All over the place. I can understand a lot of things starting to look the same. I think that comes from getting inspiration from fellow designers that are doing similar things anyway. As a web designer I love to get inspiration from Illustrators, Photographers and Collage artists that I know aren't things I could do very well, but they inspire me in different ways to just looking at other web designers. Also for me music, film, reading a good book or hanging out with people often gives me inspiration. And when all else fails there's the all important "take a break". I felt so ready to get back to design after two weeks in France with no laptop!

I think its great to find inspiration from other forms of media: photography, music etc. I think the best inspiration comes from places that aren't directly related to what you're doing. Hearing a song or seeing a great piece of art can spark creativity. I find exposure these forms of media helps me think about the problems I have to solve a lot differently.

It's certainly tough these days. 5 years ago you could find enough different ideas online that you could experiment with a mixture of all of them and make something that felt unique. Aside from all of the things you two have already mentioned, print design still has a lot to teach us about how to design interfaces, websites, etc. I like to frequent sites like FPO (underconsideration.com) and others that highlight the creativity constantly taking place in the print world.

Since our role as designers is changing and we are no longer graphic designers or print designers or web designers, but experience designers, we need to focus much more on the human nature that drives our work.

So what I try to do in order to get inspiration for my work is reading a lot about fundamental human behavior (e.g. articles and books about psychology), but also looking at everything that creates strong emotions – such as great movies, theater plays or just music. What's inspiring me is trying to understand "why" these pieces create emotional reactions and then try use it in my work.

Also, bacon.

I'd naturally suggest taking a look at siteinspire.com for an alternative showcase of awesome sites. :-)

I used to draw a lot of my inspiration from gallery sites such as awwwards.com, siteinspire.com etc, but not so much anymore. Nowadays, I try to put myself in the mindset of other designers who inspire me, and think to myself "What would they do differently here?".

now days its hard to find Inspiration on internet because there lots of same style of work everywhere if i took something as Inspiration i'll ended to copying not creating something new...

Putting yourself in the mindset of other designers is something I've not really done actively but I think it could be very helpful. I'm always wondering the process other designers take when working on something new.

I guess the question is, how do we gain access to the minds of these inspiring designers?

Ignore my facetious comment earlier.

I get super inspired when I'm at conferences, where the disciplines being discussed are *not* web design related, or is only tangentially related. E.g. I really enjoy OFFF (offf.ws) where the main discipline is motion design, which is so far removed from what I do. And Behance's 99u conference is great too (99u.com attendees are not all designers; it's an interesting blend of entrepreneurship with a sprinkling of design in the mix.

That said, inspiration for me is being away from a computer, which annoyingly is something I rarely do... Need to work on that for 2013.

Design oriented conferences is something I've not really been exposed much to but I imagine listening to some theory being a certain topic can give you a completely different outlook. You can tackle problems in a different and possibly a more efficient way.

The web design conferences I have been to have been almost worthless, if I'm honest. They tend to be equivalent to paying a lot of money to watch a Smashing Magazine blog post being played in front your eyes.

I often look to many of you for guidance and inspiration and I strive for exposure to great design in all media. I have only been acquainted with the design community for a year, so something that inspires me will be very different from that which inspires a veteran designer. I draw inspiration from imagining the changes I want to see. This method doesn't always end up with a unique design, I'm not sure matters. Unique is a touchy word in the design community-most designs are revisions of other designs. Whether these revisions and reiterations are unique is something perhaps for another discussion.

I get my inspiration from startups and application design (from OS apps, smartphone apps to web apps) but also from some typical award/gallery sites like awwwards etc. Most of these links comes from my twitter feed. Follow designers and developers from different companies (startups is usually good to follow in my opinion).

These links are in my daily workflow:

news.ycombinator.com
news.layervault.com
designmadeingermany.de

Don't just focus on other designers. You can learn much from developers as well (like tympanus.net).

I recently wrote an article on this. We often seek out inspiration from the same sources: Dribbble, Behance, etc. But like in anything, constant reuse will render these sources utterly useless after some time. To avoid that, we have to spice things up.

That's why I now seek inspiration from "physical" product design. Local cafes and shops, photography, print, offices, products, etc. During my Trip to NY for Brooklyn Beta, I was surrounded by physical product design. I came home with enough design inspiration to last me for months!

Of course, I still use Dribbble and the rest, but I don't rely solely on them.

Read about it here: blog.jarederondu.com

I rarely look for inspiration when I'm making a website, since that's the medium I'm still most comfortable with. But when it comes to iOS, sites like pttrns.com are very useful.

@Jared I fully agree. My understanding of design was influenced fundamentally when I design the first hardware product. I had to deal with materials, production processes, machine milling, electronics, packaging and all that stuff. After that you see the world with new eyes. Still, I believe that the most powerful source of inspiration is asking why something is the way it is. That's btw what children do all the time.

Inspiration has always been important for me. I'm constantly searching for it everywhere. Internet noise became too much for me to take - and quite frankly, didn't hold much value. Lately, I've been ignoring anything online (with the exception of siteinspire.com - I still hit that site up).

I'm finding more things inspiring IRL. Walks outside - the street or park - photography. Flipping through books (old & new) as well as magazines like offscreenmag.com (for example) - with content not having to do with web or graphic design.

I can highly recommend seeking out good book and magazine stores. If you're in Berlin for instance, pay <a href="doyoureadme.de You Read Me?!</a> a visit. You'll be surprised about the amount of print inspiration you'll find there and most likely end up spending a lot of money on dead trees. Totally worth it though!

Something important to consider when looking for inspiration is that the definition of “inspiration” seems to be changing to “let’s rip these guys off”. Everywhere I go, I see many people suggesting to “look this piece for inspiration”. What they really mean is, “make it look exactly like this”.

I think that any conversation these days about inspiration needs to include a conversation about integrity, and more importantly, creative process. How did so-and-so reach to a conclusion about element X in product Y? What can I learn from their process, and how can I make it work for me? Is it even relevant to my interests to use the same approach?

Thus, I think a valid extension would be: Where do I draw inspiration from, and how do I draw it?

My visual inspiration comes from all over the place. I use my pinterest boards to organize color schemes and patterns that spark my creativity. Interior design, architecture, as well as web design showcases all offer sources of inspiration when I am stuck.

However, as many of you have pointed out, visual design makes up only a small fraction of what we actually create as designers. I find that speaking with people and brainstorming is a great way to envision solutions to interface design problems. Sketching helps me sort ideas as well.

Without getting into the skeuomorphic debate, looking for a real world comparison to a web interface issue and exploring how the product designer approached it can also be very inspirational.

I get really inspired by some stories seen on creativemornings.com seeing how other people succseed gives me the feeling 'yeah i can do it too, let's change the world' . Also german techno inspirese me a lot, it's bug, bold and clean just as I like my designs. And to. Mention a blog too, convoy.tumblr.com an some great designers out there.

I find it really hard to find good inspiration since there are so many places to find it. And they all link to each other.

I really like curated content. Things like devour.com and motioncollector.com. I find a lot of music int he videos posted there.

@erondu I agree.

I try to only launch 4 apps on my MacBook, but sometimes get sidetracked.......#1 Photoshop, #2 Twitter, #3 iTunes and finally #4 Google Chrome. I then just briefly skim my eyes over the first 2 pages of dribbble.com to get the creativity juices flowing, then take what inspiration I liked and turn it up a notch in Photoshop.

.....If that fails, then go for a ride on my scooter and take in the natural world around me to inspire. If I catch a sunset then its a bonus :-)