Great collection, each single site is worth to enumerated here! In my point of view, maybe only Link [www.mein-brandenburg.com] is missing. Thanks for providing such inspirations.

Great post, All the designs are inspirational layouts!

Thanks for your kind opinion about my work ;)
It’s a real pleasure of mine to be the one of this 50’s

Best wishes
Ice

Undeniably beautiful designs, but dark websites remain in the realm of web designers rather than web content publishers.

I’ve seen people try to use dark designs for content-heavy websites, I’ve tried it too, and it just doesn’t work as well as a light design would.

For design sites though, stunning.

Dan: It depends on kind of project…
In general - You’re right, but in special cases the dark design is more emphatic, sophisticated, full of feeling and emotions, ie. night club or parties sites, linigerie sites, some events, occasions and many more…, they’re also commercial but in specific way of feeling

Awesome collection! Inspiring no doubt :)

Is it only me who finds these desings incredbily boring, uninspired and are simply joining in on the Web 2.0 Circle-Jerk? Very few of these break any mold and simply play into todays repetitive trends?

Great article. Nice way to get inspiration.

I’m still not sure I like dark designs. Some of those do look rather good, but to me traditionally I’ve never thought dark designs look professional.

“Otherwise we’ll break this series of articles and will offer you another content.”

Nothing like a threat to make me want to bookmark you.

This will all end with crying

Dark design just looks great if you know how to handle bright text colors on gloomy backgrounds. Your first option should be using white for the continuous text.

“Dark pages” have an elegant and classic look if they are done the right way. Indeed, it’s more difficult to create a working “dark” page instead of creating a white one.

Photos or pictures are working very well on a black background. The colors, the brightness and the contrast of the photo seem to be much “sharper” in contrast to placing pictures on bright backgrounds.

On the other hand i just read (sorry don’t know the source anymore) that text written on bright backgrounds would be approx. 30% faster to read. Greetings, Dan.

Milosz & danofthenorthstar, thanks for the insight.

I may simply be stuck in the mindset of “dark text on a light background = professional publisher” if some people can make it work well the other way round. Personal preference probably plays a part in how I see sites.

I agree party and special occasion sites are exactly the sort of sites that would suit a dark design.

One thing I’ve noticed from dark sites is that after you’ve been reading one for a while and then look away from the monitor you see lines before your eyes - now that’s disturbing

But I do like dark sites! They always manage to look cool, and the ones above are definately some very cool looking sites. Nice list.

Dark sites are very easy on the eyes.

I wish more sites used darker themes

How the pictures and images look on a dark background you could see on my and my friends internet design showcase Link [www.E-motionalDesign.com]

It’s far better than on the brightest one or on white…

Ice

Really good examples.

It shows that we didn’t need to use “light” colors to have a great design; different from that “design pattern” that we have today.

Great sites!

THIS LIST MADE MY DAY! Love dark sites, LOVE.

Thanks for the inclusion of my site, guys… I’m truly honoured!

Lots of really great sites in that list, many of which I’m jealous of myself - especially Snagt as Ive never seen it before

Thanks to talk about us!!! Our bandwidth crashed, but all it’s ok today. Good luck!

A great list. Rusty Lime should have been in there as well: Link [www.rustylime.com]

I want a dark design too.But my blog doesnt fit.If i ever start a personal blog.I will come back to you

Another great one! Thanks Guys

That is a really nice list of websites. Beautiful design & inspiration!

Thanks :)

I like all the templates. It shows that always light colors are not good. Dark colors can also make the great designs.

hmm.. i guess i need to Link [ilkeryoldas.blogspot.com] to enter the next selection!

I think EbonMusic does the best job with lighting; they never seem to over-contrast or under-contrast. All of these are great designs, though, I feel. :)

I am impressed by Larissa Meek. Her work is fantastic!

No No No No Nooooooooo!

Darn. Now I have to lock myself in a room for at least a week to learn all the neat tricks myself…

That’s really incredible work, thank you!

great selection of dark design. Is there a section with design divided by color?

silver_fox Thank you for showing an intrest in my site. If you don’t mind me asking. Where did you hear about my site? Enjoy.

J.A. Catero

Great collection. I just launched Link [www.radiodetox.com], which has a pretty simple interface with black, red, gray, and white. Check it out.

Very goof and interesting !!!

I have one more link to this post (Dark Design) Link [www.harddays.net]

This is site about underground music in Uzbekistan.

On a dk background there are no white tints (prbloger.com and cviscusi.com)
And generally - very much inspired works of art!

Yea styles are much easier to make these days and with so many templates out there even web site designers who are starting out can make a site looks great in a matter of minutes.

