This is my Weekly Design Inspiration, this is a space where I share some design work that has either inspired me or caught my attention for its execution or concept. The things I feature on here can include (but not limited to) branding, web design, app design, illustration, typography, video games or anything that shows creativity in a unique way.
Recently I have found myself becoming a victim to technology. As a graphic designer, who spends 99% of my life in front of screens, it's fairly expected that I spend a lot of time on the likes of Instagram, Pinterest, Dribbble or Behance searching for fresh ideas and inspiration. However, something that has snuck its way into my life and is occupying more of my time than I am comfortable with is the ‘brainless scroll’. It's something we all do without thinking and it's becoming a real issue for me because I feel I am not dedicating enough time to my own thoughts. I'm finding myself sitting for an embarrassing amount of time continuously scrolling through Instagram and lying to myself that I'm looking for design inspiration when really I'm just looking at deep fried memes (🤣💯💯💯👌👌).
Because of this, I have began taking action to help detox myself from saturating my mind with this useless stuff. I have used a variety of apps that help limit the amount of time I can spend on these apps but I have found one recently that takes a different approach to this idea.
The app in question is called Forest, it's an app that allows you to take a step away from your phone and focus on whatever you need to focus on, whether this is for a project or just hanging out with friends. The app lets you pick a time you would like to stay off your phone for, which then dictates the type of plant you will grow and then over that period of time the plant grows and if you exit the app during that time the plant dies. What is really nice about this concept is that you can see your personal progress and dedication to detoxing yourself in your very own ‘Forest’. In this forest you can view all times you have successfully kept away from your phone or caved and broken your promise to yourself.
This app, as well as being extremely useful, also has a pretty nice appearance. I don't feel this app would win any design awards but the presentation of it shouldn't go without praise. Typically, from my own experience, productivity apps can be a bit on the bland side when it comes to their designs. What's nice about Forest is that it has attempted to inject some character and visualisation into the purpose of the app. The idea of growing your own forest as reward for your efforts is a really nice concept and is what caught me eye about this app. This concept ties in really well with the idea of detoxing yourself, almost as if you are creating your own space of Zen.
Some of the other neat touches to this app include that you can customise the trees you grow, there is a large selection of funky looking trees you can choose from, my personal favourite being the octopus tree. They have linked the customisation to a currency based system where you get rewarded coins each time you grow a plant or complete achievements. This system encourages the users to engage with the app and actually spend time away from their devices to reap the rewards.
It’s still early days for me using this app but I must say that I’m enjoying the gamification of this productivity/detox app and the visuals that come with it. I would highly recommend trying this app out if you are interested in taking a step away from social media and giving some more real-estate to your own thoughts. The Forest website isn’t too bad either, go take a look here.
Honorable mentions
As part of my Weekly Design Inspiration I also like to share some bits and pieces that I have seen which have inspired me in the last week. I have captioned each image with some info and relevant links so you can find out more.
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