Where Do You Find Inspiration For Designs?

[Viktori]

I often get a creative block when I'm tasked to design something I'm not particularly familiar with. In situations like these, I find it very helpful to look at some previous works that other designers have made, but I usually just search designs on Google images and that doesn't really work everytime. Any of you guys have some good design blogs or sites that you consistently visit to find inspiration?

 

[Nymph]

When I dive into a niche, I'll usually look up to the authorities who have achieved massive success in the shortest time I can find. More often that not, the design of a website is what makes or breaks it. If it's too difficult on the user, not many will plan on staying or helping it grow. If it's too featureless, loaded up on bells and whistles, or doesn't actually fulfill its purpose, in my opinion the site is lackluster and can never hope to be successful. I extract some design elements from these sites that I agree with and add my own personal flair, as well as things I feel will make it better than what the others in my niche are offering.

 

[BruceBanner]

I usually just google "awesome whatever whatever sites" and get inspired by the top 25 lists that usually appear in the rankings. Then I do a screen grab and send it to the handful of graphic designers that I work with to see who would be available to do something similar at a reasonable price. . I suck at Photoshop.

 

[Yorozuya]

I usually just google "awesome whatever whatever sites" and get inspired by the top 25 lists that usually appear in the rankings.

I do the same I also look for tutorials, there are a lot of good ones that actually teach you some up to date tricks in photoshop. You can also look at popular sites to see what designs are popular today. Another good idea would be to search for "design blog" on google, there are a lot of good ones.

 

[jean]

The main source of inspiration for me is also the Google Images search. I select multiple websites that look good in the images search, and then visit the site to see what features it has and actions it performs. I then take a rough idea froim the site, add a few more from other sites, and try to create a similar site, including creating the unique PSDs (new designs), converting the PSDs into HTML and also Wordpress, for my own use or for my client's use.

 

[praline]

When I start on a design project and hit a creative wall, I search for images related to my project on Google and Deviantart. These help me to see what I want to create. It is difficult to instantly see which pattern would fit a certain background color in contrast with other objects for my final design so I look at different artworks up to about a couple of hours before starting. By the end of these two hours, I usually know what to do and how I want to design my project.

 

[iridescent]

I usually go around wordpress and blogspot themes and look at which aspects of the site that I like. After I gather what I like, I draw it on a piece of paper--at least the general idea of it.

In terms of color, I use colour lover to find a palette that I like.

 

[beachdesign]

I browse through designer forums, and get inspiration from recent websites that other active designers have made. This helps me keep up to speed with the competition, and also gives me inspiration with modern design trends.

 

[seosan7]

The design I use depends on what niche the site is going to be about. I get ideas by looking at other people's sites. Also, I like to do a search for free website or blog templates and browse.

 

[Barry.Lejieg]

My best inspiration it's the work of other designers too. I get many new ideas and some times I even try to replicate what they have done with a certain thing. But also, I find inspiration in the nature of the object for what I'm building the website, for example if I'm building a website about books, books are always on my mind and I'm completely inspired by them.

 

[stiflex]

I usually get inspired by playing games, I see a lovely view - and I make something out of it !

 

[Sandman]

I study other designs that I've seen and liked and try to think of ways in which I can change or improve it, try it things in different colours or different fonts or textures, so to sum up, I pretty much sandbox it until I get something cool or I just take a break and do something completely different for a while, most of my best ideas have come from taking breaks and just focusing on some other task for a while.

 

[Daniel Dixon]

As someone originally educated in print design I find myself extremely inspired by print design. A few main areas of design I've been engrossed in over the last year are typography, grids and general layout. In my opinion print design is the best place to find the best examples of these skills. By taking inspiration from print I'm also more likely to create something original and less 'trend-worthy.'

The best places to look is found, veerle's inspiration gallery TechTIQ Solutions

Regards,
TechTIQ Solutions

 

[Bobxogn]

I am looking for various websites and portfolio of web designers, also in catalogs with sites of companies, among which come across sites with beautiful designs.