With the millions of websites on the internet, having a unique design is a must to get your visitors’ attention. The following sites displayed below are the few that I personally find inspiring. What made them unique is they used various traditional art techniques and applied to modern web design technology. The result is breathtaking and simply beautiful.
I made a large screenshot of the sites in case they redesign their sites. Click on the thumbnail to view the large image, click on the URL to visit the live site.
After browsing the gallery, have you noticed what they have in common?
Watercolor – very subtle watercolor effects.
Collage – feminine collage.
Typography – strong emphasis of serif fonts.
Hand writing – commonly used for menus.
Bright colors – magenta, cyan, yellow, and green.
Edwin
Nice list!
Jeff Finley
Thanks, these are some good sites I did not know about.
Harmen
Really nice,
how do you get that watercolor effects? In photoshop?
Timothy Diokno
Awesome! I was trying to do a web design purely from a paper doodle and then scan them and chop them down for XHTML and CSS.
Cori
I’ve always wanted to include watercolor as well as handwriting into my websites. I didn’t know if it was going to be too cliche though but if I like it, I shouldn’t care about clicheness, right? Anyway, great list. They truly are an inspiration to me.
Geith
urban outfitters should be part of this list.
http://www.urbn.com
Respiro Media
One of my favourites is happycog.com. It has a simple and brilliant layout.
Colin
“how do you get that watercolor effects?”
paper, watercolor, scanner. painfully obvious, isn’t it?
Beth
Honestly, I’d put your site around the top of any list of beautiful sites. :D
Timothy Diokno
@ Harmen: I think those are Photoshop Brushes.
Fabio Sasso
Excellent list, I really like electricpulp.com …..
Jermayn Parker
Personally I hate serifs on fonts and try not to design with them. The only problem with some of these sites is how long will they load for dial up users?
Matt Johnson
I would agree with Colin on the scanning in of watercolors.
@Timothy – it would depend on which site you’re talking about, but I’m almost positive (95% sure) that the watercolor effects on the happycog.com site was done by hand on paper and scanned in. Jason Santa Maria, the leading designer in this project, does an article on is blog about this.
@ Jermayn Parker – is that still a problem nowadays? I was just asking myself this question a few days ago – whether dial-up is as widespread and even a concern when dealing with higher-end graphics. I wasn’t able to find any statistics to help us out unfortunately.
Nick
@Matt, Timothy, Harmen – There are many ways to create watercolor effects. I used Photoshop Pencil tool with custom brushes.
Timothy Diokno
@Jermayn Parker: Serifs affect how fast a webpage loads? Wow! I myself have been using a lot of serifs in my designs and all this time it’s been affecting the loading speed?! WTF!
@Matt Johnson: That works? I can’t believe it! I definitely have to give it a try myself someday and unfortunately, I’m still using a dial-up connection. Good thing I can still survive! LOL!
@Nick: Nice!
inspirationbit
I’m surprised this list didn’t make it to the Digg’s front page.
Is this a new blog? I’ll be definitely coming back to it often.
TK
The sites mentions are lovely indeed. However, there are TOO many sites that are laid out like happycog.com. I can’t deny that it’s a nice site – the watercolors are beautiful but I’ve seen so many sites that have the same layout.
LaurenMarie - Creative Curio
Wow! What an awesome list. Very inspirational. Definitely adding to del.icio.us. Thanks for gathering it!
I just found your website and it is BEAUTIFUL! Excellent job on the design. It has many elements I’ve not seen before on the web, especially a WP blog (oh, and Inspiration Bit pointed me over here. Thanks IB!)
franke
Nice list! Small suggestion: maybe you should try _blank on your hyperlinks.
Ritchie
Wow!!! what an amazing list. I’ve tried visiting those other site, all I can say that it was a great peace or work. Very nice art. And for the others are really nice too. nice job.
Machiel
Hmm.. Nice List! good for a lot of inspiration! I even spotted a former co-student from DVTG (snagt.net). Ah nice start of my day.
Shuklendu
Very good list of website.
The Common techniques mentioned below teaches more to us
Kishore Nagarigari
Goog good collection…. like them up
guess u forgot my site too ;)
http://www.kishoren.com
cheers
kishore
dale the merciless
thanks for the link! it is an honour to be a part of this list. there really are some kickass sites in there. i’m gonna have to check out this site more often.
