#inspiration-board

#inspiration-board

Elisava's Master's in Graphic Design is ingrained with societal, cultural and critical contributions to the creative industry, going beyond its aesthetic output while fostering self-awareness in creatives.

'In this paper a novel optical illusion is described in which purple structures (dots) are perceived as purple at the point of fixation, while the surrounding structures (dots) of the same purple colour are perceived toward a blue hue.'

Pantone's 2026 Color of the Year is PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer, 'a billowy white imbued with serenity', which can complicate color palette creation.

Whenever you're working with an existing IP, there's always the question of how you're going to translate and adapt, right? Because it's not a one-to-one sort of interpretation.

Static images don't show motion. You can't inspect real product structure. You don't see how interfaces evolve over time. You rarely understand what actually works in production. So I decided to go deep. I reviewed every major design reference platform I could find - not just the popular ones - and analyzed how they actually help in real-world work. The conclusion?

We've both fought against needless promotional content before and lamented that frontier AI platforms are falling into the same pattern. As designers and users, we've learned that "free" usually means putting up with interruptive, slightly creepy ads that feel more like a tax than a benefit - a frustration tax that now colors how we approach free‑tier services and now AI tools.

I've recently refreshed the animated graphics on my website with a new theme and a group of pioneering characters, putting into practice plenty of the techniques I shared in this series. A few of my animations change appearance when someone interacts with them or at different times of day. The colours in the graphic atop my blog pages change from morning until night every day.

What design programs rarely prepare students for is how little agency designers often have once they enter professional practice. And this challenge doesn't disappear with experience. When my co-author and I toured our book Designing Tomorrow, the most common question we heard was not what designers should do differently - but how to drive positive change in the face of resistance.

A graphic designer that isn't limited to working in 2D, Ward Goes has been working in aluminium of late. His recent solo show in Rotterdam, Literally Anything, was full of things that moved beyond the screen or printed page, including some wonderful metal signage and archival storage. The exhibition at Alley Space was the result of the designer's decision to pursue more tactical investigations alongside his commissioned work at the start of 2025.

Apartment Therapy's January Cure is a free 20-day program that'll help you refresh your home for the year ahead. Sign up here and get all assignments delivered to your inbox. Go to the Mood Board homepage. Browse our collections of photos, products, and colors, or upload your own images. Tap on an image to add it to your canvas. Move, resize, crop, and layer using our smart tools. You can even add text.