@hEXA
You can’t download it, it’s the work of others. Please appreciate

Btw nice post, there are a lot of dark designs incorporating black and blue color scheme. I didn’t see much of black and orange though although it’s my fave color sheme :P

hi,

Thanks for your kind opinion about my work ;)
It’s a real pleasure of mine to be the one of this 50’s

Hey,
thanks a lot! I’m just about to redesign my site and looking into the darker side. :)

Dahlbäck is the best!

I prefer light designs. I don’t like dark.

Dark designs are OK but the problem is with advertisers - according to my past and present experience they do not trust to advertise on dark web pages because it gives them sort of “underground” or maybe “something illegal” feeling. And naturally they don’t want their company to be connected in anything “illegal” …

Hello all! I just LOVE Smashingmagazine, I am knew in the business…My website is on tailor made luxury travel, it is simple, home made, nothing of flash, because I still don’t know how to use it…But I like the idea that websites are also for grannies not only for grandsons, so no plu-ins required! All my love! Stucky

best dark site I’ve seen that is extraordinarily elegant with thoughtful and intelligent posts is

http:theerrantaesthete.com
(Essentials for the Cocktail Swilling Savant)

i love black sites, using black windows theme black video player b firefox with Link [gBlack.02d.pl]
almose everything and i think that smashmagazine should be black to …

Great List.

Our site is dark if you want to take a gander.

im looking for a dark design for my own site, its like froggy and pond related - these give some great tips thanks alot.

Why won’t you people learn??

white text on a black background hurts the eyes.

I simply close ANY website that uses this style

Ohh la la - love the creativity.. some of the designs are very chic and pop-culturish :)

Albinora..

Great graphical black theme!
But, I still hesitate to change the Black-LG theme used for my blog :-)

These are very fresh layouts. They are highly inspirational.

This is Superb Collection. mine too is on black :)

Someone say dark background is very relax for eyes.

Dark sites are very easy on the eyes.

Great list!
Here is an other dark design: Link []

Great list!
I’d like to add my dark website design to the list: Link [www.brianwebdesign.com]

Dark design are mostly made to gives the feeling of perspective and depth.
Bright colors are well combined with black contrasts for all web layout especially powerful colors like red or orange. I used black color background for a painting website last time. You can see my portfolio here: Link [www.website1service.com]

very nice

@Expanism
New link: Link [www.autodemontageverwijst.nl]
Dark design with black/orange color scheme.

I like the dark web designs but have gone for a lighter design myself but I am thinking of doing a re-design.
100 years ago a French priest embedded clues in his church leading to a secret location.
Those clues have been solved.
That location has been found.
The SECRET is revealed!

Lost Tomb of the Knights Templar
Link [www.benhammott.com]

i like mostely all those dark designs ( also have it in my room at home).most i love that viscusi`s page.its awesome-this mixture from dark,impressive and romatic but also elements from clean-chic.wonderful and very inspiring!

Dark design with black/orange color scheme.

coolll…

I think our website has a “Dark design you should see”: AdWorks Webdesign :)
Hope you don’t consider this advertising, it really is a great dark design!

Very nice themes and tips. Just wondering what is better for a movie channel? An open colour theme as the same i have on Link [wwww.movies-tube.net] or a dark theme as one of the above?

Hi. Good site.

MOST AMAZING DARK DESIGN, A MUST SEE:

Link [dragoninteractive.com]

Nice post, im not into dark templates but it sure looks good.

these themes are beautiful, are any of them available as wordpress theme downloads?

All designs are very nice, but dark design is not corporate and professional, these design is like night club or party…

thanks,I really agrree with these points,I also will try these points in the designs for my site and my clients’ site.

thanks,great works,I like somethings of them,I will study them.

Great designs. I am very interested if they are seo designs. In this seo company i saw that they do webdesign and they give emphasis on the Link [golden-way-media.com]. I do not know what they mean but their designs are perfect and they do have many styles similar with these

Not really feeling any of those designs. Maybe I’m prejudice to the darker layouts, but I really do find them hard to read. They just come off uninviting and unbalanced. I feel the same way in print. And it’s not just about ink waste, although, that’s a big gripe for me, as well.

I had to laugh, too, because the first website that I thought was half-decent was the Link [www.snagt.com] link up top (3rd one down), and the site is now on a white background and much brighter. Much better IMHO. And yes, I realize this post is from 2007. In fact, a lot of those sites have “new portfolio coming soon!” messages, which makes me wonder if they’ve finally gotten bored of being in the dark.

Be wary of the dark side… :}