Lanx
Your work amazed me~ I love your design :)
Mykal
Ahh glad to see electric pulp on there. I love the organic look.
pamQ
Thanks a lot for posting this brilliant list! I’ve been going around CSS galleries to find inspiration for my redesign–I was going for the same organic, artistic effect but got stuck somewhere–and I’ve always wanted to see all these artistic sites all in one organized list. This has been very helpful!
Daniel
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article o.us poetry, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
Kyle
Hi Kishore Nagarigari,
Nice site design – I toyed with the idea of doing a right-aligned site, but decided to go with traditional centered. Nice to see someone doing something different. FYI your ajax portfolio tool looks really messed up on my mac – the work partially goes beneath your site background.
Deepak Bhattacharya
Very Good list.
abhi
great list…
very inspirational..
Parthiv
Great site and excellent information
Rishi Sinha
Amazing trendy designs.
vijay ranjan
icant express but can feel……… keep it up
KENEDIK
Thanks for the love! Cool site.
Fireproof83
Nice variety of eclectic web design. love it.
Santiago
Wow a lot of art thanks!!!
bnl
I love it…
this inspires me
-bnl
July C
i love everything about your site! i hope you keep coming back with great stuff for us!
Benjamin Shepard
Gorgeous site! Thanks for the eye candy and the brain food. Thanks!
VJ Lai
Brilliant!! Absolutely fantastic!
Vikky
fantastic!!! now, how can a non-artist learn how to these wonderfull inspirational illustrations. Are there any copyright free illustrations of this sort that I can use on my site? congratulations and thank you
gülhan
really cool sites
imaginepaolo
Good feeling 2.0
Firebug
Brilliant Designs! Great inspiration!
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sooooooo soooooooooper COOOOOOOOL! :)
BienB
Wow, great sites !!!
Thank you
BV
Thanks for the inspiration.
lea
very inspiring me.
i know nothing about html, but i do love designing.. i hope i can design mine someday. hehhehehe
thanks
Carly
I have a thing for collage at the moment… even my bedroom incorporates it… I just cant stop buying and collecting arty postcards!
GadgetMuse
These sites are all great! I’d have to say though that yours is the best. :)
Joe
This site is the best artistic site I’ve ever been to.
Annette
I really love the collection – very inspiring, keeps me coming back for more!
Cristina
very good!!!!!!!! Thank you for the inspiration… xoxo
gonzo
http://www.urbana.com.uy is a Uruguayan based FM station, with strong power among youngsters in the country. It has yet one more memorable website with great Design! U can also enjoy the music from the web.
Mohammed
we have to say thank you, otherwise we don’t deserve what you are doing for designers.
lawton chiles
Very eye-opening the use of CSS to style these sites and how easy it is- well
all except for the planning :)
The point is, regular folks CAN do this! Thanks for the inspiration.
kay
wow..these are all so gorgeous…it’s so hard to find nice inspiration these days but these are just wow. O_o
TheArchived
Wow verry nice, I like them alot and i have to say good work!
ChrizDee
Oh – nice. Thanks for listing my blog :-)
Ashish Lohorung Rai
Cool links…Thanks for the research …keep it up!
Mehmet Poyraz
very very good thanks all of them
SeanC
Very inspirational. I work in education (general IT, including web/design for our institution). The Biola.edu ite is a great example of expanding on what can be a very boring (though informative) topic – college admissions, tution, general campus info. Having something attractive gives off an aura of creativity and modernism. I don’t want to pigeonhole certain institutions but I find it interesting that a religious university would go with something so unconventional (a SF or UK fashion school? it would be expected).
Our look is tired and the layout/function didn’t play out as well as I would have liked. I also got myself trapped into a handcoding nightmare with CSS and includes – basically leaving all the updates up to me and another team member (rather than a CMS method that we could hand off to the various departments) – second, and most important, we squeeze in updates and refreshes amongst the million other non-web related IT functions we have to do daily.
I would appreciate some C & C from you or any of your readers – maybe a suggestion on a CMS that would work better as a standard page by page site than as a blog.
