25 Most Inspiring Website Designs

It seems to me that every web-inspiration site I visit is featuring the same designs over and over and over. While the designs are all great, I thought it was time for a new inspiration list. Sure, there are a few well recognized website designs here, but for the most part I tried my best to feature lesser-known websites. I hope you all find these designs as creative and inspirational as I do! Just click each thumbnail to be taken to the website.


bittbox.png


davidairey.png


davidhellmann.png


designshack.png


dragoninteractive.png


elliotjaystocks.png


evaneckard.png


freelancewebdesign.png


greatdesign.png


iw.png


kineda.png


marksdigitalfarm.png


media.png


nanalmart.png


nofrks.png


nonedesign.png


onwired.png


outline2design.png


pixelair.png


rastercafe.png


risend.png


shoeguru.png


sofasurfer.png


thedesignedtree.png


zagrebfever.png


  • This post was written by Brian
  • Website: http://elitebydesign.com
  • About: Brian is a blogger and web designer at Elite By Design. He has been blogging for over a year providing quality design-related articles for the community.
37 Comments RSS
  1. Reply disgruntledNo Gravatar said on March 3rd, 2008

    i think http://www.2advanced.com should be up there sorry…

  2. Reply Dwayne CharringtonNo Gravatar said on March 4th, 2008

    Nice list of website designs there mate. As for the comment above, 2advanced.com is a flash website and I don’t believe flash should be used for creating websites. Flash has horrible usability issues and disguises bad design traits.

    - Dwayne Charrington.
    http://www.dwaynecharrington.com

  3. Reply JoshNo Gravatar said on March 4th, 2008

    neat designs but simple though..

  4. Reply BrianNo Gravatar said on March 4th, 2008

    @Disgruntled – This is just a CSS gallery. I’ll probably compile a flash gallery here soon and will definitely take a look at that site.

    @Dwayne @Josh – Thanks for the comment!

  5. Reply David AppleyardNo Gravatar said on March 4th, 2008

    Thanks for featuring Design Shack!

  6. Reply TonyNo Gravatar said on March 4th, 2008

    Hey Brian,

    Thanks a bunch for listing our site here! Looks like we’re in some nice company.

    Tony

  7. Reply BrianNo Gravatar said on March 4th, 2008

    @David & Tony – Thanks to you guys. You were featured for a reason :)

  8. Reply MarcoNo Gravatar said on March 4th, 2008

    What about WebDesignerWall? http://www.webdesignerwall.com/ It has seriously one of the most beautiful & unique design! Additionally, it’s a website about design, so it would fit perfectly on this list ;) .

    Anyway, it’s a great list you made, thumbs-upped :) .

  9. Reply BrianNo Gravatar said on March 4th, 2008

    @Marco – So true. That is a great website. My goal with this list was to feature some lesser known designs. I’m almost positive that everyone has seen WDW at some point, and for that reason I didn’t include it though.

    I appreciate the comment and recommendation though!

  10. Reply David AireyNo Gravatar said on March 4th, 2008

    I’m honoured to be mentioned, even if I find it a little odd considering my lack of web design skills. I know enough to keep it simple, which for me, is the essence of good design.

    Thanks very much, Brian!

  11. Reply BrianNo Gravatar said on March 4th, 2008

    Hey David, for me, its ALL about the simplicity. Thats why I featured you. Not to mention everybody should read your blog. It has been such a huge help over the last few weeks for me!

  12. Reply john stevingtonNo Gravatar said on March 4th, 2008

    the first site was a piece of shit, a simple blog.

    same thing with dwayne charringtons.

    just because something doesnt suck, doesnt mean it is great. and great is not the same as inspiring.

    fail post, imo.

  13. Reply BrianNo Gravatar said on March 4th, 2008

    @John – Well I guess we can’t all find the same stuff inspiring huh? :)

  14. Reply Dwayne CharringtonNo Gravatar said on March 4th, 2008

    John Stevington,

    Didn’t your mother ever teach you that it’s rude to swear. As for the comment about my blog. I’m not trying to win any awards for design, my blog works and it’s simple which is what I want. My blog wasn’t even featured in this list. If you’re illiterate then maybe you were referring to David Airey’s website instead of mine?

    - Dwayne Charrington.
    http://www.dwaynecharrington.com

  15. Reply john stevingtonNo Gravatar said on March 4th, 2008

    dwayne, grammer != literacy

    i dont know who david airey is, but im going to assume this is his website. No, i was refering to your website. you feel important enough to declare flash unsuitable for website design, well i declare your blog to be dulland boring in form. bland. just like all the rest of the blogs out there. did you even design it? or do you use a cms you pulled off of someone else, or wordpress eprhaps? ;) …..

