Design Inspiration
Somebody has painstakingly put together a Flickr photoset which contains 300 hundred or so screengrabs of great-looking websites and called it Web Design Inspiration.
Each screengrab includes a link to the site in question. The idea being that you can visit the site and interrogate their CSS and markup methods. Unless I've misunderstood it completely.
The concept of inspiration is a funny one. It's a fine line between that and blatantly copying a website. In the past I've been "inspired" by quite a few sites but have never gone as far as copying one. When I'm in need of inspiration I normally find a suitably attractive site and try to commit it to memory. Then I'll try and recreate something suitably dissimilar in Fireworks and create all the graphics, markup and CSS myself. This way I feel liking nobody is being cheated and don't see any wrong in it.
This is the approach I took recently to design a website for a friend's Peak District holiday cottage project — Hurdlow Grange - Peak District Holiday Cottages. (work in progress, just want Google to pick it up). Should the owner of the site that inspired me ever happen upon it they'll just think it looks similar. Digging deeper they'd see it's not a copy and feel at ease. Well, that's what I hope.
Professional Disclaimer: This is the approach I use for personal websites or on favour-based projects for friends (for the Hurdlow site I get unlimited stays in the cottages). For sites deigned through Rockall I would always (budget depending) seek the services of a professional graphic designer. Whether or not they use the same methods for inspiration, I don't know.
That is a very cool idea. I tend to focus on one or two things from each site I see. Maybe layout, color scheme, or some functional effect. I keep a list of these little gems and refer back to them when needed.
I've got a bookmarks folder called "web design\good looking" where I keep these inspirational sites. No need to now we've got this Flickr set...
"Good artists copy, great artists steal" - PP
I've never fancied staying in a pigsty before but I like the look of that one!! :-)
I've had a tour of them all Richard and can definitely recommend a stay there. Nice part of the world if you're in to walking and stuff.
I have a folder in my browser bookmarks called "Inspirational Sites." Whenever I see a site that is cool, I bookmark it. You really start to look at sites differently once you develop them. "Oh, I like the way that menu bar looks. Better bookmark it."