Help needed...

Hey!

I have found page http://www.templatemonseter.com. There are lots of awsome designs. So I am pritty exerienced in making logos in photoshop and I thought that I also can make similar pages. It wasn`t so. I dont have any inspiration with web pages.

For example Screenshot:


For example URL:
http://www.templatemonster.com/show.php?templ=2923&cat_type=cat&type=1&arg1=21&arg2=&order=date


So... I wanted to ask you as professional web designers how to make this kind of cool homepage. Where do you get inspiration for web design.

You pretty much just have to use your own creativity... You can look at other sites like the ones at www.linkdup.com to get ideas, but a lot of it is still up to your own ideas.

And the TemplateMonster pages look really cool, but they are terribly inflexible. If you've ever tried to make a site with one of them you will quickly find that it is very difficult to fit your content into them, because most of the areas for content are very small. So you might have a bunch of cool graphics all over your site, but that isn't what people are looking for most of the time, they are looking for content. and when you have to compromise the content to make it fit into your fancy design, that's bad.

yeah they do have some pretty slick eyecandy...
But as Deker said it's really hard makeing some content to a site like that...
And what I don't get is that these templates are for companies right...?
So would you want you companies site to be excatly the same as 7 other companies sites who have also bought that template?
Well back to the real question.
It's pretty much impossble to tell somehow how to make a design...
Everyone have their own way and style.
And every time you make a layout, poster or anything graphic you learn something new.
And in the end you will come up with your own style.
Most people who just started working with sites sees some amazing site and goes that's what I'm going to do...
Well good luck
Just try new styles and ways to make things better.
I do surf on alot of sites to see how people are making their sites and to get new ideas.
And I think everyone is able to make a nice site...if you just want to...but it takes time.
So just try to make some nice site and show it here and we'll try to help from there.?

Ok thanks for replyes, but I also wanted to add that I dont want to make exact same page. I just wanted to do something in that style....

well - look at a whole bunch of them - close the windows and then try to imagine one - in that style - then work a lot on the details

Read this article. Trust me. You will be happy you did:
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/1150

Also, it's hard to come up with original ideas, even semi-original ones. No one started out being entirely original. Most of the cool sites you see people make are not original at all. They are experienced designers and they have visited many websites. Their designs include elements from websites they have seen, but put together in a new and interesting way.

My advice to you is to start surfing really cool websites, lots of them. Not necessarily graphics-intensive, but slick and well designed.

My List of Sites You Should Visit (and bookmark):
www.styleboost.com
www.cwd.dk <--only when you are really lost
www.moluv.com
http://infront.baselocation.com
www.projectneo.com
www.designiskinky.net

Try not to take in the whole layout, rather specific elements you consider cool and then assemble them in a single layout.

And keep making layouts and posting them in the website section of the forum so people can give you advice.

I don't usually find inspiration on the web, but from shapes of other things. Just observe things, and think about why they are pretty. Is it because of the nice curves? Why is it? Or is your eye attracted to it because of the jagged edges. I also look a lot of different kinds of media. Read brochures and note why you like them or not. Watch TV commercials - TV shows - look at billboards - mustard cans - CD covers - magazine ads. To really understand what looks "good" you should think about all these things. Then sketch it out on paper. Just little shapes - forms - doodles. Maybe fit them together if you like them - throw the paper away if you don't. A wonderful piece of design advice I got from one an article I read was to ask yourself

"What am I trying to communicate to my audience?"

Think about that at each step in the design process and if you've got a clear idea of that in your head then you're set. Just wish I could do it. :D Good luck.

tom