Below is a collection of 18 beautiful websites all boasting an exquisite creative flair and originality.

For more web inspiration visit our web inspiration category or visit Cheb 2.0

Web design is crucial to any website. A website may offer the most amazing content, but if it is bundled with uninspired, drab design, not many visitors are going to give it a second look. There are various sources that a web designer can draw web inspiration from for his/her web design and a most useful resource for this purpose is a web design blog. Blogs are a great option to offer information as they can be updated regularly and effortlessly. The world of web 2.0 design is ever changing and growing and a great tactic that a web designer can use to stay up to date with advancements in the world of web design is to visit good and useful web design blogs regularly.

#1 Cheb 2.0 Web Design Blog

There are a lot of web design blogs out there today and a person looking for a good blog can be confused regarding the choice of a good blog that truly will enhance their design knowledge and provide web inspiration. www.cheb.com.au is a wonderfully informative and useful web design blog run by Cheb, a web specialist based in Sydney, Australia. Cheb has been in the forefront of the Australian web design industry and has been actively involved in various types of web design, ranging from simple static pages to high-end e-commerce and social networking portals. The firsthand knowledge of the owner is clearly reflected both in the web design and the excellent content of the site. Cheb also writes various journals and articles on web design and other technical topics.Coming to the website, it sports a clean, easy to navigate format with pleasing colors and cool design elements.

The blog offers a variety of blogs that are very relevantly categorized. Wordpress, Gaming, Search, Web Design, Web 2.0 are just some of the categories under which various informative blog posts are available. Right from the latest news on the various big players in the world of Information Technology to thorough analysis of the latest hot stuff in web design are on offer on this blog.

A great feature is that in addition to news, cheb.com.au also offers lots of informative tutorials on web design and other related topics for novices and experts alike. A feature that makes this blog stand out from other web design blogs is the Web Tools feature that it offers. This feature offers free, latest software tools that aid in web design and is something that any web designer will be delighted to hear about. This new feature is in the infancy stage with a lot more promised in the coming weeks.

Sydney Web Design is the link that takes you to the page where you can read about the services offered by Cheb. The page lists the clients that Cheb has worked with which is quite an impressive list and also details the various freelancing services offered by Cheb. If you are interested in hiring Cheb’s services, all you need to do is fill up a simple form on the page to get a free quote.The fact that this blog has been listed in various popular CSS/Design galleries and websites is proof of its quality. RSS feeds are also available to keep up to date with the information on the blog. To sum it all up, www.cheb.com.au is a great place to be for anyone interested in web design.

For more web inspiration www.cheb.com.au also has a blog post titled Web Design Inspiration: classic online advertising. This article rounds up a nice collection of both online and offline forms of advertisement. The adds feature incredible creativity as well as originality. Additionally Cheb provides his personal thoughts and rating towards each of the chosen advertisements.

#2 Smashing Magazine

Blogs can be very easily and frequently updated with fresh content and so offer the best option for someone looking to stay up to date on the latest happenings in the world of web 2.0 design. There are hundreds of web design blogs out there and it can be quite confusing to choose a good one. Not all offer good content that will truly be useful in enhancing the web inspiration of a designer and at the same time keep them abreast of all the latest news in web design. But some golden nuggets do exist in this huge pile of pebbles, and www.smashingmagazine.com is most certainly one of them.This site has a huge feature list and offers a number of freebies that will get any web designer excited. A great feature is the How-To category that offers in-depth articles that explain web design and other related techniques from scratch allowing a novice designer to learn a completely new concept with ease. These articles also go ahead and explain advanced techniques as well, and even the expert, experienced designer might find a new tip or trick that he/she didn’t know earlier. With complete snapshots of each step involved, these articles are sure to keep any web design fanatic involved for hours.

The Graphics segment offers a wide variety of graphics-related articles and freebies. Free high quality icons, wallpapers, useful images and free graphics software are all available and are sure to get the avid web designer really excited. And the best thing is, all of them are available for free download! It’s a useful and myriad collection of graphics and related stuff.

Design Showcase is where all the cool new developments in the world of web design are exhibited for everyone to see and get familiar with. Various articles on good practices for blog or site design, latest drawing, style, typography options and really cool contests for budding designers can be found here.