That all aside, how are you managing the screenshot links? It’s a very cool feature, how they open up over the regular page, leaving the user still ‘here’ but centering attention to the info they requested (the s.shot).
Great site!!
Jessica
Personally, I find YOUR sites inspiring! But thank you so much for listing these websites and pointing out what can make or break a unique design. Very helpful. :)
estell
i am awed by YOUR site! and these sites are just as fantastic. the watercolor effect is just breath-taking!
thank your for these inspirations. i’m inspired to create something artsy cause my site is not really artsy as of now. thanks!
Alex
I like this list! One more that I came across recently, surprisingly an online shop – http://www.aguacateandco.com
Will Smith
WOW! these are really cool. Thanks, i visit your website just as much i do with engadget and DIGG :D.
hehe
keep it up.
Victor Fauziek Sidharta
Thank you for doing this, your work are very inspiring. And please give out more great designing tutorial and tips. Keep up the good work
Volkan
thank you for your helps for web designers.
Glen L Graham
I’m digging your designs keep up the good work. Nice blog
Mohammad Shekari
Hello
I’m am a web designer.
This page was so useful for me, too.
Please visite my website:
http://www.mohammadshekari.com
Thanks
Iman
Great Works!
Iman Abolfazli
http://www.7pagesdesign.com
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TheSites
Nice, great links.
Jenna
Preved dyatlam!
Goldy
Pretty inspirational designs!
Artyom
Hi,
Check this site.
I am an amateur web designer.
And I need your opinion about this work.
Thank.
khaiDesigns
great inspiration!
thanks for sharing.
ptoone
Nice Links!
ucretsiz ilan
wow nice post thanks man
Marco
http://www.asvalia.com is artistic site
Web Design Denver
I love the Noodlebox one a lot. I can’t put my finger on it but it just seems like the perfect design
Christina
Where can I find someone who can make a creative & cute website? All the designers I am finding from web searches are all so generic and formal. I need a creative cute design for a scrapbooking website. Why is it so hard to find someone with creative juices flowing?
Bryan
Just wanted to send you a thanks for the inspiration. I referred to this site many times during the redesign of – http://www.nwsource.com/
Goldy
@Christina: Are you still looking for a web designer? I checked your sites, but there is no contact form there. How can I contact you?
Nice collection of sites by the way!
Renan Hagiwara
Nice gallery… Thanks for share… !
eric
very inspiring sites, so creative indeed.
Skot
These websites are absolutely fantastic. I am truly inspired. I really like the hand drawn elements. More please.
ellen
Hi there, I’m one of your lurkers who’s coming out specifically to say that, without a doubt, your site has the nicest design I’ve ever seen. I just love those flowers!!
regards,
ellen from ireland
Andreas
Very inspiring designs…great…
IT Services India
Nice examples, we are developing web 2 sites with artistic view for our latest projects.
Angie Bowen
I just finished redesigning Arbent Creative Designs and this article was very helpful. Thank you!
SarYta Eugenio
Muy interesante las tecnicas utilizadas para desarrollar estas web, donde puedo obtener mas informacion o asesoria particular para un diseño tan original como estos… gracias…chau
Adrian
I got to say it, I love your designs!
High Quality Designs
Best designs, I have seen ever on this site.
nina
Its good to see lots of colour.
boo the boring greys of old!
anyssa
I really appreciate your work, congratulations!!!!
The Brazilian designers are thankful
;D
Seo
Thanks for sites.
Raaj Cena
Cool Examples
Thanks For It as It Help me a lot for devlopment of my this site
blogger666
These are great design. A good inspiration. Are the web 2.0 era coming to a halt?
Denver Web Design
There is a really nice selection here, my only comment would be that there is so much going on with this page that I feel like my ADHD is going to get me lost.
lokendra
good design gallery i like it i am gating good refrange thanx to designrs
i love it
Website Design Perth
Glossy really gone? I only changed my logo to glossy about six months ago :(
How about a poll on preferred website styles (like your SEO one)? Might be useful in spotting the definitive stand-out next trend…
Ben
I really hate to say it, but I dislike the watercolor, collage, and handwriting styles of design. For some reason even the dime-a-dozen glossy style seemed more concrete than these designs.
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实在是完美了 喜欢呢啊
İslamiyet
thank you
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I love those kinds of styles too!
