SiteInspire — web design inspiration

In my brief scan, most of these designs seem to center around tasteful use of photography; there isn't as much in the way of impressive web design.

Good photography undoubtedly improves the visual appeal of a site, but I often find myself in a position with just layouts, text, and a few assets. Being able to turn your basic tools into a visually appealing site is what I see as excellent web design.

The one thing I've always struggled with is translating design as described by a landing page to the design of specific components; Forms, modals, and other parts of the application. I would like to see combination screen shots of landing pages and these components to see how the designer was able to achieve this. Maybe beyond the scope of "inspiration," but my two cents none-the-less.

It's hard to find good inspiration galleries that feature modern design and code. Drawar's gallery (no longer around) used to be my favorite, but lately I've mainly used Unmatched Style:

http://unmatchedstyle.com/gallery

Also:

http://webcreme.com

http://patterntap.com

Sometimes what helps me is poring through WP themes or frameworks to get ideas for placement, sizing, etc. This is a great resource, though.

I'm curious on a legal aspect: Do you check with the website owners before posting?

do you generate the website snapshots manually or using some headless browser or a 3rd party service ? .. just curious :)

I would like to create a recursive loop by submitting this site onto itself.