Posts Tagged ‘design inspiration’

What can be said about January, only that it was a huge month for web design. Maybe all the new years resolutions were what led to the awesome collection of websites that represent the month? Or maybe it was the radical changes being seen in the our government? No matter the reason, January was impressive.

The amazing website series that I have been doing for some time has always been a popular series and a great practice for myself in collecting work that is different yet interesting. In order to keep the quality of featured sites up, I have decided to move the series to a monthly feature. I will now be collecting the sites that I feel are the most unique and interesting every month and featuring them here. I believe that doing this will allow for a larger pool of sites to select from so that only amazing websites are recognized.

This is post number eight in my Sources of Inspiration Series. Over 80 portfolios later and I am still amazed by the amount of quality work out there that I am able to find. For this collection I spent over 5 hours reviewing the work, which really speaks for its quality.

Note: This is not a series about the websites themselves. That said, enjoy the amazing design work located within the portfolios below.

One thing that I have learned designing in what is mostly a solo environment is that inspiration is a very hard thing to find. If you work as a freelancer or in an environment devoid of other designers you know just as well as me that creativity is something that has to come from somewhere. Working in an environment with limited access to other designers can really make it hard to break out of design block if you are not aware of what works for you. With the large amount of web design I have been doing lately I have found that this medium suffers the most from group thought. So called “inspirational” sites are everywhere to be found however they only seem to perpetuate current trends, so where do I turn, here are a few tips that I personally use.

Lately I have been looking past websites for design inspiration. In my opinion the so called web design “inspiration” sites have become completely flooded with similar looking trend driven sites. While some galleries are closely monitored and look to only showcase great design, for the most part this is not the case. Print design is one option to look for inspiration, however one area of design that is very inspiring to me has been skateboard / snowboard graphics. These graphics are very expressive and show a ton of a creativity which are two important criteria for judging work based on its inspirational qualities.

I stumbled upon this great photo set on flicker today of 1950’s and 60’s poster designs. The artwork and craft is fantastic while also giving a snapshot into culture as a whole during this time period. Bigdaddyhame, owner of the set, describes their discovery: