Creative Inspiration
Sometimes when I feel about as creative as a brick, I remember that all I need is a little inspiration to get me started. For instance, I was faced this morning with a daunting task: design a wall-sized neon sign for a night club. Now, I am not the clubbing kind, so I had no idea what to look for.
Thankfully, Google was there to help. After perusing through results for “club neon,” I finally struck gold: I typed in “neon design” instead and found some fabulous samples for inspiration. After playing around with different ideas for a few hours, I now have two completely different designs to show the customer, and several more ideas to toy with tomorrow. Now the task I was dreading — and which I thought I wouldn’t be able to complete — has got me all excited.
Another site that has helped me through several inspiration conundrums is iStockPhoto. While their “club neon” photos were useless to me, when I searched for “swirl design” I found hundreds of designs to peruse. My inspiration often comes from places that are not directly related to what I’m looking for, but when I see something I like it triggers ideas that I can blend into whatever project I’m currently working on.
Whenever I’m in the mood to cook up an exciting new web layout, I do weeks and weeks worth of research. I guess you could say I’m creatively challenged — I don’t come up with ideas well all on my own, but once I have a color palette or a basic style I want to mimic, I take it and run.
Some of my favorite places to peruse for web design inspiration: Be Inspired, a Russian site — which forces me to draw my own conclusions about the layouts, rather than take someone’s word for it that “Here is a great colorful layout…” etc.
Phrizbie Design has much inspiration to offer. They create designs that are eye-catching and soothing at the same time. Browse through their character illustrations if you want to see just how unworthy you really are.
Nuvio is another brilliant non-English design showcase that shows some beautiful designs.
Lather, rinse, repeat. If after a day of searching you still have nothing, take two aspirin and call me in the morning.
Leave a Comment