The content is written, the platform is selected, and the wireframes are approved. All that’s left is to sit down and hammer out a beautiful design both you and the client will be happy with. It’s times like these when inspiration can escape us and we’re left in a creativity block. When I’m struggling to design a visually engaging website, I look to a few resources to get my creativity flowing again. The following is a list of favorite websites used for finding website design inspiration. We’ve updated this list in 2022 to give you even more places to look for website design inspiration!
How to Find Website Design Inspiration
As you look through this list of website design inspiration sources, you may feel a surge of creativity, or you may feel overwhelmed. There’s lots of different types of web design and types of websites. Consider elements of your brand identity, such as color, fonts, imagery, and how your web design can reinforce your brand. Consider using our free brand style guide template to refine an organize your creative impulse. Also, it’s helpful to start with website conventions, so you know which rules you can break and which rules should stay as you design an innovative website.
Here are 18 to Look for Website Design Inspiration:
#1 WebDesign Inspiration
One of the first sites I go to when I need some website design inspiration is Webdesign Inspiration. The websites featured on Webdesign Inspiration are diverse and can be sorted based on industry, type, and color.
#2 Template Monster
It might feel weird to get website design inspiration from a site that sells pre-built designs, but checking out Template Monster is a great place to get different ideas of how content can be laid out. You can view templates based on platform, industry, and features.
#3 CSS Nectar
CSS Nectar is another great gallery to check out when looking for website design inspiration. Featured websites are rated based on design, coding, and creativity and can be sorted by color, feature, country, and category.
#4 Awwwards
Like CSS Nectar, Awwwards has a rating system for the websites featured and selects a new site each day to showcase. They also offer a more in-depth analysis of the sites and allow users to comment on the designs. The sites featured here are often edgy and modern, which is great when you need inspiration for something less traditional.
#5 Best Website Gallery
What I like about Best Website Gallery is the ability to view screenshots of the inner pages on the detail view for each site. This is great when you want to see how the other pages look on a site without going through each of the pages yourself. This can help you get more in-depth website design inspiration outside of just the home page.
#6 siteInspire
What I like about siteInspire is it’s ability to sort by the platform the site was built in. You also have more traditional ways to filter the sites like styles, types, and subjects. This allows me to get website design inspiration that’s catered to a certain platform so that I can visualize how it was made more easily.
Taking Website Design Inspiration a Step Further
Sometimes you need to look outside of just web design in order to find website design inspiration. The following galleries showcase designs in all areas of design including photography, illustration, and typography. I like to use these sites to inspire color schemes, powerful website photography and other design elements I’m including.
#7 Designspiration
The masonry grid Designspiration makes it easy to view multiple images all at once. Get inspired by beautiful examples of fine art, photography, illustration, and more.
#8 Pinterest
Another site that utilizes a masonry grid, Pinterest is can be a great source for all kinds of design inspiration. You can use the ‘Explore’ link to view categories like photography and illustration, or plug in ‘web design’ to filter images of various websites. Pinterest uses vertically oriented images which means you can see more of the website when viewing the thumbnails.
#9 Behance
Behance is another great site when seeking out other forms of design inspiration for your website. Search through their galleries featuring everything from architecture and fine art to graphic design and advertising.
#10 From Up North
The curated design galleries on From Up North feature mostly graphic design work ranging from package design, web, and ui. Start with their web design galleries, then get inspired with advertising, typography, and even inspirational quotes.
#11 Dribbble
Dribbble organizes web design inspirations in a board format similar to Instagram or Pinterest. You can peruse websites at your leisure, and even sort by color, animation, branding, the app that the site was made with, and more. You can also like and save any inspirational designs.
#12 Commerce Cream
Commerce Cream specializes in great web designs specifically on Shopify. If you’re looking for inspiration to create an outstanding Shopify online store, this is a great place to start.
#13 lapa.ninja
The layout of lapa.ninja is a bit less clean than some of the previously mentioned web design inspiration sites, but it also provides more information. Click on any design and you can see multiple pages, get details about the site, and see what categories and colors the site uses. You can also access free ebooks and lessons.
#14 Admire the Web
Admire the Web provides a collection of website design inspiration examples in a sleek and relaxing format. Use the “Tags” in the upper right corner and you can sort the examples by industry (ie; professional, product, food etc.) or type (ie; mouseover, hover, html5 etc.).
#15 Land-book
Land-book specializes in landing page design inspiration examples. This site has a lot of helpful functionality; you can sort by style, industry, type, portfolios, blogs, templates and more. If you’re looking for a specific type of site, or an inspiration for a landing page, this is a great place to get inspired.
#16 Webflow Showcase
Webflow Showcase is also organized similar to Instagram or Pinterest. Users can like and comment on any website listed, and the poster can respond. This can be especially helpful if you have a question about how a designer accomplished a particular feature. You can also sort by animations, interactions, templates, CMS and more to find the right inspiration.
#17 Brutalist Websites
Most modern web design is built on simplicity, uses pastel colors, and highlights comfortability and lightness. Brutalism is, in many ways, the opposite. Brutalist Websites highlights website design that bucks the trend and uses themes that are chaotic, utilitarian, and rugged. Though Brutalism still uses many minimalist elements, the highlighted elements are meant to be striking and bold, instead of zen or comforting. Brutalist Websites is, in itself, a Brutalist site and simply displays a collection of striking sites without any likes, comments, tags, or other features.
#18 Calltoidea
Calltoidea uses an interesting layout to organize different types of pages and design elements, and make it easy to find many types of design inspiration. You can browse through 404 error pages, login pages, testimonial pages, calendars, lists, pop-ups, case studies and many more. This is handy if you’re looking for specific page types or even particular design elements like players, menus, alerts, and more.
Conclusion
Creativity block happens to all of us, but having a handy list of web design inspiration resources will help you break through and design a stunning website.