The inspiration section offers samples of state of the art brochures, calendar designs, booklets, photography, packaging and product design and so much more for designers to derive that all important web inspiration from. Of course, every designer needs his fonts and the Fonts section offers just that. New, cool fonts are up for download every month in the Fonts of the Month section. CSS editors, graphics related tools, various other graphics software packages, product reviews, tutorials… the list goes on and on.

Further web design inspiration can be obtained by browsing through our Web Inspiration category.

Using cartoon mascots in advertising is not a new concept; for more than a hundred years cute, lovable and attractive mascots have endeared themselves to people so effectively, that their respective brands have gone on to become household names. They are without doubt the most versatile and powerful marketing tools ever invented. Just think about it; does Pillsbury come to mind first when you think of bread dough or does that cute little Doughboy instantly pop-up in Technicolor in your head? That is the power of the visual medium and that is exactly why you should include a mascot in your web design.

If brand mascots can differentiate and draw attention to their respective brand, in an incredibly competitive environment, where it’s next to impossible to tell one product or service from a million others, they obviously will work very well in the internet arena that has millions of websites and is growing at an incalculable rate. The World Wide Web is an unforgiving place; you can sink into oblivion in its wilderness. Without the combination of unique service, killer web design and smart web marketing, your site will sink like a pebble into a vast ocean of websites. And there is probably no other better web inspiration to the design of a site than a mascot that can provide it instant recognition.

No matter what your website is all about, there are at least a 100 other websites offering the exact same features and services. A mascot will provide your site the kind of popularity and recall value that no other marketing tool ever can. This naturally leads to the question, what is it about mascots that make them so powerful? That can pretty well be answered with one word - PERSONALITY. Anyone will prefer to conduct business with someone they like; someone they can relate to. In today’s fast paced world, it is impossible to establish a relationship with a visitor to a website especially when there are a thousand others vying for their attention. People are used to being on the move and attention spans are extremely short and getting shorter, but any human being will still be willing to glance at a familiar smiling face that reminds them of something happy, even if it is only for a few seconds. Those few seconds are all that you need to grab their attention towards what’s on your website. Now if that isn’t smart web marketing, what is?

A website’s mascot can provide a surprising human connection by providing one crucial feature - eye contact. It is against human nature to ignore a friendly face that is smiling at them. We just have to take notice, we don’t have a choice. So, when you are hunting around for web inspiration for your site’s web design, make sure you make time to get an excellent mascot made for your site.A great place to go to learn more about website mascots and to even have a creative, striking and completely original mascot created for your site is http://www.sosfactory.net/.  They are experts in mascot and logo design and provide plenty of samples on the website to give you a very good idea of what their work is like. If you are all geared up about getting a mascot for your site, this is website you need to go to!

1. Content draws people to your website in the first instance.

2. Content keeps people at your website once they arrive.

3. Content inspires people who are at your website to take action.

Content is the ultimate hook that will draw people to your Internet site. Through the use of keywords and related tools and tactics, the content that you put in place will draw traffic to your website. The better the quality of the content, the stronger the traffic flow to your website.

After you get people to your website in the first instance through appropriately enriched keyword and search engine optimized copy, you must catch and then keep the attention of these people. The best way to accomplish this crucial goal is to make certain that your copy and content is intriguing, inspiring and appealing.

Finally, once you get people to your site, and once you fully grab their interest, you want to encourage them to act. For example, through the use of the content and copy that you select for your website venue, you can motivate individuals at your site to buy a product, engage a service or even ask for more or additional information.

By ensuring that you have in place content and copy that will fulfill these three vital functions, you will have a website that ends up being successful and profitable.

The Internet is a bustling place in this day and age. With this in mind, you normally have one chance – and one chance only – to garner the attention to an individual when it comes to your website. As a result, it absolutely is crucial for you to have the best possible website content in order to capture the attention of a potential customer or client to your online venue.

In attracting and holding onto individuals through your website, it is vital that you follow the time tested hierarchy of appropriate content. In this regard, you need to make absolutely certain that your home page contains extremely well written and directly to the point content and information. Through your home page, you want to intrigue and interest a person about what you have to offer at your website.

