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This blog article from 2020 has been kept live for archival purposes.

It’s been over eight years since the inception of Instagram and it’s probably the most popular platform for viewing images. At first, they stoically stuck with the square format before relaxing that. Then came the short videos. And now, they’ve amped the video offering up by introducing Instagram Reels. But with popularity, comes saturation; it’s becoming harder and harder to find real gems on Instagram. So let us do the legwork for you as we discover the best Instagram accounts to follow for visual inspiration.

Illustration

Will Finch –

I remember first stumbling on Will’s page and was put totally at ease by his clean, minimalist designs. I don’t know what it is about clean graphics, but they do seem to have a strong allure and are still very popular today. Minimalist work is usually easier to digest and interpret as they are fewer distractions, but the illustrations have a surprising amount of detail too.

Christoph Niemann –

Christoph is best known for his cover work on The New York Times Magazine but he’s also really genuine and human. Despite being hugely gifted in his craft, he talks a lot about the pressures of delivering something new and exciting. And he always concedes that his greatest work required some luck. If there’s one account you had to follow, it’d be this one. I’d also really recommend watching .

Mad Dog Jones –

Mad Dog Jones’ digital illustrations are an absolute visual delight that are easy to get lost in. There are so many influences too: there’s some Japanese anime; a dash of cyberpunk; and coloured with vapourwave hues. I’m kind of hoping Mad Dog will take his style to animation because it would be a dopamine overload to play a game or see a movie in this style.

Samuel Rodriguez –

Samuel’s work explores the relationship between faces, typography and shapes. What you’re left with is a consistently colourful feed layered with messages that seem never-ending the longer you look. Whether it’s our relationship with the digital world or the real-world issues we face today, Sam is voices his social commentary through the medium of art.

Sofi Naydenova –

It’s commonly said that to be successful, you must specialise in something specific, maybe even something niche. Sofi Naydenova clearly never got the memo because not only does she create beautiful paper-like illustrations, she’s also a biologist and develops video games. Like most artwork, there’s a lot to decode in the imagery but Sofi also employs a lot of humour too.

Photography

Fred Herzog –

Sadly, Fred isn’t with us anymore having passed away in 2019. But like many 20^th century street photographers, Fred spent much of his life roaming the streets looking for points of interest to capture. He was a champion for colour photography and is hugely influential in much of the contemporary street photography you see today.

Prince Gyasi –

“What camera do you use?” is probably the most hated question photographers hear. It’s tiresome and ultimately pointless as proven by Prince Gyasi who shoots and edits everything on iPhone. He has a fantastic appreciation for colour and composition leaving you with an image that demands attention. Maybe you take beautiful pictures on your iPhone too? If you do,

Henri Prestes –

Many photographers have a hard time defining their style. Especially when there are so many photographers out there. But one way to find a unique style is to go out shooting when nobody else is – on cold, misty nights. That’s exactly what Henri Prestes does, and the results are immediately striking but also whimsically cinematic. What Henri achieves is a widely held photographic goal, to make a photo look like a painting.

Solitude of Ravens –

I think it’s critically important that inspiration comes from sources dissimilar to our own work. That means getting ideas from mediums different from our own, but it also means seeing work that isn’t prevalent. That’s why I love Solitude of Ravens who curate a feed of mostly Japanese photography from photobooks. So if you’re bored of that cliché Instagram look, this account will be a welcome respite from that.

Stella Spoils –

Stella Spoils is a self-proclaimed “daily newsletter for cool kids”. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt cool but I do like a carefully curated page. There’s great breadth so you’re not going to be seeing the same genres of photography over and over. The thing I love most about curated feeds is that you can scroll all the way back to start and get an abundance of inspiration.

Mixed media

Tatsuya Tanaka –

One of the benefits of spending unhealthy amounts of time looking at content on the internet is that you quickly realise what’s derivative and what’s unique. Now I’m not saying that Tatsuya Tanaka’s miniature scenes are truly unique – small art has been around for some time – but he does seem to find unique ways of showing familiar scenes. His work reminds me a lot of Christoph Niemann’s Abstract Sunday sketches as they both find new meaning in supposedly ordinary objects.

Natasha Chomko –

What happens when you juxtapose reality with fantasy? You get Post Wook, the brainchild of visual artist Natasha Chomko. Sometimes, I think Instagram has conditioned us to glance at images before quickly moving on, but Natasha’s work demands your attention. Not only are they a visual curiosity to behold but for anyone looking for inspiration, her work highlights intriguing similarities between seemingly disparate objects.

Ofir Shoham –

There are so many possibilities with mixed media and sometimes, it feels like we get something new every year. This year, Ofir Shoham has taken motion tracking to a new level with his delicately edited videos. There are already a lot of copycats who don’t quite hit the mark and that’s mainly because of Ofir’s respect for which ensures the animations feel as life-like as the originals.

We hope you find these accounts useful. But of course, there’s so much out there so sharing really is caring. Feel free to join the conversation on our social channels and share what your favourite sources of inspiration are. Inspiration doesn’t only come from Instagram, maybe you get your inspiration from a brisk morning walk!