On your computer screen or in real life, there’s no better place to find inspiration than in natural texture --  there’s an abundance of hues, patterns, and finishes to draw from for inspiration. Whether you’re looking to spark an idea, or looking to make your work pop, textures are the way to go. With the right license you can can even incorporate them into your work!

Not convinced? Here are just a few of the reasons we love textures:

1 - Unique color inspiration. Nobody knows how to blend colors better than Mother Nature does. Next time you’re feeling stuck look to landscapes for creative new color palettes!

2 - Unusual shapes. Textiles are one of our favorite sources for out of the ordinary shapes. Next time you’re out shopping for your home snap a few close-up pictures of different fabrics, throw pillows or hammered metals.

3 - Texture is everywhere. Look around -- from floor to ceiling, you’re surrounded by different textures. Get up and take a walk around your building… or just take a closer look at your corkboard or cracked leather chair.

A sampling of all the textures a few feet from our office!

4 - Bold shapes. Things like fabric swatches are perfect when you need a little logo inspiration! The variation you’ll find is unparalleled -- and textures are easy to play around with, so don’t hesitate to be a little daring!

5 - Simple details. Subtle textures are great if you just need to add little depth to a print ad or graphic. The understated variation in a swatch of linen or a close-up of cork might be all you need to take a Facebook graphic from blah to engaging!

6 - It’s trendy. Texture can help you achieve a trendy, vintage look. While every designer needs to use their own discretion about getting on the vintage bandwagon, if you’re looking to elevate a flat vector to a hipster masterpiece, a little worn concrete overlay might be all you need!

7 - Pattern inspiration. Texture’s manmade cousin, vector patterns are great for everything from branding to print collateral to websites. Use nature’s organic patterns to inspire your sketches or draw inspiration from the patterns you see in a print!

Next time you’re feeling stuck, turn to textures. Consider asking your client what kind of materials they use in their daily work and let it to inspire your design. You never know what you’ll end up with -- once, we created a logo based on a brain scan!

Looking for some inspiration? Check out our “Patterns” board on Pinterest.

We’re tempted to say it’s been a busy week around the office… but aren’t they all busy? Without further adieu, here's our round-up of Friday links. 
 

One  |  We love our office and wouldn’t want to have our business anywhere else… but full disclosure, we’re drooling over these shots of Code and Theory’s new office. Maybe it has something to do with our Andy Warhol obsession?

Two  |  This list of 10 ways to brainstorm new ideas comes in handy -- when you do creative work all day you’re bound to run out of steam every now and then. Our go-to method when we need to brainstorm is to take nothing but a blank legal pad (no phone) to our favorite coffee shop, set a timer for 30 minutes and see what we can come up with! 

Three  |  Death to the Stock Photo is one of the first sources people mention for cheap + not-tacky + actually useful stock photos. We see it mentioned constantly, and have even highlighted it a couples of times ourself -- but Death to Stock has come in handy so many times this week that we want to give them another shout out.  

Four  |  While doing research for the latest e-Book cover project, we ran across this custom Book Illustration Competition -- and now we’re stoked to see the submissions/winners.