The Official
Moosylvania Blog

As a designer at a digital marketing agency, I love what I do. But sometimes I find myself stuck and unmotivated. Here are some tips and tricks that give me the boost I need when things get stale.

1. Reward Yourself
As designers, we often have a long list of things that need to be done by the end of our day. Some are small. Some are, quite frankly, scary. My advice here is to make a list and make sure every time you scratch something off, you give yourself a reward. It could be candy or maybe a funny cat video on YouTube. Reward yourself. (I know I will be after I finish writing this.) (more…)

Whether you are designing your own website or providing creative direction for your new website design, you’re going to need some inspirational resources to stay on top of the latest design trends. Below is a list of some of our favorite resources for website design inspiration.

Each of these resources has specific characteristics that make them great for a holistic approach to getting your website design juices flowing. If you have ideas for alternatives to these be sure to share them in the comments.

1. Concept Inspiration

ffffound.com — This site straight up rocks. There is literally an endless supply of new images coming in on an hourly basis, and nearly all of it is top quality. The beauty of this site is that – while anyone can browse – only invited guests can post. This keep the content quality consistently high. Be sure to save your favorites to a special “inspiration” folder on your desktop – just don’t use them without permission!

2. Feature-Specific Inspiration

patterntap.com — Pattern Tap is good for finding inspiration for specific features like navigation, contact forms, signup processes, and photo galleries. This is a great tool for web designers to brainstorm ideas with clients, or clients to help explain why they feel their designers execution isn’t working for them.

3. Design Inspiration by Category

emberapp.com — Ember App is a great website design resources for staying on top of the latest trends in design, such as cool features like dominos order tracking widget or iPad design inspiration. Ember App has an active community so there is always new content being added.

4. Feedback on Your Ideas

conceptfeedback.com — Have some ideas that could use some constructive feedback? Concept Feedback lets you upload your designs (or the designs your designer created for you) and lets you get specific feedback. This can be used for logo and other creative as well. If you are not ready for feedback on your design, this is a great resource for inspiration as well.

5. Typography Inspiration

myfonts.com — Good typography is not just for logos anymore – good fonts are an integral part of great website design. On MyFonts you can browse by font type, bookmark fonts you like, and even customize the text to see exactly what your copy will look like with each font. The fonts aren’t free, but the prices are fair.

6. Get Specific

google.com — Google huh? Yep – Google is a great resource for great website design inspiration – not for anything they are necessarily doing themselves, but because of all of the great sites out there like Smashing Magazine and Freelance Switch that continually create great content about things like “35 Beautiful E-Commerce Websites” and “34 Places to Get Design Inspiration“. If you are looking for something specific, search for it on Google and you are bound to find something to get you going on your project.