Branding Metrics

What I like about this selection is the diversity of the styles, so many times these types of showcases tend to present designers that share a similar look and feel, where as this one runs the gamut If this doesn't get you out of designers block I dunno what will

minimalist sites

http://www.revolvercreative.com/

Branding trends and research

http://www.hatchfest.org/blog/highlights-from-hatch-design-panels/

Collection of inspirada and tutorials

http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/development/popular-promising-web-design-blogs/

Simple site design

http://www.noupe.com/design/simplicity-in-good-web-design-advantages-how-to.html

Typography sites

http://sixrevisions.com/design-showcase-inspiration/beautiful-examples-of-inset-typography-in-web-design/

http://weburbanist.com/2009/09/14/masters-of-form-plus-function-12-amazing-web-designers/

heres the greatest place to find the top websites for a specific industry

http://www.alexa.com/topsites/category/Top/Business

Think about is illustrations would work for your design

http://designerscouch.org/show_article/120/70-impressive-websites-with-outstanding-illustrations.html

Examples of site's that break out of the typical 3 coulmn layout...

http://www.webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/css-design-out-of-the-box/

This is the closest example of of a list of top brands' websites that can be used to help "define" a brand attribute

http://www.smashingapps.com/2008/11/06/27-eye-opening-and-inspiring-websites-of-top-brands.html

Top brand logos and who designed them

http://www.mainlinemenswear.co.uk/page.php?xPage=brands-directory.html

how about putting the face behind a website!

http://www.outlawdesignblog.com/2009/what-if-websites-were-people/

footer design inspiration

http://www.webdesigndev.com/inspiration/30-inventive-website-footer-designs

At the beginning of every web project I start I ask clients to tell be brand attribute words that describe what kind of business they like to thing they are...

http://www.dzinepress.com/category/inspiration/

http://thefwa.com/

http://spyrestudios.com/category/inspiration/

http://siteinspire.net/

http://sixrevisions.com/user-interface/20-fresh-new-design-galleries/

Otherwise known as mood boards
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2008/12/why-mood-boards-matter/

how to create one

http://www.from-the-couch.com/post.cfm/title/creating-an-effective-mood-board

There may be a bit of digging to find what your looking for but this site could prove to be the best place to start

"search design inspiration"

http://www.designbump.com/

search flickr for inspiration boards

vandelaydesign.com seems like a tremendous resource for this type of research...

http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/galleries/outstanding-church-websites/#comment-35128

and

tremendous call to action buttons

http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/galleries/add-to-cart/#comment-35400

http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/latest_news/this-weeks-favourites-july-24th-2009

http://www.webdesignjunkies.com/2009/07/26/five-types-of-effective-headers-in-web-design/comment-page-1/#comment-70

some more inspirada

http://abduzeedo.com/sites-week-62

http://www.ttuts.com/