The ultimate database of creative tools & resources. It's time to unleash all the secrets!
🔥 Featured Tools 🔥
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Inspiration Tools
Reddit
Reddit
This is where the REAL insights are born. Search for a thread related to your brief or product to stay grounded and hear from the people. Check out some of these subreddits to get started:
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/
Dribbble
Dribbble
Dribbble is a little more focused on vector art and motion design, but the members are invite-only so it's all pretty high quality inspiration.
Vimeo Staff Picks
Vimeo Staff Picks
A great place to find film inspiration across cinematography, animation, documentary, etc. Vimeo seems to highlight films that push craft and originality.
(Vimeo is going through some changes, so we’ll see how long this resource lasts.)
Behance
Behance
There’s a lot of amazing creatives sharing work on Behance. A great place to get inspired.
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ActivationIdeas.com
ActivationIdeas.com
It’s like you don’t even need your own ideas with this site! Lol ok no. But lots of good references.
Ads of the World
Ads of the World
The site is constantly updated with the best, most recent ads in the world.
LoveTheWorkMore.com
LoveTheWorkMore.com
The Cannes Lions organization has historically pay-gated all of their past shows, archives and links to award winning work. Well, this site gives you access to all of that same work for FREE.
Untools
Untools
A great collection of thinking tools and frameworks to help you solve problems, make decisions and understand systems.
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Reference & Mood Board Tools
Spectacle.is
Spectacle.is
Like Pinterest, but for videos. Has a great search tool for finding specific video styles.
Same.Energy
Same.Energy
This is a cool site that automatically curates photos similar to the one you paste in or click on. It's mood board wizardry!
[FILMGRAB]
[FILMGRAB]
Really high quality movie stills for keyframes, mood boards and general deck vibes.
Refsee
Refsee
An extremely powerful search tool for finding quality reference imagery. What makes this better than just searching google images is the ability to search specifically for commercial or film imagery.
Yarn.co
Yarn.co
Search words or phrases of dialogue from movies and TV shows. Right-click the video to download. You can even convert the clip to a GIF with a click.
Eagle
Eagle
A powerful image reference manager. Pinterest on steroids. It costs a one-time $30 for life. How refreshing.
Power Thesaurus
Power Thesaurus
The all-knowing place to find out all the ways to say "learn more" or "experience"
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Writing Tools
Visual Thesaurus
Visual Thesaurus
When you need to find new ways to express something or just wanna find adjacent words for a branding/naming project.
Synthesia
Synthesia
Want to create a quick video of your script or see how your first draft would work with a narrator? Just have AI read it out for you.
QuillBot
QuillBot
Stuck with your writing? Use QuillBot to have an AI rephrase your paragraph. Also comes with a Grammar checker and Plagiarism avoider tool.
Grammarly
Grammarly
Distraction-free writing environment with top-notch spellcheck and more advanced features like grammar checks and suggestions for improved writing (even in the free version)
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Free Stock
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Mockups & Prototyping Tools
Mockup World
Mockup World
Tons of free mockups; tech devices, packaging, social media, etc. Most of these mockups are easy to use PSD files that you can quickly insert your images into, and they automatically populate onto the mockup.
GraphicBurger
GraphicBurger
MORE MOCKUPS! These are all pretty high quality. Seriously been so surprised at how many people I see not using mockups to make their comps look better. The work has already been done for you! Use mockups and get back to the fun stuff— coming up with cool ideas!
Facebook Creative Hub
Facebook Creative Hub
Here you can make Instagram or Facebook ads. It’s super helpful to see all of the current available ad types and sometimes best to start your mockups here so you don't have to do things twice.
Botframe
Botframe
Free, and simple chatbot mockup tool.
I even use this for just mocking up text conversations because making all the bubbles and text boxes from scratch is way too time consuming.
Botsociety
Botsociety
The free tier lets you use the platform quite a bit and even export one video/gif animation demo of your chatbot. Will definitely save you some time.
Photofunia
Photofunia
Ok this one isn’t a tool you’re going to brag about to your friends… BUT it has come in handy on many occasions! Photofunia is a (lol I can’t even type the name without cringing!) a website that auto-generates fun, weird, and occasionally cool picture effects. I will admit, I’ve created my fair share of “Cannes boards” using just Photofunia (lol) and a little touching up in Photoshop. It pains me to admit it, but I've saved plenty of time and impressed unsuspecting CD’s by using one of these random templates.
Have funia!
Sketchfab
Sketchfab
Search 3D models. Rotate, screenshot, and cutout for better oriented Photoshop comps.
Smart Mockups
Smart Mockups
Both free and paid. Online. No photoshop needed.
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Design Tools
LottieFiles
LottieFiles
A massive collection of web/icon animations. If you aren’t familiar with lottie or .json file formats, not a problem! I still find this super useful for adding animated GIF icons to decks to spice things up.
Spline
Spline
A free web-based 3D app that is actually surprisingly powerful and fairly beginner-friendly! If you’ve been wanting to dip your toes into 3D but are a little intimidated by other apps like Cinema4D or Blender (which is also free btw) then give Spline a try!
Photopea
Photopea
Is this even legal? It’s basically photoshop for free in a web browser. Cancel your personal Adobe CC subscription. jk lol but really…
ClipDrop: Image Upscaler
ClipDrop: Image Upscaler
“Enhance” like in those spy movies, except for real.
Wordmark.it
Wordmark.it
This site allows you to type a word/phrase to preview with every font on your computer. You can select options you like and then filter your selections to find the best typeface for your project.
Eagle
Eagle
A powerful image reference manager. Pinterest on steroids. It costs a one-time $30 for life. How refreshing.
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Platform Resources
Facebook Ads Inspiration
Facebook Ads Inspiration
Resources and creative examples of Facebook and Instagram social ads. You can search by format.