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thanks!
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I like your website I will share this with friends
Met-art
good design gallery i like it i am gating good refrange thanx to designrs
i love it
Adrian Sotelo
Hello I was wondering how web designers do, so everytime somebody clicks on a image a big window show up and he background is black.
Adrian Sotelo
like when you ckick the portfolio images on this site, a window pops up
Miss Blossom
This is a magnificent collection. I would love to appear in your inspiration sites one day.
The more I learn one your site the more I realise how little I know and how much I need to learn.
Cheers and thanks so much for this and all your wonderful work.
Di
Matt
@adrian
It’s a javascipt effect called lightbox, there are many versions but that is the basis. Very easy to implement into your code.
here is a good site that explains the effect – http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/
katrina
Very cool and inspirational site! I visit this almost everyday to get my creative juices going :)
5reeef
i love it
thanx brother
değerleme
Wow. Very artistic. : )
hawcrofts
Cool sites!
Cachito
Sorry to say the images didn’t display after clicking on the screenshot thumbnails, although the ‘lightbox’ effect worked fine here >>
http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/
Amri iHidayatulloh
Halloo. it’s very nice to see your website.. it’s interesting, i like your design.. can you teach me. how to design as better as you…
ha.. ha.. I wanna learn more…
Thank you.. you have inspired me by your Web….
Reza
Simple, cool, and cutes design
Krestort
Recently one of my friends started an obsession with the actor Nicholas Cage (mostly because their names are both Nicholas – sounds strange but he is strange and that isn’t the point). After asking around the rest of my friends he seems to be a very controversial figure.
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How many times you eat during a normal … every day life?
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ant
This sites a good early example of handwriting fonts – http://www.rhythmplate.com. And if you check the wayback machine/web archive, its much older than ‘now’ as its initial design goes back to 2003… one of the pioneers of this look maybe?
Janice
The designs showed here show what simple and tasteful design is all about. Another one to consider that is basically a vast collage that when taken together is itself beautiful is at http://www.onepageoneworld.com. At first I didn’t know what to make of this site but after visiting a few times I got the idea and now I hope that others visit to experience it.
Bill
Simple, cool, and cutes design
videolar
I will consider to use one of it for our new site. Thanks..
videolar
I will consider to use one of it for our new site. Thanks.
bagsin
Simple, cool, and cutes design. Give me so much
Cyrus
Great , 33 Artistic Sites
Great article. CSS saved web design
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blog
thanks you.good article.
emily
check this artistic site out – http://www.wonowmedia.com
and thanks – really inspiring list
Mike
Where can find so much sites like these?
sanjay gupta
Hello,
Thanks a lot.The articles of your site is really helpful and usable for visitors.
This site http://www.punishmenow.co.uk/ is more helpful for online shoppings of products.
Sanjay Gupta
Software Test Engineer
[email protected]
vincent
The designs showed here show what simple and tasteful design is all about. Another one to consider.
Bathroom Glasgow
The point is, regular folks CAN do this! Thanks for the inspiration.
raghavendra
i seen your web page design, could you mention this web page design step by step
yemek
nice sharing.thanks all of them.
Web Design
simple love it thanks !!!
techxinsider
Cool list. It’s interesting for me as I compare these with the artistic sensibilities of Korean designers and artists.
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thank you so much for sharing. i like it :p
Kansas City Web Design
Great post….thanks for the design tips and examples.
John Weaver
Nice design examples. I really like happypeople.com great colors on that one. Thanks for sharing.
Kansas City Roofing
These are great examples……..keep them comin!
limo in dc
totally amazing.
Glucose Tester
Hey guys – am I missing the download for these designs or are these just examples. Very nice work either way. You should submit to wordpress if they are built for themes. I’d love to use a couple of them!
-Mike
Kansas City Web Developer
WOW, very nice work ……
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I really like happypeople.com great colors on that one. Thanks for sharing.
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Some great design ideas here – but I would be interested to see how this translates into traffic and conversions.
Thanks for sharing
Matt
Litho Printers Hampshire
Nice article – thanks for sharing – there are really awesome designs here – but please make sure that your branding and design language is carried through into your printed collateral.
Rob
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Easy to get bogged down by templated corp designs, nice post!
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