Web design is a very interesting job, because a skillful and beautiful website can be called art. Web design is a true creative process that requires constant inspiration, renewal of ideas and many creative thoughts.

Unfortunately, the designer is often pressured by the lack of time and personal vision of the customer, which does not allow the web designer to create to the fullest.

After a long time, creating even one project requires a breath of fresh air; you just need to fill your head with new ideas that will allow you to create amazing sites.

Surely, every designer in any field has, at one point, been in a situation where there was not enough time to hand over the project, but the muse had not yet visited him and there was absolutely no time to wait for it. It is in such situations that design websites can be very helpful, filling your head with fresh ideas and helping you to learn all the new trends.

I interviewed my colleagues in web design and tried to find out which sources they use to inspire themselves and discover something new and interesting; I also included my favorite sites that fill me and my imagination.

CSS Design Awards

This is a popular site in which interesting ideas often slip. Every day, the creators of the site select a nominee for the prize – the site of the day. Here, you can also be inspired to create a logo, read interesting articles and evaluate other people’s work.

Pinterest!

This is a unique and irreplaceable resource for any designer or other creative person. One feature of this resource is that all images are downloaded and selected by the users themselves, which makes the resource live and meaningful due to manual search.

Dribbble

This is a common and useful resource that causes a lot of positive emotions, and also inspires the most interesting projects. There are thousands of interesting solutions for logos, backgrounds, images, color search, modern design – with this site, you will create a cool site that will be on trend and be sure to please your customer.

Niice

Niice is not just an interesting resource but a whole search engine with interesting design solutions. Here, extraordinary works of both famous and undiscovered designers, artists and creative workers are collected. This site will not give you the idea of a ready-made and cool site, but it will certainly inspire you. Also, you can use images from this site in your projects.

Behance

The site, or rather the real treasure of a portfolio of the most diverse and talented designers, contains amazing pictures, images and creations. Behance is really made for connoisseurs of beauty, but it can be a very useful site from which to draw ideas. This site proves once again that the talents of people are endless.

Designspiration

On this site, you will find equally exciting works of talented people who really can boast about their good taste. The creations are absolutely on a different theme: interior, clipart, web design, graphic design, logos, business cards and much more.

Awwwards

Awwwards is not just a site where unique and interesting works of designers are created. This is a full-fledged resource, which is engaged in rewarding and encouraging modern designers and their innovative ideas. Anyone can lay out his own site and win in the nomination, “Site of the Month.” At the end of the year, among the twelve winners, the “Site of the Year” award is held. The jury of the site is made up of famous and professional designers, which once again proves that this site publishes the coolest work.

One Page Love

In order to get many ideas for creating a Landing Page, you will really only need this resource. Single-page sites in the style of minimalism will inspire you to a truly trendy site that will make it insanely popular, and your customer will be very pleased.

The best designs

This design website is a showcase of cool sites made in a modern style. On it, you will find many interesting ideas that you can apply to your own website.

Siteinspire

This resource has collected not just the ideas of sites and works, but it is a complete collection of existing and successful sites that look great. Sites are selected on any topic, taste and color.

But does it float

This is another inspiring site with unusual pictures from which you get real aesthetic pleasure. It is images like these which remind us that human talents are endless.

Webcreme

This resource was found by my good friend, and I’m very grateful to him for this. It includes really different sites for every taste and theme.

TopDesignInspiration

I personally like this site very much. Firstly, there are good works here. Secondly, the navigation on the site is very cool and convenient, which will make it easier to find what you need.

When Visual Content Is Not Enough

Design shack

This is a very useful resource, which contains a large number of visual works in the gallery section but also worthy reading, interesting articles, lifehacks in web design, interfaces and branding in general.

Smashing Magazine

This is a cool resource where good ideas are published. Experienced designers share their experiences, tell their stories, and help users to avoid mistakes. The content of the site is updated daily.

Designmodo

Another useful resource, this site, in addition to having visual examples, also has answers to interesting questions about web design. There are many examples of useful and user-friendly interfaces, as well as additional resources on which you will find everything you need: icons, fonts and much more. This site is very convenient, if only because right after inspiration, you have all the necessary tools at hand.

Muzli

If I did not name this site, it would be a real crime against all my colleagues. This site is filled with inspiring practical work of designers and cool and useful articles. On this site is really good content that will be useful to every designer who wants to grow professionally.

This site is a pleasant bonus for those who want inspiration to come by itself. Plugin from Chrome – Muzli allows you to get the most unique and interesting works from various sites related to design. With this extension for your browser, you will have constant access to the coolest collections.

