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Where to Find Design Inspiration

With the right website builder on your side, anyone can build a website for their business that’s mobile-friendly, convertible, and professional. However, as I mentioned in my last blog — How to Choose the Right Design Template — any website builder you choose should allow its templates to be customized for your brand and your needs.

Although website builders, like the one we offer at Websites 360®, should make it easy for you to customize whatever template you choose. However, just because you can easily customize your website, it doesn’t mean that it won’t take a little out-of-the-box thinking.

Let’s face it. Designing a great website that’s all your own will take a little creativity on your part, and if you don’t consider yourself to be an overly creative person, finding that creativity might be a challenge. But, you’ll be glad to know that a little inspiration can go a long way when it comes to creativity.

6 Ways to Find Web Design Inspiration

#1. Music

The world of music is an incredible place to find inspiration to design your website. Not only is the music itself bursting with creativity, but album covers and music videos can help to spark visual inspiration like nothing else.

Start by taking a close look at your music library. Whether your music library is physical, in iTunes, or on Spotify, it’s full of unique album art that can help you find the creative spark you’re looking for.

Watching music videos will also help you find creativity. Start by watching videos for music you love, but make sure that you also branch out to bands and artists that aren’t in your regular repertoire.

#2. Flyers

When you walk past a nearby concert venue or coffee shop, you’ll likely find a large number of flyers posted in bathrooms and on notice boards. These flyers will not only keep you up to date about what’s going on in your community, but they’re also a spectacular source of design inspiration for your website.

Flyers are sometimes printed by sign companies, but in a lot of cases, they’re designed by local talent with an affinity for graphic design. There’s also a lot more freedom to be creative with flyers than with more other marketing materials, which makes it a phenomenal place to look when you’re hoping to create a one-of-a-kind design.

#3. Walk

If you’ve been sitting at your computer, staring at the screen for hours, without any real idea of where to begin, it sounds like it’s time to take a break. The fact is that, no matter how much you try to force it, creativity comes from a more natural place, and sometimes, finding that spark of creativity requires a little exercise.

You don’t necessarily need to sweat it out for hours at the gym to find a little inspiration for designing your website. Sometimes, simply going on a walk is the best way to move past the roadblocks in your creative process.

A study that was conducted by researchers at Stanford University found that walking helps to boost creative inspiration. After examining people while sitting and walking, the Stanford study found that, on average, when participants were walking, their creativity levels increased by up to 60 percent.

#4. Business Cards

Most business cards are pretty basic. Typical business cards will come on white cardstock, are labeled with the logo, and contain all of the information someone would need to learn the basics of what the business is all about and how to get ahold of them. However, not all business cards have to be basic; there are plenty of creative options out there that can help you find inspiration for designing your website.

You may or may not be in a place where you need your own business cards, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t learn anything from looking at others. Business cards don’t exactly scream creativity, but that’s why it’s so impressive — and inspiring — when people are able to think outside of the box and design something truly original.

#5. Travel

There are so many reasons to take a vacation. Getting a break from your day-to-day will help you reduce your stress and catch your breath. Not that you need an excuse to want to take a trip, but there’s a little-known benefit to getting out and seeing the world — it helps to boost creativity!

When you travel, it pushes you outside of your familiar surroundings and your comfort zone. Depending on where you go, you’ll be introduced to new languages, food, art, and culture, which, believe it or not, actually spark new synapses in your brain — effectively rewriting the way your brain works.

#6. Catalogs and Magazines

It’s probably been a minute since you last looked at a magazine or a catalog, and you might be surprised to learn that they are a stellar place to find design inspiration for your website. After all, if you think about it, there’s a lot of similarities between the way a magazine is laid out and the way a website is laid out. It all starts with the cover, which is akin to the homepage of your website, and includes a hierarchy of other pages, just like a website.

Rather than throwing away those old catalogs that have stacked up in the mail, take a few minutes to look through then, paying close attention to the images, colors, and layout of each page. You can also tear out the pages you like and put them up on a bulletin board for future inspiration.

When you build your website with Website 360, you’ll have access to tons of great templates to get you started, and each one can be customized for your brand and needs. I hope that this blog will help you find the inspiration you need to make your website everything you want it to be.