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50 Beautiful Blog Designs

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There are things one can do a number of times without worrying about becoming boring. For instance, collecting and showcasing excellent blog designs. In this post we do it already the fifth time. Why? Web design lives in blogs; new developments appear there, that’s where the music plays. And that’s where you need to look for in order to keep up with current trends and developments.

In the showcase below we present 50 beautiful blog designs that literally stand out — either through their layout or through their design or through their attention to little details. Below you’ll find a variety of designs: clean designs, grunge, retro, graphics-heavy designs etc. Most designs presented below risk unusual approaches in the choice of design and content presentation. That’s what makes them different. Hopefully you will find some creative ideas which you can develop further in your further projects.

We strongly encourage designers to break out the common layout conventions, experiment with new approaches and risk crazy ideas. Show what you are capable of!

You may want to take a look at the following related posts:

Beautiful Blog Designs

Acko.net

Acko in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Standards for Life by Natalie Jost

Na in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Wishingline

Wi in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Langgatan 3a

Hy in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Loodo.com.br

Loo in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Matblogg.se

Mat2 in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Kyle Haskins

Ky in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Pays Sud Gatine

Pa in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Ali Felski

Ali in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

L’effet Créa

Le in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Gisele Jaquenod

Gi in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyeard Book

Bl in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Viget.com/Extend

Extend in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Marchand de Trucs

Ma2 in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Thomas Finley

Th in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Mark Jardine

Jardine in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Matthew Buchanan
Clean structure and good use of icons and typography. The icons at the left side of the posts stand for the category the article belongs to.

Buch in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Goodbytes.be

Byte in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

45royale Inc.

45r in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Macalicious

Mac in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Clean Designs

Nonesuch Records

Nones in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Objectified

Obj in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

The Relevant Elephant

El in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Designworklpan.com

De in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Ciclismo Urbano

Ci2 in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Surfstation.com

Ed2 in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Designsensory

Des in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Jason Santa Maria

Ja in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Wilson Miner

Wil in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Viewzi Corporate

Viewz in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

High Resolution

High in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Neil Scott

Neil in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

LittleEngine
LittleEngine provides an interesting integration of the blog into its overall design. Clean and very elegant solution which employs only few colors, but uses them effectively. The navigation is provided by the calendar in the sidebar.

Little in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Fiveruns

Five in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

forgetfoo

Foo in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Grunge, Handwriting and Collage

Retinart.net

Ret in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

No MILK Today

Nomi in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

AmyMahon.com

Amy in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Meagan Fisher

La in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Rockatee.com

Ro in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

tj mapes

Tjm in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Holdrio-and-co.com

Ho in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Dreamling.ca

Dream in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Jeffrey Sarmiento

Je in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

That INDIE Dude

Ind in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Blog do Ronaldo

Ron in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Slabovia.tv

Pot in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

iSpoil.net

Isp in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Andrés Gallego

Esp2 in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Retro, Vintage, Experimental

The Bond Makeover

The in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Korbinian Folk

Ko in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

Lynnterpretation

Ly in 50 Beautiful Blog Designs

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The Co-Founder of Smashing Magazine. Former writer, web designer, freelancer and webworker. Author of several books. Runs the business.

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  1. 1
    AthenaEmily
    October 23rd, 2008 3:45 pm

    Nice list!! thx!! amazing designs!

  2. 2
    chrisnager
    October 23rd, 2008 3:47 pm

    i like korbinian folk.

  3. 3
    Robert Bowen
    October 23rd, 2008 3:48 pm

    some nice looking sites gathered.

  4. 4
    Violeta
    October 23rd, 2008 4:03 pm

    Yep, “glossy style” is dead. Very cool blogs ^_^

  5. 5
    Gabe Diaz
    October 23rd, 2008 4:21 pm

    Great selection, thanks for sharing!

  6. 6
    fabien thomas
    October 23rd, 2008 4:27 pm

    Very nice selection, i hope my blog will be in one of your list a day ;))

    Thanks for sharing

  7. 7
    Aisling
    October 23rd, 2008 4:32 pm

    Thank you so so much for featuring dreamling.ca!! You guys are so lovely! :D

  8. 8
    Gis
    October 23rd, 2008 4:56 pm

    Ooohhh my god! I am dying now, blushed! I send my students to read you guys all the time!! Now what wil I say! What an honor!!

  9. 9
    Christopher Anderton
    October 23rd, 2008 5:00 pm

    Wow. Nice to have Matblogg in the list! :)
    I follow SmashingMagazine everyday. So it’s was a nice suprise to find my blog in the list.

    Cheers!

