The colorful world of the cartoon – a place of imagination for children to help them learn numbers, letters, manners, and even just how to play with others. Cartoons are great for kids, but no self-respecting adult would ever watch a cartoon (not unless it was Family Guy or South Park). Cartoons are for kids, how could they possibly teach an adult anything?

Have you ever seen a cartoon? More importantly, do you remember why, as a kid, you loved cartoons in the first place? Cartoons are bright filled worlds of color, all splashing together to be bright as the sun or eve dark as night. As a writer, I’ve certainly found my share of interesting ideas that have come from a cartoon, but now as I delve into the visual creative world of design, there’s a lot to be said about a cartoon.

A great website called The Many Faces Of… takes the black and caricature of the graphic novel to show the many characters of different actors (the Alan Rickman one is great). This isn’t the only website that showcases how cartoon characters and designs can work with a website. But how exactly does this work?

1. Cartoon style

Think about your favorite cartoon? Was it bright and colorful like Spongebob Squarepants? Or dark and mysterious like Batman: The Animated Series? Color themes and b&w themes are popular with websites, but giving a distinct look with, say an animated character that looks suspiciously like you, can also give it a unique spin.

2. Original

There are a lot of websites on the Internet and there are a lot of good-looking websites on the Internet. You should want to not only go for good-looking, but very unique and very original. Some may see cartoon styling on a website and think, "how unprofessional!", however there are also a lot of people who will thank you the breath of fresh air.

3. Appealing

Done in a stylish way, websites that take in a cartoon concept – bright colors or dark and gritty – can actually be very appealing, especially if a potential client keeps seeing the same thing over and over along the Internet.

4. Fun

Remember why you watched cartoons? They were fun, right? Even those shows that were meant to teach you something were done in a fun way that you probably still remember today as an adult (how many Sesame Street sketches can you remember?). Ultimately, the reason you went into web design or something creative in the first place was because you enjoyed it, because you had fun. Just because you’re a designer in the professional world doesn’t mean you still can’t have fun.

5. Inspiration

That is the title of the article, but how? As a creative, you know that sometimes inspiration can sometimes just sit up and bite you in the middle of the night or come at as you’re watching a random episode of Danger Mouse.

That last one

 Inspiration – can come in a variety of different ways – maybe the color scheme in a Spongebob episode is just the one you were looking for or the overall manga style of Dragonball Z catches your eye for a logo idea; either way, the next time you sit down to watch TV, stop on that episode of Looney Tunes. Elmer Fudd’s outfit has just the right blend of colors for that background layer, don’t you think?