Facebook Ad Library
Facebook Ad Library
Ever get served an ad but then can’t find it again!! Happens to me all the time. WHY DIDN’T I SCREENSHOT THAT??
You can access all active ads, even ones that may not have been shown to you because you weren't part of an advertiser's intended audience.
Twitter Ads Transparency Center
Twitter Ads Transparency Center
Same thing as above, but for Twitter.
Twitter allows you to search for any brand’s ads currently being run on their platform. Also helpful for knowing whether your client has started the social media campaign you slaved over.
Google Rich Media Gallery
Google Rich Media Gallery
This is a gallery of Rich Media examples, which are basically fancier, more effective banner ads. Check out what’s possible and start making digital ads that don’t suck.
Moat
Moat
This is a banner ad searching tool, similar to the tools above. Search for a certain brand you want to reference and stop wasting your time on banners.
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Ad Industry News
Agency Spy
Agency Spy
More nitty gritty. Sometimes a little spicy.
Just make an Adweek account to get free access.
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Podcasts
Fearless: The Art of Creative Leadership
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Fearless: The Art of Creative Leadership
Listen to creative leaders. It’s pretty inspirational.
Don’t Get Me Started
Don’t Get Me Started
One of the few advertising podcasts that focuses on what students and juniors need to hear. Hosted by a professor from The Creative Circus.
Breaking & Entering Advertising
Breaking & Entering Advertising
Interviews with advertising people about how they broke into the industry.
School of Motion Podcast
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School of Motion Podcast
This podcast caters more to those interested in animation, but also super applicable to any creative discipline. Highly recommend especially if you’ve ever considered doing freelance work, or starting your own creative business.
Talking to Ourselves
Talking to Ourselves
Interviews with some of the most successful creative leaders in the industry.
Banter with BUCK
Banter with BUCK
If you don’t know about Buck, then first go visit buck.co. Then come back and enjoy interviews with creatives in and outside of our industry–creatives of all kinds.
Real Creative Leadership
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Real Creative Leadership
Adam Morgan is an ECD at Adobe and dedicates this podcast to filling the learning gap between being a creative and being a creative leader.
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People to Follow
#AdTwitter
#AdTwitter
You’d be surprised at how much networking and ad related conversations happen on Twitter. You might not find your next job there, but you’ll definitely find people to talk to and learn from. Dig around and join in on a more unfiltered industry conversation than what you find on LinkedIn.
@StuffAboutAdvertising
@StuffAboutAdvertising
In case you haven’t already transitioned your entire life of continued-education to TikTok, start here.
Zoe Scamon
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Zoe Scamon
Zoe Scamon is a creative force that is worth a follow (Twitter, LinkedIn, all of it). Her thoughts and industry influence are constantly at the bleeding edge of innovation and disruption. She runs a strategy studio called Bodacious which produces work that is so forward-thinking it makes me feel like I’m working in the Stone Age.
Aisha Hakim
Aisha Hakim
Aisha Hakim is one of those creative forces in the industry you should be following on Twitter. She created this deck about making decks that will maybe bring your decks up to the standard of the directors treatments we all drool over.The Art of Deck Making
Walter Geer
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Walter Geer
Walter is an ECD with a mission to create a more diverse ad industry and is even doing the thankless work of keeping agencies and companies accountable for their lack of diversity in leadership.
Follow him on Linkedin at the link above and Twitter at @3rdGeers.
Sai He
Sai He
Sai is more than just his popular parody account, @dong.draper. He is creating some of the most creative work in the industry.
Patrick Maravilla
Patrick Maravilla
Patrick has worked with some of the biggest creative leaders at the best agencies, and consistently shares tips and advice on LinkedIn about how to navigate your career, the industry, and making great work.
Jeremy Carson
Jeremy Carson
Jeremy writes a ton of helpful articles about things he wishes he knew starting out in advertising. He’s also worth following on LinkedIn because he’s constantly sharing helpful advice.
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Education & Career Tools
We Are Next
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We Are Next
We Are Next is an open resource for students and junior talent beginning their careers in advertising and marketing. Props to Natalie Kim for changing the game and making this industry more accessible and diverse
One School
One School
Organized by the One Club and some incredible creative leaders, One School is a free, online portfolio school specifically for Black creatives. They are doing an incredible job breaking down barriers for Black creatives trying to enter the ad industry
Mt. Freelance
Mt. Freelance
Mt. Freelance is an online course, podcast and community that teaches the in’s and outs of freelance from people with decades of experience. The course isn’t entirely free, but they do offer a lot of free content. You may inevitably find yourself in the freelance world, and I think Mt. Freelance is one of the best resources.
The Futur
The Futur
Content, courses and tools for creative professionals. How to freelance, what to charge, how to value your work, etc.
They also have a YouTube channel with tons of free advice about the business of design.
The Futur | YouTube
No Film School
No Film School
It’s 2018 people. Creatives should have some production capabilities. Didn’t go to film school? Not an excuse! Learn how to make, edit, animate, and your creative director will be impressed when you flex those skills.
Open Door Creative - YouTube
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Open Door Creative - YouTube
Open Door Creative is one of the only YouTube channels dedicated to helping students, interns, and juniors at ad agencies. He offers really valuable advice on how to build your portfolio and grow your career in advertising.
Real Agency Salaries
Real Agency Salaries
I am a huge advocate of salary transparency. If you have a chat with me, I am an open book and will tell you everything I know about getting paid what you’re worth. This resource has helped me on numerous occasions as I’ve looked at new cities, or new job titles trying to figure out what I’m worth. It also highlights some huge discrepancies based on gender, race, and nationality that I hope we can eliminate. It starts with sharing.
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