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Article 13

Offline Inspiration for Web Designers

By @mikekus

08 September 2009 | Category: Design

title

Being inspired is vital fuel for any web designer. You can always pore over the CSS galleries but you'll probably think of more original ideas if you look offline for your inspiration.

Offline Inspiration

It’s cool to be inspired by websites you see on CSS galleries but I think using these sites as your main source of inspiration can sometimes lead to bland web design. Graphic Design offline can offer new and original ways of looking at web design. It’s my opinion that there’s still massive ground to be explored in the crossover between offline and online design.

The most obvious places to look for offline inspiration is in books, magazines, shop windows, posters, postcards, adverts etc. When you’re sitting in front of your computer screen you don’t always have these things to hand but luckily for us we have the internet! People the world over are taking pictures, saving images they like and storing them on sites like FFFFound, Flickr and Image Spark. This means we have offline inspiration at out finger tips all day everyday.

I’ve had a little look around and selected ten pieces of offline design that I think make great inspiration for web design. Enjoy.

01

Go to source of image.

02

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03

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04

Go to source of image.

05

Go to source of image.

06

Go to source of image.

07

Go to source of image.

08

Go to source of image.

09

Go to source of image.

10

Go to source of image.

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Comments

  • http://bijananjomi.wordpress.com Bijan Anjomi

    THANKYOU for this valuable post.

  • Ivan

    Mike, I totally agree with you, my personal inspiration collection is filled with examples from packaging design, book cover design, illustrations, …

  • http://andyshaw.me Andy Shaw

    Nicely put Mike, couldn’t agree more. I’ve recently found great inspiration from a couple design related book shops in Shoreditch (my neck of the woods). Good shout with ImgSpark too, I’ll now be virtually stalking you there :)

  • Oscar

    If posts like this have to be created for us “designers” what does that say about our approach to design and to how we approach our creativity? What is it that we’ve missed in our education? Or is it simply that we’re trying to get on the bandwagon to live paycheck to paycheck?

    I think it’s great that Mike Kus is continuing his fight for better web design, and most likely, better design overall. I say this because I listened to his presentation about “The Forgotten Standard.” That truly was an eye opener to me, and hopefully to many other designers. I say that because I feel I’ve lost that spiked club. However, listening to his presentation was also inspiring and lead me to not turn on my computer, but to open a book and REdiscover what had one inspired me. Now, every time I come across a great design from those who have created a legacy through print, it makes it more exciting to know that I, too, can create good design and to bring that creativity to the web.

    I’m still looking for my spiked club, but it’s a fun and exciting process. It’ll only be a matter of time before I swing the hell out of it.

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  • stickgames

    I’m still looking for my spiked club, but it’s a fun and exciting process. It’ll only be a matter of time before I swing the hell out of it.
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  • http://www.stayconnect.com.au rogerdouglas

    good work

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    zizi

  • http://www.wisetoweb.com/ Matt

    Good job on this Mike. I’ve been feeling quite the same lately about getting “inspired” from web design galleries. Eventually things get stale and you need a fresh shot of inspiration from an unlikely source.

  • http://alexblundell.co.uk Alex Blundell

    I totally agree with you on this… I recently wrote about this as part of an article on my blog, Everyday I find myself getting more and more inspiration from the things around me. Some days I will get home to find i’ve filled my pockets with flyers, business cards (sometimes i’ve been known to pilfer the odd restaurant menu!). my most valuable thing I have is my camera, if I see something on a building or a bilbord i’ll take a photo of it. I find that when I get inspiration this way the ideas I come up with a more natural and open minded.

  • http://appetizersnacks.com Michelle

    Anytime I create a site I am scouring through wordpress themes and css galleries for inspiration and find nothing that really stands out to me as exactly what I want to portray. I think I’m going to spend some time looking through the piles of old books and magazines that I have and see if I can find something that catches my eye :)

  • http://mesotheliomaandmore.com/ MM

    I totally agree with you on this… I recently wrote about this as part of an article on my blog, Everyday I find myself getting more and more inspiration from the things around me. Some days I will get home to find i’ve filled my pockets with flyers, business cards (sometimes i’ve been known to pilfer the odd restaurant menu!). my most valuable thing I have is my camera, if I see something on a building or a bilbord i’ll take a photo of it. I find that when I get inspiration this way the ideas I come up with a more natural and open minded.

  • http://www.ph-creative.com Matt

    I think it’s the objetcs and things in real life that give you the inspiration for web design. Mostly because it’s always relevant, people live in the offline world and then bring their personas online which is why offline ideas will always work, simply because it’s relevant to them.

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