The process of creating a landing page for me all begins with gaining inspiration.
Now there are a variety of ways people get inspiration, it ultimately just depends on what works for you. Some may check out other websites, others may go through magazines, gain inspiration from tv commercials, etc.
There really is no right or wrong way, it just is based on how you feel you get the most out of it.
In this post I’ll share with you exactly how I go through the process of inspiration and provide you with the resources I use to get me started – hopefully they will come in handy when you are creating your own theme or template.
The ‘Tabspiration’ Method
It all begins in checking out some of my bookmarks which I have saved on Delicious. Over the course of the years I have amassed a collection of fantastic website galleries that I always turn to when trying to get ideas.
There are some awesome designers out there in the world, which you would be remissed if you didn’t check out what they were up to.
Now, please remember – when getting inspiration for an idea for your project, it doesn’t mean copying. You are doing this to get ideas, collect screenshots, make note on cool features that you may want to include in your theme, but please, DON’T COPY, not only is it illegal (due to copyright and trademark infringements), but it’s also unethical and you won’t be doing yourself any favours by even thinking about going down this road.
With that said, let me show you how I do this on the video below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtKpk0kyJ1A]
As you can see, it’s a fairly straight-forward process. Nothing too complicated. The great thing about using this method is that you can literally begin to get a mental picture on how you want your theme or template to look or what components you would like it to have.
If it helps, perhaps even try and sketch it out.
Creating a Mind Map or Mood board
Whether you create a mind map or mood board, both are awesome ways to get creative. For this example I’m going to show you an example mood board I came up with.
Mood boards are great. It allows you to begin to develop “the mood” of your design, which comes in very handy when and if you decide to sketch out your theme structure at a later stage or if you are collaborating with other designers in a team – it’s a way to express the point of view you see for the design in visual form.
My Top 10 Website Inspiration Resources
Here is a list of my top 10 websites that I use to get my creative brain cells flowing. These can change from time to time depending on what kind of theme look/feel I am starting to get a feel for.
- Smashing Magazine
- ThemeForest
- Dribble
- Creattica
- CSSline
- Delicious
- Unmatchedstyle.com
- Design Bombs
- 365psd.com
Now you don’t need to use any of these resources, it’s just the one’s I use to generate my ideas. Remember you can always follow different methods of brainstorming ideas (e.g. magazines, billboards, etc) – ultimately just find what works for you.
Where To From Here
Once you have your mood board you will start to feel your brain getting all kinds of ideas. The techniques I mentioned earlier will really help get your template or theme off the ground.
In the next article I will get into how I go about deciding whether to design in the browser or stick to the common design process of starting your concept in Photoshop.
Make sure to check that out, until next time, thanks for reading and if you have any comments feel free to add them below.
Photo Credit: Lisa Bettany {Mostly Lisa}