Favourite designs?

[Commerce Brian]

Everytime I surf the internet, and find a really well designed site, I save it to my PC so that I can reference it later - either for looking at specific sections of code, or else issues of presentation.

Does anyone else here do that, and if so, are there any particular favourites that stand out?

[Suzanne]

I think I may doing that from now.

[altyfc]

I used to do that until the likes of TemplateMonster came along.  Now it's so much easier to get a really professional website through one of them.  We find that's fine for in-house purposes, at least, but perhaps less so for the 3rd party websites we do where the requirements might be a little more restrictive.
 
Aaron

[Commerce Brian]

Yes, I really liked the idea of selling on TemplateMonster templates - but, ultimately, I find them too generic, and that if you're selling website design services then you absolutely need to be able to offer a unique product to each customer.
 
 Sometimes I like to look at the template just to inspire me - sometimes I'll even buy a template just to rip out parts of the graphics or photos, but put it all in a similar but dinstinctly difference design.
 
 I guess it's really an issue of need, though. Plus I enjoy the sens eof experimentation.

[LHall]

I do that as well.. I found a fantastic site that showcases lots of well designed websites, most of them created in Flash. The URL is, www.thebestdesigns.com. I'm also a big fan of design agency Slender Fungus (www.slenderfungus.com), again more Flash based, so can be a pain if you have a slow internet connection.
There are too many badly 'designed' sites on the web, these links show how it should be done..

Regards,
Lesley-anne

[Commerce Brian]

Heh, web designers are the curse of search engines, though.
 
 Those sites may look pretty, but pretty isn't worth much if no one can find you to look at them.
 
 Namely - if search engines can't rank the sites for their content, then who's going to see your great personal/company website?
 
 Something to think about.

[LHall]

yes that's a major limitation of many of those sites featured, but you can still take a lot from them concerning design and aesthetics. Such websites can still be valuable research, as their templates and concepts are not entirely restricted to Flash, and could be applied to HTML design, or at least provoke people to be a little more inspired when doing their own sites. (I guess that's the arty side in me speaking)

Lesley-anne

[Commerce Brian]

No, it's a very good point.
 
 I've seen been inspired by a lot of other designs.

[paulhiles]

One of my favourite haunts is the Web Standards Awards site.
 
 CSS Vault is another showcase site that never disappoints!

[taiarain]

Does anyone else here do that, and if so, are there any particular favourites that stand out?

I do that. I have a favorites folder dedicated to sites I like based on presentation, ease of use, et al.

Taia

[lpxxfaintxx]

I do that too. I have a folder in my bookmarks called "Good Designs" and whenever I see a very unique, creative, and awesome layout, I put them in there for future reference.

[Melos]

Thank you SO MUCH for this thread!  I do not like Flash sites at all (being on dial-up - like 40% of all internet users), but I'm finding some GREAT designs here!  And great idea for my sadly designed sites.

[sweet_mayhem]

i certainly do that--i mean bookmarking great websites and blogs.  before, i used to have this liking for websites with black background. but now, having seen some great websites with white background and black fonts, i guess i've found the basic design that i want for my own blog.  then again, i'm still into web surfing to get more ideas for designs.

[hoosierhunter]

That is actually a great idea. I never thought about doing that. I often see sites that are really cool or that have concepts that I like. I think I'm starting a bookmark file for that kind of a concept.