Building Web Sites All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies®

Chapter 1. Finding Inspiration

In This Chapter

• Finding inspiration

• Understanding copyright issues

• Getting advice and tools for using colors

• Considering font issues

• Dealing with image formats: GIF, JPEG, and PNG

When a client hires you to design a Web site, he expects something original and unique. This can be a difficult task. After you pump out a few hundred designs, you have a tendency to rely on old habits and create sites that look similar. And the task is doubly hard because there are really only 27 original ideas. (Everything else is just a subset of the original 27.) To make matters worse, your client wants his original Web site yesterday. So the trick is to be original without spending a whole lot of time doing it. In this chapter, we show you a few ways to feed your creative muse.

Finding Fresh Ideas

Before you search for ideas, it's a good idea to know your client's likes and dislikes. When you initially interview a client, we recommend that you always ask for the URLs of your client's competitors' sites and those of the sites she likes. This can give you an idea of your client's tastes. The client's business and printed material can also give you some ideas. Then, there's the matter of the client's intended audience. If you know the demographics of your client's intended audience, you know their likes and dislikes. If you're dealing with a large company, they probably already have this information. Or perhaps, you and your client can create a persona to define the likes and dislikes ...