Okay, so now that you’ve earned your Bachelor’s degree at a local design college and you’re finished with endless, subjectively annoying critiques, long-sleepless nights spent slaving over pixels, eye-tiring CMYK gauging, and exact paper measurements; you are a professional freelance designer!

Exciting right? Yes, but being the knowledge hungry individual you are, a Bachelor’s degree doesn’t seem like enough in today’s competitive market. So you’re thinking maybe it’s time to go back to school, and you think that pursuing an online master degreein design would be the most economical route because it would allot you the time needed to devote to earning dividends from your freelance agenda and pay off those student loans that are haunting you.

Sounds like a good plan, eh? It doesn’t take you long to realize how much you actually miss the self-righteous and sometimes arrogant fellow design student inspiration you gained while an undergrad on an actual campus. You didn’t know that earning an online master degree would feel so lonely at times, but there’s no need to fret! I’m here to help you remember all of the perks of obtaining an online education by providing you with a handful of creative curator resources you can use that will trump any pretentious peer feedback and inspiration!

1. Dropular

If you are looking for visual inspiration, dropular.com is a must-see. It’s a heavy motivator for me when I’m feeling high and dry creatively. It provokes me to keep creating, like there’s nothing else I can do in this world. Dropular is stacked to the ceiling with beautiful imagery, illustrations, and graphic art. Check it out and you’ll know I tell no lies!

Dropular

2. His Dark Nostalgia

If you have a dark side to feed like most of the angsty designers I know, then His Dark Nostalgia is a definite good pool of graphic imagery and emotion to dive into. This site is a beautiful collection of all the darkness in the realm of artistic expression, and it really forces you to acknowledge the brightness of dark through its delicate arrangement of flawless imagery and short video clips.

HDN

3. Dafont

On a lighter note, I’m sure you love to get your hands on free things every chance you get! Being a college student isn’t easy, but Dafont.com makes it just a bit easier by offering hundreds of original typefaces for FREE! Being the font nerd that I am, I can easily spend hours on Dafont.com downloading all the goodies it has to offer. Give it a look-see next time you are trying to figure out the most communicative typeface for whatever project you are pouring your soul into.

Dafont

4. FFFFound

This site is hands-down the most user-interactive site of the list. It allows all its users to upload the imagery they find inspiring while stumbling around on the web. It not only allows them to upload pretty much anything, but it also remembers what you like and it creates a highly adorning image-bookmarking experience. It’s for sure a good ffffind!

FFFound

5. Deviantart

Last but not least, Deviantart.com, is an all-time favorite of mine. This site allows artists of all mediums to share their work, and also provides its users with freebies like typefaces, images, and vector elements. The skills exhibit on this site range from amateur to amazingly brilliant, and it’s a sure to inspire gallery of awesomeness.

DeviantArt

I hope I was able to enlighten you on the various creative resources, you as a online-learner, will need in order to maintain a constant flow of innovative juices and inspirations. I do my best work when I’m alone, jammin’ to music, and completely engaging myself in the task at hand. After all, with all these “awe-spiring” artistic finds who needs a professor and class schedule to answer to! Good luck and keep making the world a marvelous place!