Good artists copy, great artists steal
P. Picasso
Copying is useful not only for design, and not only in the field of websites. However, now I will explain this using my 9 years of experience as a web designer. There are several levels or stages of development as a designer. However, only a few move to the second level. Most remain useless designers.
Unconscious incompetence of the designer.
All the designers I collaborated with learned from their mistakes and reinvented their own designs. They spoiled their sense of aesthetics from the very beginning, and subsequently never achieved a deep understanding of design and the principle of simplicity.
It is important, while you still don’t know how to do anything, to learn from the best. Moreover, it is necessary to completely copy the website design down to the smallest detail. Because the little things matter. You still won't be able to copy a completely outstanding design, but you should get as close as possible to it. And so again and again.
Conscious incompetence of the designer.
After a few years, you begin to understand why the best web designers do this and this and that. But even then, you can't do something like this yourself. And there are two reasons for this:
Even after several years of working with the best design in the world, you don't have enough experience to work at this level.
You don't have that many resources. You weren't paid a million dollars and given a team of people. So you won't be so meticulous.
The rule here is very simple. Don't get creative, don't reinvent the wheel. For the first 15 years, copy and adapt.
The designer is a neural network.
The problem with neural networks is that for amazing results they need to be trained on selected content, and not on garbage from the Internet. There is very little such content, and it takes expertise and a lot of work to train a good neural network.
So a designer, if he is trained on garbage, will never be able to understand and create something aesthetic. I've seen enough of those who imagine themselves to be designers, but at the same time do not understand the basic rules of design.
Designer skill.
Jonathan Ive worked at Apple for 27 years, including a senior position as head of industrial design. At the same time, he, like Steve Jobs, deeply understood the principle of simplicity and the rules of aesthetics. He was less a creative person and more a design mathematician.
Give up the idea, if you have one, that design is a matter of individual taste. No. Design is universal and the same rules of simplicity and aesthetics for everyone. And if the majority of the target audience of clients have undeveloped bad taste, this does not mean that you need to adapt and do crap.
Becoming a master requires years of work in a top-level company. And this is not Artemy Lebedev’s studio. But this is not required. All that is required is to understand why the master does this.
Focus all your resources on finding examples of the best design.
Apple has a couple million extra dollars to pay its web design team. Did you get paid that much?
Therefore, do not come up with a craft, but direct all your efforts to finding the best design. I already gave a hint. For inspiration, visit awwwards.com
Pay attention only to the winners.
Consider the following thought carefully:
You don't have enough skill and resources to create a good design. Humble yourself. But you may have the skill and resources to evaluate a good design that has already been created and apply it to yourself.