  10. 10
    Raphael Aleixo
    October 23rd, 2008 5:06 pm

    Wow. Thanks a lot. Is an honor to be spotlighted in Smashing Magazine!

  11. 11
    ahnShev
    October 23rd, 2008 5:32 pm

    love it soooo much. really inspiring.

  12. 12
    pixelinjection
    October 23rd, 2008 5:38 pm

    Amazing design blogs! I really like the first one though!

  13. 13
    Sofhal Jamil
    October 23rd, 2008 6:08 pm

    Wow, it’s amazing!!!!

  14. 14
    flko
    October 23rd, 2008 6:31 pm

    muy bueno

  15. 15
    yo
    October 23rd, 2008 6:37 pm

    Typo in the link Designworklpan.com!

  16. 16
    Jeremy
    October 23rd, 2008 6:42 pm

    Thank you so much guys for featuring l’effet crea, lot of hard work was put in that design!

  17. 17
    Christopher Ross (thisismyurl.com)
    October 23rd, 2008 6:50 pm

    Geez, I didn’t make it again? hm … OK, I guess I can see why.

  18. 18
    Alex Linebrink
    October 23rd, 2008 6:53 pm

    Awesome list!

    Thank you SOO much for featuring my site — That INDIE Dude.

    PLEASE check out my latest venture if you have a chance. It’s called We Design Change, and it is a meeting place / launching pad for designers and artists who want to use their creativity to make the world a better place. Sign up and tell your friends! :)

    Thanks again for the mention!

  19. 19
    Evan
    October 23rd, 2008 7:14 pm

    The Neil Gaiman and Jason Santa Maria blogs are extremely impressive. Anything put out by Vidget is also top-notch… awesome work!

  20. 20
    ephi
    October 23rd, 2008 8:03 pm

    Dang, Natalie Jost’s website returns 403 forbidden for me. I always love her designs.

  21. 21
    Camu
    October 23rd, 2008 8:12 pm

    Loodo is awesome!!

  22. 22
    rzepak
    October 23rd, 2008 9:52 pm

    very nice collection
    you could try one day something else, like showcase of not-english blogs ;)

  23. 23
    Dave
    October 23rd, 2008 10:32 pm

    WOW :-) Very Nice Designs

  24. 24
    kile
    October 23rd, 2008 10:43 pm

    Really nice :)

  25. 25
    srinivas
    October 23rd, 2008 10:44 pm

    too good designs…
    every thing is inspiration … thanks

  26. 26
    Yuukan
    October 23rd, 2008 11:10 pm

    Thanks again, some of this design are really awesome !

  27. 27
    Damien
    October 23rd, 2008 11:33 pm

    Great :)
    Please guys next time, could you put anchors on each design ? :P

  28. 28
    Bramme
    October 23rd, 2008 11:43 pm

    Very nice list! Though a lot of these designs are top notch, I do feel my blog would fit in one of these lists too!

  29. 29
    pickupjojo
    October 24th, 2008 12:49 am

    Wow, your best feature SM! :)
    Hope I’ll see mine one day… Just kidding. :p

    Joffrey,
    Geek and Hype

  30. 30
    basetta
    October 24th, 2008 1:28 am

    great list guys, as usual ;)
    I was hoping to see my blog listed eheh!

  31. 31
    Ole Martin Kristiansen
    October 24th, 2008 2:27 am

    Thank you very much for featuring my site, and even putting it on the front page. What an honor! Too bad my site has gone down because of all the traffic, I really really need to change my hosting.

    Thanks!

  32. 32
    Moqbali
    October 24th, 2008 2:45 am

    Very nice designs.

    Thank you.

  33. 33
    Mia
    October 24th, 2008 3:01 am

    I love jasonsantamaria.com :) The typography and layout is awesome! Hyper Island is also great!

  34. 34
    Ash Chuan
    October 24th, 2008 3:31 am

    Great list. I am going to bookmark this page and reference to it later.

  35. 35
    黯然销魂剑
    October 24th, 2008 3:48 am

    So amazing!

  36. 36
    stefano picco
    October 24th, 2008 4:02 am

    very impressive, I like it :)

  37. 37
    Ricardo
    October 24th, 2008 4:06 am

    Very impressive designs.
    I like Loodo and Meagan Fisher specially.

  38. 38
    Tom
    October 24th, 2008 4:14 am

    Impressive indeed. One of my favorites is Ten Thousand Things, personally I’m a big fan of dark schemes.