How to Be Inspired Without Improvised Means – Advice of Professionals

Nicholas Felton

He is among the 50 most influential graphic designers in the United States, according to Fast Company. He is the co-founder of the site Daytum.com – a service that allows you to systematize daily activities and make them graphics.

“I try to live differently each year, and I have my own scheme. If the year is odd (for example, 2009), I travel a lot and focus on my own projects. In even-numbered years, I try to work and earn more. In 2005, I spent 5 weeks traveling the world, and in 2007, I traveled for three weeks to China, Tibet and Nepal. After both trips, I returned to work full of creative energy, new ideas.”

Tom Muller

He is a graphic designer from Belgium and the founder of his own studio helloMuller Ltd, engaged in graphics and illustrations.

“I’m inspired by the most ordinary things that surround me. I rarely have a complete lack of ideas: something all the time is spinning in my head, and here is the question in the arrangement of priorities and the distribution of time.

In search of inspiration, you can refer to their own work: working on a single font for a year, I periodically borrowed from my old design sketches. So do not forget about your notebooks, and in general, the old items are a real treasure; I was very much helped in the work by reviewing the covers of old books and the Hiroshima poster by Wim Crowell.”

Audrey Kawasaki

She is the artist from Los Angeles known for her illustrations with a barely perceptible erotic hint, combining the techniques of the Japanese manga and art nouveau.

“When all ideas end, it means that I just cannot concentrate and patiently sit down for work, or I’m worried about something that is not directly relevant to the case. Over the years, I developed tactics: just put on headphones and listen to music. Music helps to distance yourself and not be distracted by an outsider. Although, lately, I listen to audio podcasts in such cases – they can find many inspirational stories.”

Hoy Win

He is the director of the design department at NYTimes.com, which, in particular, developed the application Mixel – a tool for making collages from any photos and pictures.

“My recipe is to read a lot and make many sketches or drafts. Reading is a long-term contribution to your development: you need to constantly accumulate ideas, opinions, details, points of view, metaphors and symbols, then to embark on any project with a huge knowledge base and sources of inspiration, and with the help of sketches, you can activate all passive information that stored in the head.

Visualization of different ideas – even unconnected with each other – in the end will tell what exactly you lack in the project. The main thing is to draw quickly and without hesitation, in no way drawing the details, so you do not think about the performance of the picture but about its content.”

Eric Spiekermann

He is a legendary German printer, a professor at the University of Bremen, and a compatriot and continuer of the first printer Gutenberg.

“I have 5 tips:

Distract. Do something else that will distract you – wash the car or sort out the old files on the computer.

Think. Lean back in your chair and just stop controlling your stream of thoughts.

Explore. Look for information, pick up your old projects, but avoid Google – you can spend too much time before bumping into something useful.

Do the outline. Drawing is great, even if you are completely incapable of it. Visualization of thoughts immediately enlivens them.

Divide it. Distract from the problem, break your project into small pieces and assemble them back into one.”

Jie Li

Currently, he is the creative director of Facebook. Before that, he worked at a similar position in Google. He not only conducts creative development, but he also lectures all over the world; he gave a master class at St. Petersburg State University.

“When the “ideological stupor” comes, I do several things. For a long time, I go to the shower – old ideas are washed away, and I feel how I am renewed. After that, I clean the apartment: I cannot think when there is a mess around. If the result is still not there, I’m going to ride around the neighborhood on a bicycle and try not to think about my project at all. Anyway, this scheme always works.”

Kevin Darth

He is a freelance artist from Los Angeles, who did animation for Walt Disney, Dreamworks and Cartoon Network.

“I have a bunch of tricks for such situations: for example, look at photos on the Internet, change the desktop to a coffee table and much more. But it’s best to just talk with your friends. They look at things quite differently from me, and they tell a lot of new things: they can throw up a cool inspirational photo or just cheer up with a couple of good words – it always makes you move on!”

Conclusion

When it seems that all the forces are running out and all ideas are exhausted, these strategies make us remember how unique and unordinary the human talents are. The most amazing thing in the work of any designer is to convey a sense of beauty and vision to other people.

In order to create your idea, you just need to look at other people’s work. It is at this moment that we understand that what we really need is to know what and how it will look great and amazing, and what mistakes it is better to avoid. Do not forget and do not be afraid to experiment. Start over and over again, develop yourself and you will definitely create your masterpiece.