Beyond the home page, you will then want to establish well written support pages that provide a consumer more in depth and relevant information about the products, services or crucial information that you provide through your website. In this regard, you need to ensure that you utilize the specific language that those in your targeted market niche will readily respond to in a direct manner. You need to use the type of language that causes those individuals to respond – to care about – what you are providing through your website.

Finally, when it comes to developing phenomenal web content, you must always keep well in mind that less is more. The typical person on the Net simply does not have the time nor the desire to review and considered long winded website content. By being direct and concise, you will be able to attract and maintain customers and clients through your website – not only today but into the future as well.

In recent times, a significant amount of attention has been paid to the concept developing in regard to the Internet and World Wide Web which commonly has been referred to as Web 2.0. In this regard, attention also is being paid to how a business or an individual can make the best use of what conceptually is known as Web 2.0. This includes what types of color schemes and fonts that can be utilized to make the very most out of Web 2.0, to better ensure success through the use of Web 2.0 platforms and concept.

While some people minimize the impact font selection has on the ultimate success of an endeavor, they do so at their own risk and peril. In the end, the way written words appear has been proven to effect the manner in which an individual will respond to particular content. In short, font selection is crucial.

When it comes to selecting the best fonts for the Web 2.0 frontier, attention needs to be paid to factors that include clean lines, smooth transitions between letters and striking appearance (vitality and balance). In this regard, as lime green oftentimes is referred to as the color of Web 2.0, the Helvetica font or the Neue Helvetica font in many instances are construed to be the typeface that best symbolizes the Web 2.0 evolution.

Created in 1957, the Helvetica font was designed to be “neutral.” The concept was that the Helvetica font would not distract a person from the meaning to the text itself. More recently (in 1983) the Neue Helvetica font was brought onto the scene. This re-styled font is thought to enhance the benefits of the traditional Helvetic font through a more structurally unified set of weights and widths. In short, the Neue Helvetica font appears particularly suitable to the Web 2.0 goal of clean lines, smooth transition and striking appearance (overall vitality and balance).

The entire Helvetica Neue font family may be purchased at linotype.

Of course the $959.00 price tag of the entire Helvetica collection may steer you towards using free fonts for your web development needs. So will the quality of your website be compromised by using free fonts? Thankfully, the answer to that question is no!

Below I have compiled a small collection of successful, almost bulletproof web 2.0 fonts. And they are 100% free to download!

As you can see from this collection it is possible to design a high quality web 2.0 website using free to download fonts. Now that you have your own small collection of the best web 2.0 fonts it is time to choose an effective color for your text! Read our Effective Web 2.0 Font Colors topic to gain an understanding of web 2.0 font colors. The post also contains a very useful color pallete which you can save to your computer and use as a reference.

Simplicity

One of the most serious mistakes web designers make is cluttering up a design. When it comes to great web designs, simplicity reigns. Uncluttered, simple designs end up being the concepts that gain the most attention from people using the Net.

Clean Lines

Along these same lines, the best web designs are also those that incorporate clean as opposed to diffuse lines throughout the process. Murky delineation results in a particular web design being far less effective.

Sharp Images

Clean lines in the design of a website also required that any images and graphics utilized in the process be sharp in their resolution and appearance. Images and graphics that are unfocused leave an impression that the website itself lacks direction.

Distinctive Coloration

With the ever increasing volume of traffic and activity on the Net, it is crucial that your web design stand out. Perhaps the most effective element that you can incorporate in your web design to give it added pizazz is distinctive coloration. Vibrant, warm colors are fundamental.

Readable Text

In considering the text and font to be utilized in web design, the keep it simple rule also applies. Too often a web designer will utilize text and a font that is difficult to decipher because it is unique. In the end, there are other aspects of web design in which you can be unique and innovative.

User Friendly

Web design concepts must never interfere with the usability of a website. The concept of keeping the site user friendly is crucial.

Unique

Where appropriate, you do want to incorporate unique themes and practices in web design. In other words, you do not want to simply rehash what has been done time and time again.

Creative

In the same vein, you need to inject creativity in your web design efforts. In this regard, the concept of thinking outside the box is brought to the forefront.

Appropriate Content

You need to make sure that the content – graphic and written – associated with a particular web design effort be appropriate to the subject matter of the site.

