Web design inspiration: Top 10 ways to get your groove back!

September 8th, 2008

Hello hello…
It’s been a long time and  boy have I missed blogging. There have been a couple of endeavours I have been working on for the past couple of months which have kept me busy — enough that as much as I’d love to, I just don’t have any hours left over to blog. Hopefully a change is on the way and we see a bit more blogs going up!

We are  going to start this week by tackling the issue web designers (and developers) for that matter always face at some stage in their careers; a loss of creative juices. Sometimes losing your creative juices can’t come at a worst time; i.e. you have an appointment to go through a concept with your boss in 1 hour and you haven’t started! Oh Oh!

So let’s get going and look at a couple of ways which have helped me get my creative juices flowing in the past.

Web design inspiration: Getting your groove back…

1. Look around you for inspiration

Where we live, work, eat, sleep and more has a lot to offer in terms of inspiration. Whether it be the retro ‘Astro Boy’ poster on your wall or pattern-infused bed sheets – look around you and you will find something that will get your visual and creative juices flowing. Next time you are on a trip in the car or on a bus/train, look around you. Signage, foliage, Zebra-stripes and more can help.

2. Check out web design galleries

Web design galleries have been shown to offer tons of inspiration. Galleries like: CSS Remix, CSS Mania, CSS Drive, CSS Elite, CSS Beauty, CSS Vault, CSS Import, Screenfluent, Screenalicio.us, We Love WP, Design Snack, Web Creme, Best Web Gallery and more showcase some exceptional design work which will definitely give you a bit of an edge when designing your own websites.

3. Visit your local record store

You may think this is a bit left-field, but there have been numerous times when I have rummaged through a record store for inspiration. Record stores hold a lot of design inspiration in the form of CD/DVD album art. I have found that many alternative/rock bands have cool album art – generally not a physical representation of the band, but a graphical or uber-cool concept art. Here are some examples of cool album art that can offer plenty of design inspiration.

We shot the moon album art

We shot the moon album art

Joint effort album art

Joint effort album art

James Blunt - All the lost souls album art

James Blunt - All the lost souls album art

Dashboard Confessional - The shade of poison trees album art

Dashboard Confessional - The shade of poison trees album art

4. Visit an art gallery or museum

Art galleries are a great place to find inspiration. Whether it be a painting, or a statue of a 15th-century water creature – but above all, the buildings themselves! – as they say, don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!

Denver Art Museum

Denver Art Museum

5. Buy some books

Books are always great for inspiration – even non design-based books! Anything from the spine of the book to the front or back cover can provide inspiration – however, actual books based on designs are great too.

Some of the best books I’ve read/found to help with inspiration include:

6. Check out other designer’s work

This is an important one… There is nothing like looking at your peers’ designs for inspiration. Start with sites like Deviant Art and  Threadless – both design communities which are constantly updated with heaps, and I mean heaps of design and other forms of inspiration.

7. Take some photographs of interesting objects and textures

Next time you’re out on a walk or driving around with mates, keep a camera handy. It doesn’t have to be a $900 SLR or anything like that – just anything which is capable of taking, ahh, photos! This is an important step in getting your groove back because you just never know what you come across that offers some sort/form of inspiration. It could be as simple as graffiti which gets those juices flowing, or maybe the sun setting above green pastures. Seriously – what do you have to lose? Try it!

8. Walk around a thrifty or antique store

You know those beaten-down stores that you might have to travel 20km or miles to get to? Yup, those stores that only seem to invite in old(er), men or women – or in certain cases, maybe your mum (or dad, for that matter) seeking that something special. Perhaps a dog-eared special edition of a novel which you cannot find anywhere else, or maybe that Tibetan-inspired lamp. Rummage through these stores for ideas – you will never know how much visual ‘gold’ they store until you walk into one.

As they say, one person’s  trash, is another man’s treasure. If you don’t want to buy something, at least take a notepad and a pencil, or perhaps a camera and take happy snaps… As long as the shop owner doesn’t mind, that is!

