Where do you go for layout inspiration?

[zulufox]

I am looking for inspiration for my new site layout and am having trouble.

I have looking at many templates from templatemonster to give me some ideas, but these are not the type of design I want.

Where do you go when you want to find inspiration for layout?

[faltered]

I'll cruise CSS Vault, Zen Garden, or the like to see what's new or even look at older designs. That often inspires me.

[TerryG]

go here.
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[edited by: trillianjedi at 4:18 pm (utc) on May 27, 2005]
[edit reason] TOS #13 [/edit]

[rocknbil]

Okay this is going to sound odd, but it comes from long years of addressing the same question over and over in both graphic design for printing and the web.

When you browse the web looking for ideas, you're basically going to come up with an ecclectic design; in your search for the unique, you're basing it on the non-unique. I used to do this, and I felt like I was cheating, or lazy, or uninspired, or all of the above.

So. Where do I go? Off the web. I take a walk. See a movie. Keep my eyes peeled.

I've gotten ideas from landscape patterns, the sides of moving vans, and the patterns in my cat's markings. I like to fish; some ideas have sprung from the patterns of scales in a freshly caught lake trout (a plant folks, not a natural,) ancient Egyptian architecture, brick walls, the Rorschach-like patterns in wood grain and wall texturing. The design and tooling of internal engine parts.

Navigation and layout are pretty much a science, the site requirements determine which formula you use. But if you browse sites to look for ecclectic design ideas, you rob yourself of your individuality. Find your muse! :-)

Lastly I envy artists of any kind that can simply turn it on at will. My creativity can't be supplied on demand, sometimes I have to wait for it. Sometimes it offers up nothing but craptasticness. I just can't force it, and I know a lot of artist who experience the same thing. Unfortunately, the world doesn't work that way, but that's just the way it is for me. You may be in a funk and just have to wait for it to come to you.

[excell]

I agree with rocknbil - unique design is triggered not by having a treasure trove of others art to gain inspiration from but by meditating on the unique aspects of the identity you are going to create for and their audience - matching them.

For me - my best design work is inspired in times spent well away from the computer. I do admit that I tend to bookmark things I love when I see them, but it would be rare that elements of those would be worked into a new creation successfully.

It also depends on if you have design elements already in existence that you need to incorporate? You need to take inspiration from them - if there is none or there is no flow, then you could start looking for a fresh start.

I have also been none to sit and wade through such sites as coolhomepages.com and come away totally numb - I think the reason for it is that the spark needs to come from within not from without. :)