It’s not a myth, but the truth – there’s no app out there who can make you creative, but yes, it can give you that certain nudge that you need to release your inner creativity.
We may hate to admit it – but we have all gone through phases of our life that have simply prevented us from engaging ourselves and finding the solution to a design problem.
Of course, all of our brains are different, but that’s not an excuse to not download these apps. While some of them might be for everybody, but there are a few that many swears by.
Let’s give them a try, shall we? There’s no harm in trying, after all.
In this article
Coffitivity
Available on the platforms Android, iPad, and iPhone – the ‘Coffitivity’ is such an app that can recreate the ambient sounds of a cafe.
If you are that designer who does some of the best work in the coffee cafes. Then, this is the app that you must download. And it’s not a lie – studies have shown that background sounds make our brain more creative.
All you need to do is to brew your coffee at home, and start the app!!
TED Talks
Standing for Technology, Entertainment, Design, TED Talks is a set of global conferences that are held under the motto ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’ – known to attract some of the best creative and innovative minds on the planet, some of the best TED Talks can provide you with a refreshing dose of creative inspiration.
Available on the platforms Android, iPad, and iPhone, this app known to include numerous videos that you can download to your device; plus it even has an ‘Inspire Me’ function, and which you can select the kind of inspiration that you are looking for.
UnStuck
Do you know what’s the biggest enemy of creativity? It’s a creative block – and the feeling of stuck and not being able to proceed is one of the biggest design challenges, and it’s not simply not limited here – this is something that everyone experiences but in different ways.
Take the help of the app ‘UnStuck’ – available on the platforms Android, iPad, iPhone, and web. The app ‘UnStuck’ is something of a digital coach that will teach you to overcome. This feeling of ‘getting stuck’ through provocative questions, targeted tips, and action-oriented tools.
So, the next time, you feel like you are lacking in creativity, you know where to look.
SimpleMind – (Creative Mobile App)
Sometimes, the problem doesn’t lie in not being able to generate ideas, but being able to organize them into something coherent; and if you have a dozen ideas lying floating in your head, then, it can become quite a mess.
In such cases, a technique called ‘mind-mapping’ can do wonders – in short, mind mapping is a diagram that links up different ideas, and which is represented by words and/or images and they are represented in such a way in that you can make sense of them. Often, there is a central idea that is in the middle and other, and from which, other related ideas branch out.
As for the app ‘SimpleMind’, it works something similar. With this app, you can mind map on your computer, tablet or phone. Thus making it easy to swap your maps from device to device.
Some of the best-liked features are the ability to create an invisible note that lets you add large text without cluttering the mind map, to add voice memos and many more.
The app is available on the platforms – Android, Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Windows.
BrainSparker – (Creative Mobile App)
When you are trying to come up with new ideas, one of the best brainstorming exercises is to write words on slips of paper, and then, pull them out randomly, and see what they spark in your brain; and if you keep an open mind, it is surely going to work.
The app ‘BrainSparker’ works just like the above – it consists of 200 cards that have thought-provoking words and phrases. To make it work, you only need to shake your device. It will shuffle the pack and produce a new card.
The rest is up to you to proceed. As of now, this app is available on Android, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch.
Curator – (Creative Mobile App)
The app Exclusively available on the iOS platform. ‘Curator’ will enable you to create visual notes, collect and organize inspiration, refine your visual storytelling skills, create mood boards.
As if that is not enough, you can also export the notes to either PDFs or share them with others right in the app; and the best part is you can that also use this app to prepare and make presentations or collaborate with others on a visual reference library.
Behance
Looking at the works of others – designers and illustrators can benefit from that and often considered as a great form of inspiration.
Take the help of Behance – available on all the major platforms. This app is one of the best to turn for inspiration. It has millions of projects for you take inspiration from – fashion to photography, digital art to typography, and many more.
IDEO Method Cards
Designers are always on the lookout on how to create great designs. Take the help of the app ‘IDEO Method Cards’.
Available exclusively on the iOS platform. Additionally, this app features 51 cards that are classified in four types: Ask, Watch, Learn, and Try, with. Each category-defining various activities that are involved in using each method and each of the approaches is illustrated by a real-life example of how the method was applied to a specific project.
If you want to explore exciting and new approaches to design projects, then, this is it.
Paper – (Creative Mobile App)
Sometimes, all you need is a note. Taking app to boost your creative ideas, or at least, that’s what the founders of the app ‘Paper’ have mentioned.
Dubbed as one of the best apps for creativity, this app is available exclusively on the iOS platform. It enables us to take notes, draw on photos, create diagrams, charts, drawings, and what not?
That said, this app also gives us the option to record as well as connect with your ideas!!
Whew – that’s a total nine apps for you, you know if you are stranded on the island of ‘creative-block’. Fret not – there’s something for everyone.
And now, you can’t say that you are facing the dreaded ‘creative-block’ phase!!
