30 Dark Designs You Should’ve Seen
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Dark designs can be really stunning. I mean, really. In Web 2.0 designers try to do their best to impress their visitors and in many cases they definitely succeed in doing so.
As a second (out of five) part of our 50 Beautiful CSS-Based Web-Designs in 2006 collection we’d like to present some stunning, but rather unknown dark designs, which you really should have seen if your aim is to develop web-sites in the modern “Look & Feel”-style. Links checked: June/15 2008 – 5 Designs deleted.
Justin
January 13th, 2007 10:16 pmGreat collection, each single site is worth to enumerated here! In my point of view, maybe only http://www.mein-brandenburg.com is missing. Thanks for providing such inspirations.
Luke Williams
January 13th, 2007 10:30 pmGreat post, All the designs are inspirational layouts!
Milosz Lodowski
January 13th, 2007 11:00 pmThanks 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
Dan
January 14th, 2007 12:29 amUndeniably 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.
Milosz Lodowski
January 14th, 2007 12:38 amDan: 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
Ganesh
January 14th, 2007 3:58 amAwesome collection! Inspiring no doubt :)
Rx
January 14th, 2007 4:39 amIs 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?
xen ix
January 14th, 2007 4:44 amGreat article. Nice way to get inspiration.
Motorcycle Guy
January 14th, 2007 5:09 amI’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.
Josh
January 14th, 2007 5:46 am“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.
trevor Nohcudg
January 14th, 2007 5:51 amThis will all end with crying
danofthenorthstar
January 14th, 2007 5:56 amDark 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.
Dan
January 14th, 2007 6:25 amMilosz & 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.
David G. Paul
January 14th, 2007 7:08 amOne 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.
grant
January 14th, 2007 7:50 amDark sites are very easy on the eyes.
I wish more sites used darker themes
Carlos Eduardo
January 14th, 2007 9:39 amReally 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!
James
January 14th, 2007 11:36 amTHIS LIST MADE MY DAY! Love dark sites, LOVE.
finbarr
January 14th, 2007 8:35 pmThanks 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
Miguel
January 14th, 2007 10:04 pmThanks to talk about us!!! Our bandwidth crashed, but all it’s ok today. Good luck!
Nonconformist
January 15th, 2007 8:08 amA great list. Rusty Lime should have been in there as well: http://www.rustylime.com
Ashish Mohta
January 15th, 2007 3:45 pmI want a dark design too.But my blog doesnt fit.If i ever start a personal blog.I will come back to you
ChrisB
January 15th, 2007 5:49 pmAnother great one! Thanks Guys
MrQwest
January 15th, 2007 9:34 pmThat is a really nice list of websites. Beautiful design & inspiration!
Thanks :)
Smith
January 15th, 2007 11:02 pmI like all the templates. It shows that always light colors are not good. Dark colors can also make the great designs.
ilker
January 16th, 2007 3:21 amhmm.. i guess i need to redesign my blog to enter the next selection!
Lelia Katherine Thomas
January 18th, 2007 3:09 pmI 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. :)
Rafal Zrobecki
January 19th, 2007 4:16 pmI am impressed by Larissa Meek. Her work is fantastic!
Daniel
January 20th, 2007 11:26 pmNo 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!
joeyramone76
January 25th, 2007 7:44 pmgreat selection of dark design. Is there a section with design divided by color?
J.A. Catero
January 26th, 2007 8:03 amsilver_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
Angry Canadian
February 2nd, 2007 12:56 amGreat collection. I just launched http://www.radiodetox.com, which has a pretty simple interface with black, red, gray, and white. Check it out.
PeterPriest
March 9th, 2007 6:19 pmVery goof and interesting !!!
I have one more link to this post (Dark Design) harddays.net
This is site about underground music in Uzbekistan.
Anatoliy
May 22nd, 2007 5:23 amOn a dk background there are no white tints (prbloger.com and cviscusi.com)
And generally – very much inspired works of art!
Chris
May 24th, 2007 8:32 pmYea 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.
