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).
Photographic Styles
August
Car Freaks
Twelve Restaurant
Future of Web Design
Summer - tnvacation.com
MacAllan Ridge
Fall - tnvacation.com
Jirnsum.eu
Go To China
Traffik
Legendary Aircraft
Surf in Paradise
Family Vacation Survival Guide
Flame Digital
Sundance Festival
Visit Cascadia
Frisk Design
Dizzain
Eleven3
IMEEM
Monterey
Pueblo Bonito
Jansport
Champneys
Include Digital
Alba Nigra
Welcomebrand.co.uk
Nefty's World
MVP Movie
Upstruct
My Kid Took These
Cinq7
Liberato Creative
Adventure Here
Mountain Biking by 198
Get London Reading
Free People
Youlove.us
Brandon Wolvin
Twiistup.com
Buen Retiro Vergara
The Farmer and the Chef
CSS Layout
Pi-inc.net (flash)
Jamie Oliver
Pivonka.eu
CNC Costume National
Buy For Less
Wellington Lions
Charles Martin Books
Lipton Green Mint
Electricurrent.com
MTV
BHeurosong
The Hip Hop Music
Easycut.es
Careforkidsfarm.com
Illustrative Styles
Design Jobs on the Wall
Spring - tnvacation.com
Viget - Inspire
Dara's Garden
Ma.tt
N.Design Studio
Jason Bradbury
Radu Ceuca
Singularity Concepts
The Rox
The Mattinator
Rock Your Look
NJ Rebel
Antiphrasis
Pojeta
Volll
Div Voted
Campingilfrutteto.it
StrawPoll
Refresh Teesside
Dean Oakley
Adit Shukla
Rawkes
Want more?
Check out my Best Web Gallery for more inspiration.
Also, don't forget to learn how to CSS a large background site.
That was nice!
Wow, it’s an honour to see Rawkes displayed on this site! I’ve been a regular here for ages now and I always find your posts inspiring and useful.
The rest of the websites shown are amazing, although I have to admit I have a soft spot for the Volll site – it’s so cool!
Thanks again, and keep up the great work with Web Designer Wall, N.Design and Design Jobs On The Wall!
Rob Hawkes (The guy behind Rawkes)
Really nice collection of sites. I also use a nice big background for my site. The only problem on some sites may be, the resolution. On small resolutions you won’t be able to see the whole image, on larger resolutions, if the background is not really huge, you will see it cut down if there isn’t a good blending with the background applied.
Very useful list. Thank you!
photography and design, create something of wonderful!
nice collection…
big photos in the background are so great!! lov!!
nice overview, thx 4 it!
Wow what a selection. This goes to show that as internet connection speeds and bandwidth has increased over the past few years – designers are getting more adventurous with large images as they don’t have to worry so much about file sizes.
Some great designs.
Heya i’m for the first time here. I came across this board and I find It really useful & it helped me out much. I hope to give something back and help others like you helped me.
Like it!
great stuff ! gives good inspiration!
like it!
Excellent picks out here! How much time it took to make this list??
i like where photographs are as backgrounds.
great collection
And greetings from Latvia
in feb this year i started this http://www.wscoop.com its a digg stylr site but deicated to web desing and development
But I need your help….
I need links to web design and development, site , articles links…… anything you think of….
Please are you abel to help me make this into a great resource for developers and designers.
You are more than welcome to prompt your own sites, projects, comments and all… at the moment the posts go straight to the font page to it is good exposer and at lest some sweet backlinks
Thanks
great collection,
big pictures in background looks amazing.
I try to apply it inmy site
hope you like.
Brilliant timing Nick, I’ve been doing my own research on these type of sites as I am designing for a full screen background site myself. You should check out http://www.goldmansachs.com as another good example with really lovely js to resize image and position
Oh and http://www.basjanader.com/ is amazing – really nice use of flash
The Rissington Podcast
Thanks for adding my site! Mountain Biking by 198 is my passion and a lot of work went into the design (done by myself with the help of WooThemes).
I have found that the large background picture makes designing, especially with blogs, much easier. You can get the exact look that you are trying to accomplish without having to mess with multiple fields and elements.
It is also easier to optimize for one image instead of multiple. Everything is a work in progress, but I am extremely happy with the results.
Great site…keep it up!
-198
Wow!
Tnanks for this list
My favourite is “My Kid Took This”
I tend to like minimalistic design, but some nice design with large background images is very refreshing. Good list! :)
And now I want to change my all new design (not already online)…
Thanks you guy. :p