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Creative thinking is an essential part of design workflow. Whatever sketch you are working on, at some point you find yourself in the situation where you simply need some fresh ideas to find your path around the creativity block. Going away may help. Listening to the music may help. But particularly the works of the famous graphic artists may help. In fact, studying them very closely, you can not only explore new ideas, but also learn the smallest details – they form the profound foundation of every masterpiece.

In this post we’d like to present you an ultimate breakthrough for your creativity blocks; over the last weeks we’ve been searching for the most popular graphic designers, illustrators and artists around the world. We’ve selected some of their works to give you an idea what style they have and what details of modern design you can expect and learn from them.

So what do we have as result? Over 100 breathtaking illustrations from some of the best contemporary graphic designers, illustrators and artists; besides you’ll also find references to further (mostly unknown) sources for inspiration you can use on a daily basis.

Once you’ve selected the artist whose works you like, click on the image to get to his/her portfolio and explore his/her work in more depth. Please notice that most artists listed below are well-known in the worldwide design community (and so are their works); hopefully you know not all of them.

Please be patient, it may take a while until the images are loaded. Please be aware that it also may take a while until you’ve seen most of showcased images.

Further suggestions and ideas? Please comment.

[Offtopic: by the way, do you know the Smashing Network has its own Smashing Network RSS Feed? Only excerpts are displayed in the feed.]

Creativity Spark From Masters Of Illustration (Graphic Design)

1. Radim Malinic (UK)

2. Neil Duerden (Manchester, UK)

3. Büro North (Melbourne, Australia)

4. Evgeny Kiselev (St. Petersburg, Russia)

5. Maciej Mizer (Poland)

6. Pete Harrison (London, UK)

7. Alberto Seveso (Rome, Italy)

8. Emeric Trahand (Saint Etienne, France)

9. Mario Sánchez (Newcastle, UK)

10. Peter Jaworowski (Warsaw, Poland)

11. mcfaul (Emsworth, Hampshire, UK)

12. Chuck Anderson (Chicago, USA)

13. Platinum, FMD (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

14. Seth Weisfeld (San Francisco, USA)

15. Kacper Spala (Poland)

16. Scott Pollard (Manchester, UK)

17. Adhemas Batista (São Paulo, Brazil)

18. Raquel Falkenbach (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

19. Tom Kan (USA)

20. Nicholas Ainley (London, UK)

21. Drew Flaherty (Brisbane, Australia)

22. Alex Mapar (Melbourne, Australia)

23. Mark Verhaagen (Rotterdam, The Netherlands)

24. Alex Trochut (Barcelona, Spain)

25. Alexander Radsby (Kalmar, Sweden)

26. Taobot (Mainz, Germany)

27. Gui Borchert (New York, USA)

28. Si Scott (London, UK)

29. Alex Cherry (California, USA)

30. Paul Hollingworth (Newcastle, UK)

31. Jacques S Alton (London, UK)

32. Susanne Paschke (Berlin, Germany)

Galleries of Graphic Design & Illustration

• DigitalAbstracts
  A design community that strives to deliver a unique blend of content, discussion and creative inspiration to its army of readers.
• 2Photo.ru
  The projects showcases the best works of contemporary illustrators, artists and graphic designers on a regular basis. In Russian. More works on Designcollector.ru.
• Bak Magazine
  A magazine related to digital photography, illustration and graphic design. 8 .pdf-issues are available for free download.
• Artzmania
  Artzmania is an independent venture showcasing outstanding international creativity and culture. 5 .pdf-issues are available for free download.
• Cpluv.com
  One of the most comprehensive resources related to digital photography, design and illustration. Dozens of categories, dozens of resources, hundreds of sources for inspiration.
• NTMY – Nice to Meet You!
  A growing gallery of resources (weblog) related to graphic design and illustration with hundreds of references to creative agencies and designers.
• digitalthread
  The designer’s arrivation point. A growing index of design-related resources and design companies.