Refbox is a floating reference app that keeps your inspiration in sight. Stop digging through folders and playing Tetris with windows. All of your references are automatically organized and float above all other apps, so you can see them while you work. Add images, videos, GIFs, and notes via drag & drop from the web or your desktop. It’s the perfect creative companion for illustrators, designers, 3D artists, animators, and visual creators.
Hi everyone! I’m Brandon, the maker of Refbox.
I built Refbox because I use a ton of references anytime I design. I spent years making messy moodboards in Figma and juggling image windows around while I designed. It took a ton of time and constantly broke my flow. I wanted a simple way to keep all my references automatically organized and visible while I worked.
Refbox lets you collect images, GIFs, videos, notes, and links in a clean resizable sidebar. Individual items can be pulled onto your desktop where they’ll float above all other apps. Resize them to fit into your workspace, group them together to focus on a small collection, and freely navigate around the media to see every tiny detail.
It’s meant to feel fast, lightweight, and effortless for creatives who rely on visual reference throughout their process. We recently added a bunch of new features, including markdown notes, link support, masonry views, and a smoother overall workflow.
If you try it out, I’d love to hear what you think. Feedback, ideas, or feature requests are all welcome. Thanks so much for checking it out!
Love the floating workspace concept! As a designer, I constantly struggle with inspiration management across different tools.
Does Refbox sync across devices? Would be perfect for mobile inspiration capture.
Exciting launch!
@bransshep, you’re a genius!! 🤯 This works so well! 2 min of playing around with the trial license in and I’m 100% sold! I’ll keep testing it for a day or so to make sure there are no deal-breaking bugs. My slight paranoia aside, this is an instant take-my-money purchase 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 One of those things that makes you go “how could this not exist until now?!” and “it feels like part of the OS now”
Cool man. Excited to try this out.
Can you collect or deposit a history of ‘saved tabs’ into this?
This is one of the slickest designs I've seen for collecting, cataloging and recalling design references.
Absolutely love what you've built here Brandon and love seeing the bar being raised thanks to designers building tools for designers.
Hey everyone, I’m Brett, solo dev behind Refbox.
I built this app along with my brother @bransshep to help designers and creatives stay in their flow; however, I ended up using it myself as a dev way more than I expected. The always-on-top notes, easy image pasting/zooming, and the color picker are all things I rely on daily now. Refbox runs on Electron + Vue, and instead of relying on native draggable windows, I built a custom region system so floating frames feel smoother and more flexible across operating systems. The goal was to make interactions snappy and the UI unobtrusive.
If you try it, I’d love feedback on performance, UX, or anything that feels rough around the edges. Thanks for checking it out!
The drag and drop from anywhere is a big win. Makes collecting ideas so smooth , especially during fast brainstorming sessions.
As a product designer, this is so up my alley. I’m constantly drowning in loose reference images, screenshots, and random inspiration tabs—Refbox makes it all feel effortless. Having my refs float above everything without messing with my layout is such a game-changer. Already added it to my daily setup.
Interesting. I'm not a designer, but I constantly work with references. Very convenient and simple interface. I wish you luck with today's launch!
Congrats on your launch 🎉🎉
I like the concept and design. The website is cute and pop, but I think the initial hurdle for adoption would be lowered if it were possible to try it out for free for just a few days.
