Are you tired of your typical columned and boxed layout? It is time to learn how to break out of the box and do something creative. In this post, I've collected some of the best examples that are designed out of the box. I've also provided some quick CSS tips with demo files on how to break out of the box by creatively using background images and the CSS position property.
Back in the old days, almost every website had a sitemap where they listed out all the pages. The purpose of the sitemap is to help visitors and search engine spiders to find information on the site. Now, a lot of modern websites have dropped the sitemap page, instead they place the sitemap in the footer area. I'm going to review 20 websites (from big corporation to small portfolio sites) who organized their footer cleverly to enhance usability.
Since Web Designer Wall launched, I've been featuring a lot of graphic intense websites such as the artistic, large background, vintage, and illustrative styles. Now it is time to feature the minimalist design. Here is a massive list of 50 minimal sites. See how designers use minimal elements to create high visual impact — less is more.
As the monitor resolution and internet speed is advancing, it seems like more and more designers use over-sized photo or illustrated image as the website's background. Large background image can create the stunning visual effect, especially for high resolution monitors. It can also add more life to your site design compared to the traditional tiled background graphic. Here is a collection of 80 websites that used large image as the site background (must-see, you won't be disappointed).
Are you looking for ideas to design a portfolio site? Maybe all you need is a single-page site? Single-page design works if you don't have much content, but just want to showcase your work. It can save time and cost because you don't need to build the CMS and templates. In other words, it's perfect for the non-coders. Here are 30+ single-page portfolio sites with exceptional design and implementation. Hopefully, they can give you some inspiration.
About a year ago, I compiled a huge list of artistic sites. It seems like the trend has carried on in 2008 and is growing stronger (thank God the glossy style is gone). So what's hot now? Pencil sketches, handwritten notes, card stocks, watercolor effects, collage art, script fonts, grungy and splatter ink backgrounds (glossy gradients are not "in" this year). Another trend to be on the lookout for are the vintage and retro styles which I've posted earlier this year. Here is a list of 82 sites picked from Best Web Gallery that show the current design trends.
Recently, I saw a very nice collection of vintage ads posted by Abduzeedo (via Digg). Speaking of vintage design, I also have a nice collection of vintage websites that I dug up from my old bookmarks and Best Web Gallery submissions. I'm not a big fan of vintage design, but if you want to see more vintage inspiration, here are 23+ sites.
Warning: some of the sites that you are about to view might be very old (click at your own risk)