Here’s a quick tip for designing a website layout without jumping straight into a website builder. In my experience, it’s important to not start with a builder right away—it limits creativity. I’ve noticed that I often waste time trying to force my vision into a pre-made layout instead of simply creating what I want from scratch. Here’s how I approach it:

Start by filling out a creative brief, or at the very least, gather screenshots of website layouts you love. Then, choose your color scheme using one of the many color palette websites available. Some of my favorites are Adobe Color, Canva, and Coolors—I personally lean toward Adobe. Next, pick your fonts. Sites like Google Fonts, Adobe Fonts, and Dafont are great resources (again, I’m partial to Adobe).

After that, start brainstorming images. I like to browse my stock photo website and pull lots of images that catch my eye. Don’t overthink it—just go with what feels right or sparks an intuitive reaction. Those usually end up being the strongest visuals.

Finally, sketch out your website layout by hand using the screenprints as inspiration. Once you have a rough sketch, bring it into Photoshop (or your preferred photo editing software) and start building your design with your chosen colors, images, and text. This becomes your mockup. Once it’s complete, you can use that mockup as a blueprint and build your page in a website builder using the images and design as a reference.

This step-by-step process has worked well for me. If I skip this and jump straight into a builder, I tend to wrestle with templates instead of designing freely. While pre-made layouts have their place—and I do use them—putting in this creative legwork beforehand always leads to a stronger, more unique final design.