I am an advocate of using the many design inspiration resources that exist on the web today. When creating a new site it is usually very helpful to get the ideas flowing by viewing what others have done before you. This does not mean copying an entire site, or even specific a specific part of a site. Design inspiration is more about getting ideas and then making those ideas unique. Furthermore, regularly checking these sites is a great way to see what’s new on the web, I check design inspiration sites as a hobby.

The design inspiration market appears to be a booming niche. There are many sites that offer you the ability to browse handpicked web sites that excel in a variety of different areas. In this post I will outline a few of my favorite resources.

Creattica

Creattica allows anyone to submit their work but only those that are voted on by site users are accepted into the gallery. Creattica will provide design inspiration on just about anything you can imagine, from business cards to email design. Creattica comes from Envato and if you are a fan of any of their other sites you know that just about everything they do is great.

CSS Remix

CSS Remix allows users to suggest websites for submission and site editors choose the best of the best for inclusion. As the site name suggests CSS Remix focuses almost entirely on great CSS work.

Logo Pond

Logos are a major part to any website design and it also happens to be one of the most interesting. If you are looking for a place to browse and chat about an endless supply of logos make sure you check out LogoPond.

Best Web Gallery

Best Web Gallery is another web design resource that prides itself on displaying Quality Design. They define Quality Design as being equal to Visual + Technical + Creativity.

Smashing Magazine

Smashing Magazine is a website blog devoted to web design and development. It covers a large gamut or topics and is a resource that every developer should regularly check.

Kuler

Color is a major design decision and thanks to Adobe and Kuler.com it has become a much more intuitive process. Kuler allows you to create or view color palettes, you can then take those color palettes to Photoshop or Illustrator and begin working on the actual design.

So those are a few of my favorite web design resources. Did I miss one that you visit regularly?