Hi I am a amatuer web designer working in web design company and I was wondering if you surf the web , you visit sites and like their design and set up are you allow to built a site of your own copying the other web sites design. I don't mean copying exactly pixel for pixel / code for code but very close different colors and minor changes to design.. is this legal or does it break some standard of web designs?
Depends on how you go about it. Lets say you have Joe Bob over here with his web design and you, trying to design a page decide you like Joe Bobs very much. In this case you could do something with the same layout or for that fact do something with almost the same design to the best of your ability, but you would need to credit the original artist. I do web design and it doesn't bother me much if someone uses my work for inspiration so long as they say it was inspired by me. What bothers me is if I find one piece of my work that has been copy/pasted into their design and they claim it as their own. So just don't copy anything directly and if you make something identical leave a link to the original designer saying it was inspired by him/her.
Same layout, color harmony,Graphic effects and minor changes on design? That's a no-no. For sure that would pissed every clean designer in the world. he he.