6 Sites For Web Design Inspiration

Where does web design inspiration come from? Interestingly enough web designers frequently inspire each other with creative ideas and applications of technology in new and unique ways. Often web designers will view the web looking at how people place elements, use style aspects and in some cases take traditional design trends and turn them upside down.

Of course that is fairly normal within creative fields. Inspiration often does come from within and many designers, much like musicians, enjoy each other’s work along with collaboration.

Here at the Lounge we regularly take tours of cyberspace to see the various ways other designers are applying their craft. In some cases the most unique and interesting sites on the web aren’t even business related; they are just something fun or personal that someone wanted to share.

So what do we find inspiring?

Here are some of the sites we recently found that provide us with web design inspiration:

• Mahno.com.ua – This site is for Sergey Markhno architects and their style is on full display from the moment the page launches. Images that zoom and pan before fading, a great use of logo and simple yet elegant button placement start the journey. The story then unfolds with a simple, minimalist design that showcases plenty of style and design ability. The addition of short videos and background music is the icing on the cake and really helps create a great feel for what this firm is capable of.
• Puppets.fr – This site screams creativity at first glance. An interesting background with an extremely unique logo font starts things off nicely. Add to that a simple pop out sidebar and the ball is officially rolling. Hitting the ‘scroll’ button unleashes a marvelous transformation. The imagery, background and shading of each section are unique and fully displays their design chops.
• Sonoetwas.com – This EMD duo are a pair of Norwegian producers who use the site as an extension of their brand. The individual headshots have a 3-D appearance and while it does look very Dieter from Saturday Night Live, it is also an inspiring piece of work. Using unique fonts that have a ‘flyer’ feel they provide information simply in a stark, minimalist manner. There is an excellent use of Spotify integration to support their music as well. It is simple yet complex while being memorable.
• Sylvainreucherand.fr – Reuters Wider is an extreme minimalist site. The landing page is simple text in varying shades and sizes. The only obvious choice is the ‘see more’ button which is an excellent bit of design. From there you can view the rest of the very relaxed, informal site which seems to reflect the personality of this young developer.
• Christopherireland.net – This site for photographer Christopher Ireland is a phenomenal example of what you can do with motion on a website. The depth and movement are truly astounding when you investigate. From there the rest of the site uses a simple, minimalist design that allows an excellent focus on the visual portfolio, but it is the landing page that is truly inspiring.
• Palzileri.com – Another highly visual site, the use of smooth motion is excellent when combined with a handsome celebrity, nice clothes and stylish blend of black and white to create a sophisticated throwback to the days of early film. The scrolling features take you on a delightful adventure with a great use of transitions. Overall the look is stylish and hip, exactly what you would expect from a high end clothing line while still being original and inspirational.

Those are just five examples of the types of things we find exciting. As you can see many of these sites are from design-oriented people as well. While what they have done might not directly apply to what we might do or you might want done, they still provide excellent web design inspiration because you can see possibilities for the ways things like motion, transitions and white space can be used for maximum effect.