5 Creative Places to Find Textures

If you want to add a unique, authentic feel to your designs, textures are a great way to spruce up your designs. Textures are all around us in every day life, so not only do we all instantly associate feelings with textures we recognize but as designers we have an incredible amount of resources ready and waiting to be utilized

What do you need to create textures?

If textures aren't something you've dabbled in before you'll be pleased to know it's quite simple to get your own unique images to use, in most cases all you need is a camera, an entry level DSLR is usually an affordable (well, kind of) and safe bet for high quality sharp results. Extra things that can come in handy are a tripod for steadiness, and in low light situations an additional light source is handy.

In the Kitchen

The kitchen is a great place to get creative and experiment with artistic texture techniques, the simplest one to try is coffee staining on paper, or dye-in-water and smoke textures.

Around your home

Your home is full of different textures, whether it's the wood of your tables, the leather of your sofa, the denim in your closet, why not take advantage of it all?

Abandoned buildings

This one is tricky, and the first thing to say is that more often than not abandoned buildings are still someone's property so don't get breaking the law but they are a haven for grunge textures! peeling paint, mold, burnt, broken and damaged textures are all around.

At the store

In particular, arts and craft stores, home depot and DIY stores have tons of different materials - you don't necessarily have to buy everything and take it home with you, try asking permission to take your camera around the store snapping photos

The great outdoors

Kind of an obvious one, but a unique idea is taking a bit of time out of your day to go for a walk - especially if you live in a rural area you can take a break away from your computer, get some oxygen into your brain and come up with ideas whilst snapping photos of textures you see along the way.

Finally

The one you might have been expecting when you read the title of the post, these are some of the best places on the web to find awesome textures and inspiration for your own:

Lost & Taken

Texture Lovers

Texture King

DeviantArt

Seamless Textures

Texture Vault

Where do you find textures?

Got any cool ideas to add to the list? let us know in the comments