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What better time to be a creative, than right now? We’re inundated with tons of resources on how to boost creativity, apps for creative minds, and an endless supply of inspirational ideas, images and visual stories at your fingertips. The real issue is sorting through all the noise and honing in on the best apps to boost creativity.
With so many options, and so much to do, you might be wondering how to boost creativity when you barely have a moment to spare. It’s hard to slow down and focus on creativity when we’re being pulled in every direction. Although it might feel like you don’t have time, taking time out to be inspired and creative can increase your productivity, boost your energy, and improve innovation. So, if your inner artist is feeling a bit drained and the creativity isn’t flowing – take a deep breath, dive into our list of apps for creative minds, and set aside a block of undivided attention to really immerse yourself in these creative apps.
Apps to boost creativity
As a designer and a creative professional, you might feel overwhelmed at times by the pressure to generate a constant stream of new ideas. One of the tricks to this is creating a regular creative practice, including exploring different avenues, tools, practices, and apps to boost creativity. Implementing these into your life on a regular basis helps cultivate a life in which creativity can flourish.
Adding a bit of play into your life, taking breaks, find inspiration, and returning to your work with a fresh perspective can be infinitely beneficial if you’re wondering how to boost creativity. Here are a few apps for creative minds you can download to your mobile device and use when you need a creative pick-me-up.
Curator
Curator, which is proclaimed to be the No.1 tool for the creative process, is great for any part of the creative process from the first fragment of an idea to the finalized presentation. With Curator, “organise your thoughts visually, refine your visual storytelling, collect inspiration, create mood boards and export them to PDF or share them directly in the app, prepare and make presentations, [and] collaborate on visual reference library.” Curator is currently only available for iOS devices.
Blek
Blek is often referred to as a “game about imagination”. It’s one of the few open-ended games that really resembles art. The objective is simple: create a line that collects all the colored circles while avoiding black holes. Since it’s an open-ended game, it’s become one of the go-to apps for creative minds because it helps spark your creativity and experiment with different ways of thinking.
Behance
One of the best ways to get inspired is to peruse other designers’ work, so Behance is at the top of our list if you need a source for inspiration to turn to. This can open you up to tons of new styles, designs, and really get the creative juices flowing. With the curated galleries, you can easily be exposed to fresh work without having to follow specific creatives. This not only boosts creativity, but it’s an exceptional way to set personal milestones and goals, as Behance is a great platform to gain recognition. Search and explore tons of projects in digital art, typography, architecture, photography, fashion and more. Behance can be downloaded on either you Android or iOS device. It’s free to download, and quick and easy to navigate, so there’s no harm in giving them a go.
Ideament
Next time you’re feeling stuck and need to brainstorm new ideas or organize the ideas you have, Ideament may be a great app for you. It’s the perfect solution for creating diagrams, mind maps, concept maps, or flow charts. From there, simply convert them to a text outline (or vice versa). Its user-friendly interface makes it easy to switch between diagrams and outlines. Plus, the app’s cloud-friendly features make it easy to save or share your diagrams.
Brainsparker
Brainsparker is one of the top apps to boost creativity when it comes to generating creative ideas. Sometimes adding in a bit of play and randomness to generate the right creative idea is exactly what we need. It’s loosely based on the popular brainstorming exercise of writing words on slips of paper, pulling them out of a hat at random, and then relating them to the problem at hand as a way to spark innovation and a new perspective in your brain.
The app itself will jumpstart your creativity by providing you with a variety of inspiration and creative prompts. Brainsparker will help you break out of your normal routine and expose you to tons of new ideas and novel solutions to the problems you’ve been mulling over.
This free app is a great reminder of how to boost creativity as it provides a way to exercise and stretch your creative muscles. With over 200 cards containing thought-provoking words and phrases; shuffle the deck of cards by shaking your phone, and produce a new card. By offering you a variety of random words, quotes, images, actions, and questions, the result is a flow of creative ideas.