Error Free

Finally, it is vital that a design concept not contain any mistakes. The Net today is riddled with websites that have been thrown together on the fly and that contain errors and mistakes

By following the simple rules and guidelines outlined in this article you will be well on your way to success. If you are looking to increase your understanding of web design and web usability check out our web usability category for more useful articles.

If you are a web designer looking to create a stunning website than inspiration is essential. Getting your website to represent the ultimate in technology and functionality is important, but having an exciting new design may place your website ahead of your competitors. Beauty is one of the primary weapons in the art of creating a successful website or e-business.

This post lists a collection of web sites which have taken this to heart, beautifully designed websites.

As you can see, with abit of clever use of color and layout, powerful and beautiful websites are created. Here at web2inspiration we beleive that the best websites are created long before photoshop, illustrator or flash are even opened. Inspiration - more than photoshop skills, css expertise nor any other technical skillset - is your most powerful asset to creating a beautiful website. For further inspiration be sure to visit our web inspiration category where you will find similar collections of amazing web designs.

While experts and others continue to haggle over the most appropriate and definitive definition of what Web 2.0 represents and what Web 2.0 is all about in the final analysis, what people do agree upon more generally is that the concept of Web 2.0 is dynamic and vibrant. As a result, when it comes to color considerations associated with fonts utilized as part of a Web 2.0 endeavor, coloration needs to match the energy that is connected with Web 2.0 in a growing number of sectors today.

In considering effective font colors in Web 2.0, some of the considerations that you will want to keep in mind include selection hues that are:

• Bright
• Cheery
• Eye Catching
• Uncommon
• Electric
• Commanding

In only a partially tongue in cheek manner, the lime green frequently is being referred to as being “the official color of Web 2.0.” Of course, as with some other elements associated with Web 2.0, the designation of lime green as the “official color” of Web 2.0 is not universally excepted, this color does provide guidance as to what you should look for when it comes to Web 2.0 font hues.

The logos of Eventful and Shoutwire serve as good demonstrations of Web 2.0 lime green in practice.

For more Web 2.0 logos visit FontShop.

Beyond lime green, other colors that effectively are being utilized with fonts include vibrant shades of blue, orange and an assortment of sharpened pastels. In the end, when it comes to making decisions about effective Web 2.0 font coloration, it is vital to pay attention to and attempt to follow the six considerations that were presented to you previously in this article. By utilizing font color schemes that meet this point by point criteria, you will be heading in the right direction of gaining all of the advantages that Web 2.0 has to offer to you or your business today.

Below I have provided a Web 2.0 color palette for your Web Design needs. Each color has been hand picked from a collection of successful Web 2.0 websites and logos.

1. Perhaps the most important of the SEO fundamentals is to develop a comprehensive plan for search engine optimization. You need to think of SEO as rather like a journey leading you to increased profitability for your Net-based business enterprise. No sooner would you take off on a road trip without a map than should you embark on a SEO campaign without a specific “travel plan” well in place,

2. Another of the SEO fundamentals is to make certain that the content contained on your Internet website pages are keyword enriched and fully optimized. By making sure that you appropriately utilize keyword enriched content throughout your website (and most particularly on your homepage) you will have taken a crucial step towards proactive search engine optimization.

3. The third item on the list of SEO fundamentals is to include article placement and marketing in your comprehensive plan. Through the use of keyword enriched articles, that you can place at different online venues (with links back to your website), you will be creating another rich avenue through which you will draw more traffic.

4. The next of the SEO fundamentals that you will want to appreciate and implement involves creating a link building campaign. Through a link building campaign you will be able to establish “different portals” through which people can connect with your business. You will want to make certain that you place links to your own site only at reputable and compatible venues on the Net. While quantity is important when it comes to a link building campaign, quality is crucial – meaning you need to have links placed only at sites that will enhance and not detract from the reputation of your own business.

5. The final item on the list of SEO fundamentals is the need to continually review and analyze what you are doing in the way of your search engine optimization efforts. You need to appreciate that the Internet and World Wide Web is an ever changing, ever evolving place. Therefore, keywords and search terms always are in a state of flux. What is a heavily used search term today literally may end up being irrelevant over night. Therefore, you must continually re-evaluate what you are doing in regard to search engine optimization to ensure that your efforts are always effective and appropriate.