Inspire Yourself

Inspiration can be a fickle thing. Most designers, when lacking ideas, turn to design galleries to find ideas. But there are a few problems with that approach. The most obvious is that when taking inspiration from similar mediums, there's a fine line between "inspired by" and "copied". To some extent, looking at established website designs can also be somewhat limiting, especially if you're looking for a fresh solution to a problem.

There are so many things designers could be turning to for inspiration outside of design galleries. We’ve featured a dozen of those places below, along with where you can find inspiration for each of them. Share any other inspirational sources you might have in the comments.

FASHION

The world of fashion has a long and varied artistic history. Trends change on a seasonal basis and often reflect the overall sentiment of culture at any given time. For example, in times of war or turmoil, feminine designs tend to become more popular to counterbalance all the perceived negativity. When there’s international financial trouble, designs tend to be less over-the-top and many designers focus on more realistic designs. By contrast, in economic boom times, designs tend to be very avant-garde and are more art pieces than functional clothing.

Taking inspiration from both modern and historical fashion can be a great way to infuse something new and fresh in your website designs. A few ideas on how to adapt fashion designs to your next project:

• Look at the overall scale of an outfit and mimic it.
• Color schemes are one of the easiest areas to adapt.
• Look at the lines of a garment and emulate them in your designs.
• Fabric textures and patterns are another easy-to-mimic area.

Where to Find Inspiration

Magazines: Take a look at the magazine rack of your local bookstore, grocery store, or drugstore for a wealth of fashion magazine choices. Some of the more popular ones (in the U.S., anyway) are Bazaar, Vogue, Glamour, and Nylon.

Style.com: Style.com is the online home of Vogue magazine and has up-to-the-minute coverage of designers, parties, and anything else going on in the world of fashion.

Style Blogs: There are a ton of style blogs out there. A few excellent ones to check out include The Cut (New York Magazine’s fashion blog), The Sartorialist, and fashiontoast. For even more, check out Signature9’s list of the 99 Most Influential Style Blogs.

The Street: Check out fashion in the city or town in which you live. There are likely plenty of fashion-forward residents in or around your home town.

For best fashion Inspiration log onto Who What Wear