How I Learned to Get Off the Internet and Do Something
Author of this post: Jen Huls | About Blog Authors »
The title may not sound web design centric but I swear I’ll tie it altogether. Web designer’s live and die by the Internet. We seek out and view numerous web sites for inspiration and to see what the “competition” is doing. Most of us pay our bills online, shop online, have “friends” online we’ve never actually met and we even watch TV and videos online these days. A common misconception among some of these designers is that there is nothing to learn about web design outside the Internet.
If you’re a designer as well as developer, if you don’t keep your mind active on varied things, you’re losing out on great design that doesn’t live inside your monitor. I find my friends sometimes annoyed by me because I’ll be walking along the aisle in the grocery store and they find me staring at a box of food. Often what they’ve found me doing is looking at how it’s designed. Same thing happens when I go to the mall—I’m constantly looking at Point of Purchase displays for inspiration. So remember to look to the “real world” for design inspiration because there is so much of it to be had—good and bad.
March 29th, 2007 at 2:31 am
Whoa! Glad to finally find someone who does the same “silly” thing!
Sometimes just looking at a fish tank with pretty fish swimming around, or maybe looking at a park… random nature things… gives me tons of inspiration.
Sometimes it can be a book cover, or maybe the opening to a TV show, even though I rarely watch those…
April 11th, 2007 at 12:49 am
You are not alone! I am always finding myself noticing clever TV ads, Billboards, Packaging.
I will also admit to ‘tidying up’ the knocked over bottles of stay sauce on display at the grocery store checkout. At this point my wife takes one large step away from me… i dont konw why?? ;)
Great article.
July 28th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
This is a good point. I keep an ‘idea file’ filled with things I get in the mail and various other places. I highly recommend ‘borrowing’ ideas from others. Those designs were successful enough to be published-why not learn from them?!! :)