9. Plan out your designs by creating wireframes and prototypes

I feel that when I have a mental blank and can’t come up with any design goodness, i mockup a few ideas around grid-based designs. Axure or Microsoft Visio are great tools to do this on.

Just remember, designs don’t always start out in Photoshop (or whatever you use!). Great designs have a back-story; a skelaton, per say. Start by laying down the basic foundations – i.e. logotype on the top left, search/login on the top right, navigation, sub-navigation, content area and footer – and you will find you are half way there. Simple ideas such as effects on hovers, etc. will guide your design juices into the right direction. Combine that with some imagery and a bit of flair, and you’re suddenly the main actor in ‘How Stella Got Her Groove Back II’.

10. Check out other types of media for inspiration

Turn on the TV, check out the local newspaper – heck, even listen to the radio. You will most likely see or hear something that will get you off the beaten track. I find magazines and newspapers have plenty of inspiration. Something as simple as a telephone advert in a newspaper can give you ideas about your next gig. It’s that simple. I know it sounds like something every designer shoud know – but apparently some designers believe that the only medium they can seek an oracle on is the ‘net. Reality check, anyone?

So there you go guys – another one bites the dust. I will hopefully have a bit more time on my hands to draft up some more inspiration but for now sign up to the RSS Feed for more news and articles. Till next time, C.

test Filed under Design Inspiration | Tags: , , | Comments (39)

39 Responses to “Web design inspiration: Top 10 ways to get your groove back!”

  1. Mel Forrest on September 8, 2008 12:12 pm

    dude a new post, about bloody time…….

    ok im waiting for it…. (the comeback, i know what it will be)

  2. Cheb on September 8, 2008 2:45 pm

    Ha ha ha.. Hey Mel! I guess the comeback you are waiting for is: “At least I have a blog!” — hehe, come on girl! You have to get it goin’. C

  3. Mel on September 8, 2008 3:15 pm

    I promise when i get back from my honeymoon i’ll get the blog going. wow in 2 weeks i’ll be Melissa Choy hmmm sounds really strange.

  4. Cheb on September 8, 2008 3:18 pm

    I know ayh! Crazy stuff – guess you’ll have to register a new domain as well! Should be fun. I along with everyone else will hold you to that promise Melz!

  5. Darko Milvik on September 8, 2008 3:25 pm

    Great post Cheb. Welcome back – we have missed your posts. Lots of good tips in this one.

    Mel, if your blog is going to be anywhere near as good as Cheb 2.0 then I cannot wait till you get back from your honeymoon. Congrats btw. DM

  6. neil on September 8, 2008 6:42 pm

    really good tips! anyone who followed these would have a good diversity in their web design

  7. Scott on September 9, 2008 11:06 am

    Hey Great Blog, Inspiration is always welcome with so much off the shelf web design taking the fun out of design. Keep it real and fresh i say!
    http://www.creative-web-designer.com/

  8. Aaron (Demonz) on September 10, 2008 3:42 pm

    Go to Published Art.
    They have great books.
    Good for ideas.

    Hehe – it’s Haiku commenting. That bookstore is in Surry Hills by the way.

    Also MCA in Circular Quay is good sometimes.

  9. Cheb on September 10, 2008 4:30 pm

    Thanks for the nice comments guys.
    @Aaron. Nice Haiku.. Might try those myself. Cheers. C

  10. mymusic® on September 10, 2008 10:26 pm

    gr8 stuff here m8, cya soon.

  11. Michael on September 15, 2008 11:42 am

    Really nice post. Some really good tips. Keep it coming

  12. Cheb on September 16, 2008 1:52 pm

    Thanks guys!

  13. John Seymor on September 30, 2008 11:04 am

    Thanks for the post. Loved it.

  14. Paris @ unitedworx web design on October 3, 2008 4:09 pm

    great article m8,

    i do use ms visio to create prototypes as you mentioned and its a straight forward tool. i mainly do this to pass information in my mind to my graphic designer and mainly place all the things that need to go in the home page and make up the best layout organization for it.

    never read about axure, will surely rean do it and see if any cool :)

    now back to reality…work

  15. Cheb on October 7, 2008 1:03 am

    Paris, be sure to try Axure – you won’t go back to Visio for general rapid prototyping :)

    All the best, C.

