It’s easy to find numerous blog posts that list ‘Top 25 Sites For Web Design Inspiration’ or something similar. A lot of them have some excellent web site examples. Drawing web design inspiration purely from other web sites is an easy option though. It generally limits design inspiration to the standard technical limitations of web design and development. I can point you in the direction of numerous great websites, with excellent use of color, layout, typography or animation. Sure, they’re useful, but ultimately 99% of the time they’re still examples of two/three or four column layouts, standard CSS tricks and a good eye for website design.
A Wider View Online
Of course we don’t always have time to head to the nearest park or museum when we want to find some non-web based inspiration. Sometimes we’re just looking for something to get the creative juices going, even though we’re still spending the majority of our time on the computer. The ‘Top 25 Sites’ lists are all very well, but there are options for picking up a wider view of creative work on the internet. One of my favorites is Behance Network.
Behance Network is ‘a free platform for the world’s leading creative professionals’. More specifically it’s a really user friendly site that allows creative people in all mediums to create top notch portfolios that are presented easily and attractively. You can also find jobs and develop groups of friends (‘circles’) who share similar interests. At it’s core we’re basically talking about a social networking site for creative professionals, which is fine in itself. Behance Network’s great advantage comes in its user interface and the way in which even the least technically savvy can put together a solid and well presented online portfolio.
Virtual Inspiration Is Never Quite The Same
There’s never anything quite as good for inspiration as getting away from the computer and finding your creativity fuelled by the world around. The likes of the Behance Network are a solid compromise though when you don’t have a huge amount of time to get away from the computer but don’t want to merely fall into the trap of *just* looking at other website work to inspire your own. Behance is a great service, though I should also nod to the likes of deviantART, which can also be a great source of artistic inspiration. I also actually find a lot of good ideas from the likes of Etsy as well, transferring some of the design concepts of handcrafted items to web work.