Well, title says it all. This story is about how to get inspiration to build a good design and the making of Monofactor as an example to that.

The most successful designs we see around the web are the examples of the best ones that nicely carry out the things I told you in my previous articles entitled as “fundamentals”.

Like how we can’t just open up Photoshop and start building layers to form a web design, we can not ignore the fundamentals of getting started for the work.

I will try explaining the most challenging, but also most important issue that is about web design.

Having an Idea to start: The Thin Line Between Inspiration and Theft

Having an idea is a major step to get started to what we do.

Since there is no way we will know what to do before we design things, we will need a source, a material to get an idea from.

The source can be either:

• A moment of life itself : a kiss from a girl / boy(doh!-it’s if you’re a girl =p), an inspiring moment etc
• A real life material: A car design, an inspiring environment, a movie, a beautiful product (let’s say, mac products!)

Or, the very good examples that were created before.

For web design, we have those zillions of css design galleries.

Here’s what you can mostly do before you design a website for a client work. You will get the brief information about the client industry and should explore:

• Do the competing companies have a nicely designed website?
• Are there any websites in that industry which are outstanding?
• Do those best design galleries list any samples from that industry?
• If none, are there any outstanding design examples close to that industry or business area?

If you find (you mostly will), you analyze them.

Find out why they are the most visited/elected for their best design. The reasons will be mostly a nice combination of one or all of the remaining elements.

But before that, you will see they all have their own unique / similar design ideas.

Let’s skip the theory and give you a real example.

The Story Behind The Design Process of  Monofactor 2009

Could anyone of you figure this new design is theorically “very much inspired” from the xbox website?

Check it out. You will see what I mean. Some of you now might shout out the word: “You, mean bastard!”

Okay, okay.

The idea behind the new Monofactor was having a nice portfolio layout for homepage. I wanted a floating portfolio item image. Now this is the key of the new design, the idea. A design based on a floating / hovering portfolio item.

Xbox had a great example of that, and I manipulated it.

Can anyone of you call that a rip? I don’t think so, but we all know that it’s highly inspired from the xbox home.

So coming back to the motto, this article was for the rippers and design pirates; for them to at least have a starting point to stop what they are doing.

I wish you an inspiring and creative christmas!