Real design innovation takes courage, intelligence, and skill. In a world saturated with design, it also takes instinct. That only comes with experience. What has worked in the past, is not always going to work in future. A good design is geared towards the future. That takes courage and instinct. A good design will also stand apart and above right now. That takes intelligence and skill.
Websites need to be geared towards the masses, not towards designers. Ease of use, readily available information, and pro-active answers to questions. All this and and accurate representation of the goals and style of the site owner. One site, easy to navigate, on any platform from desk top to mobile touch screen, is a necessity for today's information consuming population.
With almost 20 years of professional experience, you learn a lot, from publishing, print, photography and both web development or design, and that all transfers into all the projects I work on. Even construction has helped inform how I look at projects as a whole, rather than just a piece that starts and ends with the single job ticket.
All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event—in the living act, the undoubted deed—there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask.
Ahab to Starbuck, Moby Dick, Herman Melville