Thread: Where Do You Browse For Design Inspiration?

I find a lot of inspiration for graphic design on Deviantart. As far as design for websites goes, the inspiration has to come from the theme of the website. It's hard to pinpoint a blog or design website that will give you exactly what you need. The importance of creating the design is to make it unique and make it yours. Good luck in creating your own design and find inspiration from the website itself and from what you want to do with it.

Whenever I design templates and I need inspiration I'll look at competitor sites, and see what they've done. I don't copy their designs, but I try to come up with a unique design after looking through about 4-5 competitor sites.

I don't do design work. However I like to see how other people do their sites, design-wise. I usually go to the official site of the site software. They usually have some kind of showcase with the best designs using their platform.

My inspiration for design comes from DeviantArt as well. A lot of the material on DeviantArt is subpar depending on where you're looking, which is why I make sure to look in the right places. I believe there's a sorting option for art on the site.

I just like to enjoy others' work and think about how they might have gone about doing such a good job, and apply the same theories to my work. That's what made me famous in my neighborhood for my pastel art.

Originally Posted by bauss

Whenever I design templates and I need inspiration I'll look at competitor sites, and see what they've done. I don't copy their designs, but I try to come up with a unique design after looking through about 4-5 competitor sites.

I do this too. I think it's very healthy to know the environment or market of the design you are making. And like you said, not really to copy, but just to have a feel of what works and what doesn't for a specific industry.

Thanks to all the comments so far, guys keep them coming! And thanks!

Originally Posted by DrRipley

I do this too. I think it's very healthy to know the environment or market of the design you are making. And like you said, not really to copy, but just to have a feel of what works and what doesn't for a specific industry.

Thanks to all the comments so far, guys keep them coming! And thanks!

This is a very good idea and I must admit, I never thought about it until now. I maintain our company's website and most of its contents are based on the group's consensus. I think I will start looking into "competitor websites" in order to come up with better concepts for our product in the future - website wise, I mean. Thanks!

I don't usually browse much for the design if I am going to do it. I browse themes for a new blog and when I do that I look at ones that I can customize as I like to be able to add images. When I add images, I try to base the images around the theme of my blog and I always use pictures I take. Like for my Mommy blog, I use pictures of me and of my kids across the top for the header. I evenly line them up using an editor like MS Paint and then I put them in as the header. I think your own pictures for many sites can work. For a business theme they do not always look as professional tho. For a business that has a building that customers can go to (not an Internet marketing business), you could also use pictures of the building into the design.

I actually prefer very basic design. If you look at all the major successes on the internet they're all very plain and not very exotic. There's definitely psychology involved in what makes people make purchases and click ads, and following a design like Amazon whom has some of the most money and time invested in getting their site to make conversions, can do wonders for monetizing your website. I like to tell my clients to consider how sites like google, amazon, and facebook look when they are trying to decide what they'd like their website to be like. Designing a website can be artistic, but the real art is in the marketing and conversions

I don't usually browse websites for design ideas. I go the the library and bookstores to check out design books. These books were have several examples of certain styles. I will then check out those websites to see if they look as good on my computer screen as they do in the books.

Originally Posted by Simexy

I find a lot of inspiration for graphic design on Deviantart. As far as design for websites goes, the inspiration has to come from the theme of the website. It's hard to pinpoint a blog or design website that will give you exactly what you need. The importance of creating the design is to make it unique and make it yours. Good luck in creating your own design and find inspiration from the website itself and from what you want to do with it.

What this guy said, since "everbody else" is using deviantart, it is a very good place to find inspiration since so many people are using it.

I find that it has alot of variety on the site so I can mix and match different designs to find something I like

I like looking at all of my favorite websites when I am looking for ideas. I would never steal any of these ideas, but seeing what looks good and what doesn't, and what is well received by others and what isn't, can help you come up with some great ideas.

Originally Posted by w3bm4st3r

I actually prefer very basic design. If you look at all the major successes on the internet they're all very plain and not very exotic. There's definitely psychology involved in what makes people make purchases and click ads, and following a design like Amazon whom has some of the most money and time invested in getting their site to make conversions, can do wonders for monetizing your website. I like to tell my clients to consider how sites like google, amazon, and facebook look when they are trying to decide what they'd like their website to be like. Designing a website can be artistic, but the real art is in the marketing and conversions

I completely agree with this post. Webdesigners have a tendency to 'overdesign' their websites, trying to be as artistic and creative as possible. Which is fine if your website is a portfolio or some sort of art project. However, in most cases the website's content is more important. Making content readable and encouraging users to click further is way more important than fancy artsy design.

For general art, Deviantart is probably the best site out there. For my marketing and graphics related work, I regularly check out sites like newwpthemes.com and templatemonster that provide inspiration for my sites. Even though I am more of a programmer than designer, I like to browse new themes and templates to keep up with new design trends.