  16. Reply Terry NgNo Gravatar said on March 5th, 2008

    Wow! I’m honored. :)

  17. Reply petnosNo Gravatar said on March 5th, 2008

    most of them are really great….

  18. Reply sixpack66No Gravatar said on March 5th, 2008

    Hey Brian! Thanks for featuring Zagrebfever

  19. Reply Dwayne CharringtonNo Gravatar said on March 5th, 2008

    John Stevington,

    Idiocy != Intelligence.

    Yes flash is unsuitable for website design and many other web developers have the same opinions. Flash is a multimedia tool and it’s not a good idea to use it for web design even though a lot of people do because it’s all they know how to use. As for feeling important enough to declare flash unsuitable for website design, you don’t need to be that important to declare something. Search Google and you will most likely find many more posts saying pretty much the same thing.

    As for your attempt of insulting me, yes I use Wordpress, this blog uses Wordpress, most blogs out there use Wordpress or Movable Type. Nobody hardly codes their own blogging platform because it’s unnecessary. Why bother coding something that you can download already and works well? If you don’t like my blog theme, don’t look at it and don’t visit my blog, full stop. it’s funny you mention it being bland, my unique views are climbing every month. My website has been running for nearly 4 months and I get on average 2300 unique page views a month which is a good start for a website I don’t advertise much. Most of my traffic comes from Google itself.

    Hey Brian sorry about taking up all of your screen space. I just don’t let people who think they know best walk all over me when it comes to a debate about something.

    - Dwayne Charrington.
    http://www.dwaynecharrington.com

  20. Reply TonyNo Gravatar said on March 5th, 2008

    @Dwayne – Don’t let him get to you. He’s just trying to ruffle feathers.

  21. Reply Nosherwan AdilNo Gravatar said on March 5th, 2008

    Great designs ….

  22. Reply BrianNo Gravatar said on March 5th, 2008

    Alright everyone lets just leave it at that. If you want to discuss the designs I’ve featured or talk about web design related stuff, by all means comment.

    But lets not turn this post into an argument.

  23. Reply Vinh LeNo Gravatar said on March 6th, 2008

    I think this is the first time I got featured in a top 25 list, it brings tears to my eyes to come to this point. Thanks for including me along these other great websites Brian. Mines is risend by the way, so no one gets confused. = )

  24. Reply BrianNo Gravatar said on March 6th, 2008

    @Vinh- your site is so simple and elegant I just couldn’t pass it up. And your welcome – but you deserve it.

  25. Reply Gary R. HessNo Gravatar said on March 7th, 2008

    I really like the font they for the onwired logo. Keep up the good work!

  26. Reply WWE CrazyNo Gravatar said on March 8th, 2008

    Nice and clean design. I would love to integrate such design on my blog.

  27. Reply AnkitNo Gravatar said on March 10th, 2008

    interesting descriptions http://write2ankit.blogspot.com check this out

  28. Reply Twist SystemsNo Gravatar said on March 13th, 2008

    Nice list there buddy!

  29. Reply The Designed TreeNo Gravatar said on March 24th, 2008

    Brian,

    Thank you for featuring The Designed Tree! What a great birthday present! ;-)

  30. Reply kishoreblogNo Gravatar said on April 4th, 2008

    Nice designs. But looks simple.

    http://www.kishoreblog.com

  31. Reply Goran WebNo Gravatar said on April 20th, 2008

    Some nice design Ideas. Thanks. Simplistic designs are the hardest to achieve.

  32. Reply Alex PetersonNo Gravatar said on July 15th, 2008

    Many thanks for including Pixel Air! We’re Very flattered indeed. Simplicity is the key to all good interaction design!

  33. Reply EnezaNo Gravatar said on November 17th, 2008

    Couldn’t agree more with Sir Elliot Jay Stocks “the man” I wish I have those curly hair

  34. Trackback: Week In Review posted on March 8th, 2008

    [...] Monday, I posted 25 Most Inspiring Website Designs. Within two or three hours, it had received over 50 thumbs up on Stumble Upon. Thats when it [...]

  35. Trackback: 22 Most Creative Web Portfolios posted on March 10th, 2008

    [...] Need some inspiration to craft your own web portfolio? Just take a look at the 22 listed below and I’m sure that you will find something to help you along the way. Just as well, take a look at some of the site designs. Definitely a great addition to what you got from 25 Most Inspirational Website Designs. [...]

  36. Trackback: Elite By Design » Blog Archive » March In Review posted on April 1st, 2008

    [...] 25 Most Inspiring Website Designs [...]

  37. [...] tasar?ma sahip site eklemek istiyorum.art?k ayn? tasar?ma sahip sitelerden s?k?ld?ysan?z burada sizin için etkileyici tasar?ma sahip bir k?sm?n? biliyor olsak da bir k?sm? pek bilinmeyen 25 [...]

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