Adobe XD
Renowned for being made for designers, by designers, Adobe XD has positioned itself as a top app for designers, and has never strayed from their values. Maybe you swear by Adobe XD, or at least know a designer that does! Either way, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that so many designers are flocking to it. The ultimate all-in-one UX/UI solution is one of the best apps to boost creativity. Whether you’re designing a website, a mobile app, prototyping, etc, the Adobe XD app will help designers reimagine the user experience journey. With Adobe XD, you can watch your ideas grow from an idea to a wireframe to an interactive prototype in minutes.
IDEO Method Cards
Are you stuck on a current design project? Looking for some inspiration or new ways to create great designs? You may find just what you’re looking for from IDEO Method Cards. This app helps you explore and discover new approaches to your design projects. Featuring 51 cards which are divided into four categories: Ask, Watch, Learn, and Try, each category defines the kind of activities involved in using each method. Plus, you’ll find a real-life explanation of how the method was applied to a specific project.
Monument Valley
Designers and visual thinkers who are willing to look outside just apps to boost creativity will find the game, Monument Valley is the perfect place to find inspiration. This award-winning app, available for Android and iOS, is an “illusory adventure of impossible architecture and forgiveness.”
Notability
No matter who you are, or how visual you are, having at least one note-taking app is essential to get all your ideas out. If you don’t already have one that you absolutely swear by, or even if you do, Notability will prove to be a strong contender. Combine handwritten notes with photos, and typing in a single note. The features offer tons of note-taking and sketching tools, so you record all the details of your ideas in a variety of forms to best suit your needs. Need to add and annotate PDFs? That can be done too. At the end of the day, you’ll be able to organize all of the information you need for your projects without feeling restricted. This lack of restriction is one of the key ways of how to boost creativity, and why this has landed on our list of apps for creative minds.
Paper
So maybe you tried out Notability, and thought that it’s just not quite right for you. Well, maybe the app, Paper, will boost your creativity. Not all apps for creative minds are going to be effective for you, so test out a few great note-taking apps and find the one that really lets you explore and play around with your ideas. Take notes, draw on photos, or create diagrams, charts, and drawings within the app. If you have a lot of different notes all relating back to one project, simply record them all and connect your ideas. Use the creators note feature which functions as a “wall of sticky notes for everything that inspires you.”
Tayasui Sketches
For designers who fine-tune their new ideas by doodling and sketching, you’re gonna love Tayasui Sketches. When discussing apps for creative minds, Tayasui Sketches has can’t go unmentioned. Sometimes what we really need to get the creative juices flowing is to take a break from technology. Tayasui Sketches does just that. It allows you to think beyond just the device, and enjoy the act of drawing on paper. It’s great for creating simple sketches, or even more complex and beautiful drawings. Since it’s designed to be extremely user-friendly, you can bet this is a top choice for apps to boost creativity!
Zight (formerly CloudApp)
With Zight (formerly CloudApp), use the screen recorder , screenshot tool, or GIF maker to take screen recordings and screenshots of virtually anything, edit them in Photoshop, and then pass them on to your developer. If your developer has questions, they can take a screenshot of your finished product, annotate it, and send it back to you. You’ll then have the option to comment on those annotations and easily make the required changes.
Zight (formerly CloudApp) is available as a Mac App, a Windows App, and as a Chrome Plugin. This means that just about anyone can create visual content from their desktop device of choice!
If you want to streamline your Photoshop workflow and easily create the stunning visual materials needed to get the job done, then Zight (formerly CloudApp) is a great option.
From screenshots to annotated images, use Zight (formerly CloudApp) to capture anything on your computer screen. Get started today for free!
So there you have it! There are tons of great apps for creative minds no matter where you’re at in the creative process. We’ve all suffered from a creative block at one point or another and the way out is finding that spark of creativity and inspiration. If a creative block is preventing you from creating even the tiniest spark of creativity, or adequately solve a design problem, knowing how to boost your creativity can make all the difference. We hope if you’re stuck in a creative block right now that these apps for creative minds give you the boost you need!