Need inspiration for your blog design? Check out what these bloggers suggest
A few months ago I sat in front of a fresh install of WordPress. I’d just made the massive decision to delete my blog and start something new. Call it an urge, an impulse but something made me want to start my blogging journey all over again, starting with a blank canvas and my name.
As I stared at the stark whiteness of my new blog, I considered what prompted me to hit the delete button.
- Parent blogging was never really my “thing”
- I wanted a space that was grown up
- I needed to explore different things, interests I didn’t have room to expand upon with my old blog
- I wanted to help other bloggers
And so tweak by tweak this website was born. A phoenix rising from the ashes of a deceased chapter of my life, inspired by the potential of something new, something more meaningful and more exciting.
How Do We Find Inspiration?
The name of my blog was easy – it’s me – I already had the domain, you know, just incase. Where I struggled was in the design of my new blog, with finding something that looked great but which reflected a deep core of my personality.
I’m a firm believer in expressing yourself through everything you do. Whether that’s writing, designing or speaking, putting your personality into your work adds a certain extra something that makes it shine. Therefore I hunted for ideas, brief bursts of insight, something that really said “Yep, that’s We. That’s who she is”.
This website is the result of that search – the design, layout, colour – everything speaks my name.
To help you find and create beautiful designs that sing your name from the rooftops, I’ve asked several respected and highly creative bloggers for their advice. Today they’re going to share with you their 3 top sources of blog design inspiration they use to help in their own creative brainstorming.
David Morgan – Organic Themes
1. TheFWA
TheFWA is a site I frequent for web design inspiration. I first started visiting the site years ago when I was a Flash designer. At the time, it was known as the Flash Website Awards. After the death of Flash they changed it to the Favorite Website Awards. The site usually features websites from huge design agencies.
Honestly, I think most of the sites they feature are over the top, far too heavy on the resources, and take too long to load, but it fascinates me to see what kind of websites Fortune 500 companies are blowing a million bucks on these days. That being said, many of the sites are at the forefront of design and development, so they’re a good source of inspiration.
2. Best Web Gallery
Best Web Gallery is a great resource I frequent for inspiration. The designs featured are great, and most of them are still attainable for a small, boutique design shop, or even a talented designer/developer to create on their own. The site is updated fairly often, and features a decent amount of WordPress sites.
3. Much of my inspiration comes from outside of the web world.
I love illustration, and have a pretty solid background in it. The work in magazines like Juxtapoz and High Fructose are a huge inspiration for me. I can get lost in the work on Dribbble quickly as well.
Concept art for movies and video games is another love of mine. Creative and simplistic character creation like that of Pictoplasma I also find to be inspiring. Some of my favorite design work comes from the blending of design and illustration.
Much of my early work in design was in the form of logos and branding. Logos are design in its simplest form in my opinion. I love trying to capture the entire essence of a person or brand within a single mark and/or typeface. It’s extremely challenging, and very difficult to do well. Seeing amazing logos gets the juices flowing for me.
I’m also a big fan of modern architecture. Basically, anything in the art or design world that blows me away inspires me to be better at whatever I’m doing.
Brian Gardner – StudioPress
1. StudioPress Showcase
There’s a tremendous amount of talent that be found within the Genesis community and the designers and developers there are some of the very best. From time to time I find myself browsing our showcase to see what folks are up to.
2. Dribbble
Dribbble has become the playground and portfolio display of the top designers in the world. Among them is a firm named Focus Lab, who’s team continues to output designs that are out of this world.
3. Web Inspiration
This is a resource that I’ve recently come across, as it houses some of the best modern designs around. Thankfully it’s not littered with affiliate links to theme sales pages, so everything there is legit.
Pavel Ciorici – WPZoom
These are my favorite sources for inspiration for blog designs:
1. Dribbble
You can see many shots that I use for inspiration in my “Likes“.
2. siteInspire
Another great source for inspiration is siteInspire, which is a showcase of great minimal sites.
I also like to collect screenshots of different websites or web elements and have them nicely organized using the Pixa app.
Pauline Cabrera – Twelveskip
My top 3 sources of inspiration for blog designs are:
1. Deviant Art
For vintage blog designs, I go to Deviantart.com – lots of great artists.
2. ThemeForest
When I feel like designing a vector-style or professional looking website, I go to Dribbble or Themeforest.
3. Etsy
For girly or chic-looking style, Etsy.com is my go to!
Devesh Sharma – WP Kube
1. Fast Company
Fast Company is one of my favorite resources for design inspiration. They share awesome design related ideas that will help you improve your online business. You should specifically check out the Fast Company Design section for new ideas.
2. Behance
Behance is another great source as it shows the most creative work from different web designers. It not only serves as an excellent source for inspiration, but also as marketplace for finding awesome web designers and individuals.
3. Dribbble
Sometimes I also use Dribbble exclusively for new ideas and inspiration. It is a fantastic resource for feedback and community.
Final Thoughts
Thank you so much to the inspirational bloggers and designers who took part. Many of these talented people have inspired my own designs. It’s really interesting to see how creativity and inspiration can come from so many different sources. I think ultimately it’s about realizing dreams. What do you think?
You see things; and you say, “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say, “Why not?” – George Bernard Shaw
