San Diego) that’s really fun and colourful, with lots of interesting micro-animations.
- — Agency site
- — An Amsterdam creative developer building accessible, award-winning sites with heavy motion and Three.js work, also teaches front-end design. A fun one to browse.
- — A creative digital agency working on web design, UX, and interactive projects for brands.
- — Site was nearly text-free, couldn’t confirm what they’re known for, worth a manual look.
- — A multidisciplinary designer’s portfolio.
- — Legendary graphic designer and Pentagram partner behind iconic identity work like Citibank and The Public Theater.