Aria Rajasa
July 16th, 2007 7:36 pm@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
Seed
July 21st, 2007 5:56 pmhi,
Thanks for your kind opinion about my work ;)
It’s a real pleasure of mine to be the one of this 50’s
Parisuhde
August 17th, 2007 3:11 amHey,
thanks a lot! I’m just about to redesign my site and looking into the darker side. :)
Hans Hagen
August 31st, 2007 5:24 amDahlbäck is the best!
dzieci
September 10th, 2007 4:10 pmI prefer light designs. I don’t like dark.
vreme
September 23rd, 2007 8:43 pmDark 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” …
Carlos Stucky
October 10th, 2007 5:10 amHello 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
fanzone
October 16th, 2007 5:23 ambest dark site I’ve seen that is extraordinarily elegant with thoughtful and intelligent posts is
http:theerrantaesthete.com
(Essentials for the Cocktail Swilling Savant)
Nick Soper
December 25th, 2007 1:13 amGreat List.
Our site is dark if you want to take a gander.
Jeff Adams
January 2nd, 2008 1:11 pmim looking for a dark design for my own site, its like froggy and pond related – these give some great tips thanks alot.
anon
January 4th, 2008 6:50 amWhy won’t you people learn??
white text on a black background hurts the eyes.
I simply close ANY website that uses this style
Ms. Designer
January 8th, 2008 10:19 amOhh la la – love the creativity.. some of the designs are very chic and pop-culturish :)
Albinora..
Walker
January 13th, 2008 6:33 amGreat graphical black theme!
But, I still hesitate to change the Black-LG theme used for my blog :-)
Damola
March 4th, 2008 9:15 amThese are very fresh layouts. They are highly inspirational.
PraP
March 14th, 2008 3:02 amThis is Superb Collection. mine too is on black :)
MasviL
May 4th, 2008 12:01 pmSomeone say dark background is very relax for eyes.
Karl
May 19th, 2008 12:53 amDark sites are very easy on the eyes.
Brian
September 10th, 2008 12:43 pmGreat list!
I’d like to add my dark website design to the list: http://www.brianwebdesign.com
Matt
September 13th, 2008 5:05 pmDark 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: website1service.com
vishan
October 4th, 2008 12:49 amvery nice
Ben Hammott
November 1st, 2008 2:40 amI 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
dreamcat
November 8th, 2008 3:33 pmi 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!
Nihal
November 24th, 2008 10:13 pmDark design with black/orange color scheme.
Hotterdam
November 30th, 2008 9:29 amcoolll…
Razvan Popescu
December 4th, 2008 7:58 amI 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!
Alek
January 5th, 2009 12:17 amHi. Good site.
Ofer
January 12th, 2009 4:23 amNice post, im not into dark templates but it sure looks good.
M
January 26th, 2009 3:07 amthese themes are beautiful, are any of them available as wordpress theme downloads?
Rahman
February 17th, 2009 5:10 amAll designs are very nice, but dark design is not corporate and professional, these design is like night club or party…
amongchina
March 30th, 2009 10:40 pmthanks,I really agrree with these points,I also will try these points in the designs for my site and my clients’ site.
amongchina
March 30th, 2009 11:09 pmthanks,great works,I like somethings of them,I will study them.
WhiteWizard
June 19th, 2009 11:39 amNot 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 http://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… :}
rbts
September 7th, 2009 11:45 pmAll designs are very nice.
marie
November 2nd, 2009 8:17 amHello guys,
I would like to suggest that one which is minimalist and really nice too.
http://www.krispykrush.com/
What do you think?
Thank you,
Marie
eshanne
November 10th, 2009 10:18 amDark’s Themes Are Elegant, Professional & Mystery..
I love the dark style, and i really like your collections.. But there’s still much more out there.. hope can get more about darker themes…
Behind The Web Design
November 27th, 2009 1:06 amHi !
Thank for this selection. I like Dark Designs.
What do you think about mine ?
behindthewebdesign.com
Mike
March 8th, 2010 4:27 amA very nice and interesting collection of dark websites, thanks!
Oh, and you for got this one gauntler.com :)
Miks
April 5th, 2010 2:21 pmI love this one
Funkyredhead
May 3rd, 2010 3:03 amImpressive. Particularly like Soulshaker(including the music), Lowdoski.EU, Viscusy and Sato.
Nomadic One
June 22nd, 2010 11:03 amGreat inspiring post. Here’s another good one:
nomadicflow.com
Vishakan Dinesh
July 3rd, 2010 1:13 amThis is a great collection. My own site is a dark design too. Check it out.
mrdthedesigner.com/
Koreo
September 23rd, 2010 12:55 pmWOW grates pages I also saw good “dark” site infinitebattle.com
dreamincolor
November 15th, 2010 2:33 amGood selection !
Take a look on this Fresh collection of Amazing Dark Websites here
http://www.dreamincoloronline.com/20-amazing-dark-websites/