How to Use Evernote for Design Inspiration

Remember how crafty we all used to be before sites like Pinterest and Tumblr existed? We’d cut pretty pictures and inspiring quotes out of magazines and tape them proudly into our journals. We’d doodle and jot down pithy little notes to ourselves. Surely there’s a stack of those prized journals– filled with anything and everything inspirational– in your house somewhere… Pinterest for the pre-Internet age.

The means of capturing inspiration have certainly changed in the past couple decades, and Evernote is the latest, greatest application on our radar that’s perfect for capturing, saving and organizing inspiration. Here are some tips on how to use it wisely for design inspiration.

Capture Everything

Our favorite thing about Evernote is that it allows you to save anything and everything you could ever dream of saving, which is pertinent because inspiration can strike at anytime. Maybe you’re walking down the street and you see a wall of graffiti that catches your eye. Take a photo of it, upload it to Evernote, organize it, tag it and you’re ready to look at it later. Maybe you’re at a music festival and you hear a band you’re obsessed with. Record some audio of it, upload it to Evernote, organize it, tag it and forget about it until later. Maybe you’re on a site like Pinterest or Tumblr and you see something you like. Save a photo of it, or even the entire webpage, to Evernote, organize it, and well, you know the drill. The possibilities really are endless.

Create separate folders for various topics (i.e. illustration, photography, typography, etc.) and organize your findings accordingly. This step alone can be a huge help in determining your aesthetic and helping you decide what you do and do not like design-wise. Create a folder of inspiration for an upcoming presentation, save whatever catches your eye while you’re living your day-to-day, and then go back and see what you’ve got. What has your mind been making note of? What design elements have you been focusing on? Compare and contrast your various design styles, and use what you’ve saved in Evernote to come up with a solid design style for your presentation.

Capture Anything

Think of Evernote as your “idea space.” Use it to gather and organize all your inspiration in one place, and then refer back to it to determine what direction you’re heading in. You can use the application across all your devices, so the photo you took on your iPhone will immediately sync to your Macbook and to your iPad if you wish. And as we mentioned last week, if you’re an old-school pen and paper lover, Evernote has your back. Doodle, scribble, jot down a list, whatever, and then take a photo of your paper, upload it to Evernote, and you’re done.

Let’s say you’re working on a presentation in which you’d like to use illustrations. Search Evernote for the tag ‘illustration,’ and see what you’ve saved in the past. You might find something that you can base your entire design on.

The beauty of using Evernote for design inspiration is that it’s a one-stop shop. Save, organize, and tag everything that inspires you. Who knows when you’ll need it, but when you do, it’s all there waiting to inspire you.





New Call-to-action




Join our newsletter today!

© 2006-2024 Ethos3 – An Award Winning Presentation Design and Training Company ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Contact Us