  16. Professional Website Templates on October 14, 2008 4:55 am

    Very well done! Always need a refresh when my design and programming get a little monotonous.

  17. got on October 22, 2008 3:04 am

    thanks guy very cool post

  18. Cheb on October 31, 2008 8:35 am

    No worries, thank you guys for dropping by!

  19. pixel3cs on November 5, 2008 6:24 pm

    Cool design. Anyway, if you are tired and want cool graphics with no work you can use CoolRGB, a great site where you can generate and download free graphics. Visit this site at http://www.coolrgb.com

  20. Mel on November 20, 2008 12:10 pm

    “Web design inspiration: Top 10 ways to get your groove back!”

    seeing this was posted on the 8th of september and nothing has changed on your site, not even a blog post I reckon you should read your own material and get some of you mojo back.. please cheb please

  21. Cheb on November 20, 2008 12:22 pm

    Ha ha! You know what you are absolutely right there Che-mel!

    I’ve just been inundated with work in the interim mate and just been super busy — but I promise you guys I will be back ASAP!!

    In the mean time, please feel free to put the information herein to good use.
    :)
    Cheb.

  22. webdesign tübingen on December 3, 2008 7:39 pm

    very interesting `walktrough`, i printed this post for my documents ;)
    i`m web design trainee in germany this is very usefull for me. thank you.

  23. Cheb on December 10, 2008 12:27 pm

    Thanks for visiting mate :)

  24. Superwebsiteguy on December 20, 2008 6:46 am

    going to the local record store is a great idea to get inspirations!

  25. website design delhi on December 25, 2008 9:19 pm

    Hi!….
    I was searching on internet and I found your web design blog…..it is really interesting…keep it up….look forward to read more from you

  26. Cheb on January 3, 2009 11:14 pm

    Thanks guys.. More posts and an exciting announcement soon! :) Cheb.

  27. Neelesh on January 16, 2009 2:48 am

    Great graphic design works!! look forward to see more works!!

  28. Cheb on January 23, 2009 12:43 pm

    Hi Cheb, this is Cheb, Cheb wants to know why Cheb hasnt posted in such a long time on Chebs blog. Cheb loves reading what Cheb puts up on his blog and really misses Cheb.

    So please Cheb, put up some more posts so that Cheb can have something to inspire him.

    Thanks Cheb
    Cheb

  29. Web Design Wollongong on January 29, 2009 7:14 pm

    Nice blog mate will come in handy the next time I get stuck, good to see an Australian blogger

  30. Web Design Wollongong on January 29, 2009 7:17 pm

    Mate your a fantastic web designer, I love your work

  31. Cheb on January 30, 2009 3:04 am

    Thanks WDW! :) Thanks for stopping by!

  32. Social Network Web Developer on April 22, 2009 7:16 pm

    Your #3.
    I do the same. I visit Hollywood video and check out the covers to get ideas on designs.

  33. Ziller on May 12, 2009 10:15 pm

    Thanks for the link to best web gallery. Great site,

  34. amirek on June 19, 2009 12:06 pm

    wow… nice article… it really inspired me to continue my goal … thanks a lot….

  35. amirek on June 19, 2009 12:08 pm

    wow… nice article… it really inspired me to keep going … thanks a lot….

  36. Ovi Dogar on June 22, 2009 7:39 pm

    Hey Cheb,

    Great job! Keep posting…

    Ovi Dogar
    AbsoluteCovers.com

  37. Leon Dudovich on July 10, 2009 12:56 am

    Look great )) Seems like you ve got lots of visitors here… I need your help guys in case how create a website http://www.site2you.com/how-it-works/ very quickly… What you think?

  38. web design arizona on August 8, 2009 8:04 pm

    My mind is blowing along with great ideas. You tips are so
    creative. Every web designer can get benefited by this.

    Thanks dude…

  39. Web Design Australia on September 22, 2009 6:11 pm

    Great tips! These tips would surely be helpful in designing blogs and websites. Nice selections of albums by the way.

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