4 min read
The Best Sites For Web Design Inspiration
In this article we are going to talk about some of the major web design inspiration sites we frequently use to keep our creative tanks filled up so we can carry on producing fresh, creative and interesting work that our clients love.
We love Awwards and have been using it for a long time. Countless incredibly creative and dynamic sites are submitted every single day which keeps us coming back for more. We especially like their community rating system (sites are rated based on design, usability, creativity, and content). This ensures that the very best sites are surfaced to the top and as a result, the calibre of sites you see on Awwwards are usually a cut above most other web design inspiration sites.
SiteInspire is super cool. On a number of occasions, we’ve come across designs on this site that has sparked inspiration and have gotten us through the occasional creative drought. What we particularly love about SiteInspire is the incredibly in-depth category filter system. You can filter sites by “styles”, “types”, “subject” or “platform”, or you can filter with a combination of these. For example, you can set the criteria to; sites with the style “colourful”, with the type “bar and restaurant”.
Godly is a relatively new inspiration which promises 'Astronomically good web design inspiration every single day'. We love the mix of animated and still thumbnails which help when we've got a spare afternoon to just scroll through. It's updated regularly and offers a vast variety of styles of design which is simply refreshing.
Admiretheweb has a more minimalistic and stripped-back look. But sometimes that really works for our needs. You can spend ages just clicking “next page” and scrolling through the seemingly endless pages of amazingly creative and unique websites. You never know what you might find that could trigger an idea.
Dribbble is amazing. Designers (web designers, UX/UI designers, animators, print designers) submit their finished work or works in progress and often in a matter of mere hours receive streams of really constructive criticism and/or praise from the huge and very active Dribbble community. We have come across some incredible work on Dribbble that has really helped inspire us on the projects we are working on.
What we love about Httpster is the ability to filter designs by style & type, this is including both by industry and visually. We have seen some incredible work being submitted and shown on Httpster and the ability to quickly visit the live site in 1 click speeds up the research process for us here at Shape. There are some really creative designs that tend to push the boundaries of templated web design.
Although commonly associated with the App, Instagram is a great source of web design inspiration with thousands of dedicated accounts showcasing digital designs as well as studio, agency, and personal accounts. With over 500 million daily active users, there is endless visual inspiration for your design projects. With the ability to follow users, this means you can have a curated feed with specific designers you like to see!
Ran by designer & developer David Hellmann from 2008, this site has a massive backlog of inspirational site designs. What is handy about this site is that it uses a tagging system so you can filter down sites based on their style, look & feel, functionality, and much more. A great site for inspiration for your next web deign project.
Behance is a great place to find web design inspiration from top web designers and agencies across the globe. With its ability to showcase thousands of portfolios on one site, you can get lost in the vast amount of content, with it not being specialised for web design, you sometimes get the odd unrelated project thrown in on your hunt for inspiration. However, being able to search for specific elements or industries is extremely useful to narrow down exactly what you're looking for.
This is a great site if you're looking specifically for sites that take it that extra mile in terms of experimental design (maybe too much experimental creativity and too little functionality?!) which is becoming increasingly popular, particularly with portfolio sites. With brutalism sometimes being described as ugly & raw, there's no surprise there is a love-hate relationship with brutalism in web design - but if you're a fan, this site will be your best friend!
Similar to Instagram, you can find some hidden gems on Pinterest. It is a great design inspiration source to spark web design ideas, as well as typography, colour, and everything in between. What's great about Pinterest is the ability to pin (Clues in the name hey!) your favourite images and top picks and put these onto specifically curated 'mood boards' so all of your inspiration is in one place, rather than a load of links saved or screenshots on your desktop.
If you're looking for e-commerce or product showcase sites, Best Products Sites is an independent website that recognise the best web designers, web developers, and agencies in the world, brought to you by yours truly, MadeByShape. Best Product Sites aim to showcase only the best product websites and apps to inspire, motivate and push designers in their design workflow.
When it comes to designing a digital agency website, you want to show your capabilities and understanding of design perfectly. Having exclusively agency/studio sites all in one place makes your life easier, and that's exactly what Best Agency Sites does. Design Agencies all in one place, what more could you want?
Hiya, I'm Mike - Web designer at Shape. My articles usually consist of design related stuff.