  39. 39
    Densil
    October 24th, 2008 4:16 am

    Great designs..Realy

  40. 40
    The Dude
    October 24th, 2008 4:18 am

    Nice collection there! Some great designs and good inspiration :)

  41. 41
    Mr. Reality
    October 24th, 2008 4:56 am

    Some nice designs, but many seem (to me) a bit busy and quite trendy. But hey, if that’s what you’re into…

  42. 42
    Larry Bradshaw
    October 24th, 2008 5:11 am

    This is awesome list! It always great to get new inspiration from others. I constantly make tweeks to my theme based on both feedback and ideas used in other designs. I’m thankful that I am always getting comments on great design for our site.

  43. 43
    Heavy Metal Blogger
    October 24th, 2008 5:12 am

    Damn, didn’t make it into that list – again :-)

  44. 44
    Carl
    October 24th, 2008 5:43 am

    check hollowell.se :D
    i like it coll idea with the letter

  45. 45
    stephanie
    October 24th, 2008 6:10 am

    Wow , what a surprise ! ! ! Thank you for listing my blog :-) !!! Stephanie

  46. 46
    Conrad
    October 24th, 2008 6:42 am

    Nice designs. But I must point your attention towards http://www.nalden.net. It is a completely flashbuilt site but it’s functions are amazing.

  47. 47
    Sophie
    October 24th, 2008 6:57 am

    Thanks for featuring leffetcrea, that’s so nice :-D

  48. 48
    Pat
    October 24th, 2008 7:17 am

    Bar none, the best design here is AmyMahon.com

    (And, she’s my cousin :) )

  49. 49
    Adam
    October 24th, 2008 7:33 am

    I’m sorry, but you clearly left one out, http://www.qualityxhtml.com/blog/

  50. 50
    Vanilla Man
    October 24th, 2008 7:52 am

    Amazing blog designs in one line with simple and usual ones.

  51. 51
    Curt Simon Harlinghausen
    October 24th, 2008 7:56 am

    Nice List. I really like your categories. Stay tuned . . .

  52. 52
    Bäne
    October 24th, 2008 8:01 am

    really amazing

  53. 53
    tom
    October 24th, 2008 8:37 am

    Thanks, Smashing, for featuring tff4.com — I’m not sure it deserves to be in the kind of company as many of these other incredibly creative blog designs, but the love is appreciated nonetheless.

  54. 54
    dude
    October 24th, 2008 9:04 am

    That drawing of that indie dude, I want to punch it in the face.

  55. 55
    Fabryz
    October 24th, 2008 10:18 am

    Tagged for future inspirations! :D

  56. 56
    squeekeme21
    October 24th, 2008 10:19 am

    nice post. these are great examples of good website design. :0]

  57. 57
    kyle borges
    October 24th, 2008 10:32 am

    Nice compilation. sezio.org is another great blog design focusing on the musical and visual art scenes in California.

  58. 58
    Jehzeel Laurente
    October 24th, 2008 11:36 am

    whoa! loving the potato an ispoil! :)

  59. 59
    Cito
    October 24th, 2008 11:37 am

    And once again I am smashed! I don’t know how do you find such a great combination of designs, thanks a lot for that big piece of inspiration! :D
    I love SM!

  60. 60
    Korbinian Polk
    October 24th, 2008 3:34 pm

    my name is korbinian Polk

  61. 61
    Kris Markstrom
    October 24th, 2008 9:05 pm

    Really impressed with the many blog designs — thanks. Like Thomas Finley’s very much!

  62. 62
    Celina Gomes
    October 24th, 2008 10:24 pm

    wow! It’s superb. Really very impressive and unique blog designs.

  63. 63
    Khai
    October 24th, 2008 11:05 pm

    oh my fod!! what a design?!!!!! thanks for sharing..

  64. 64
    embuck
    October 25th, 2008 1:05 am

    Nice list as usual…

  65. 65
    Chris Ovenden
    October 25th, 2008 1:08 am

    Too many gushers in these comments, but I agree with the people who said that *some* of these designs are inspirational. Most of them, IMO, are twee, unimaginative and utterly predictable – which I guess is inspiring in a different way. Thanks for presenting a list of design clichés to avoid. I like Ali Felski’s blog, though.

  66. 66
    Antones
    October 25th, 2008 8:23 am

    Hey !

    nice list !

    However… i know a beautiful blog design… it is called Journal Graphic

    journalgraphic.com

    I think it must integrate this list.

    Bye

  67. 67
    Mr. Diggles
    October 25th, 2008 10:02 am

    why are the most celebrated blogs always super graphic heavy?

    Some of those I don’t even know where to start.

  68. 68
    baratas
    October 25th, 2008 10:11 am

    Very good. Congratulations.
    Saude e paz! Peace!

  69. 69
    Liberty Girl
    October 25th, 2008 12:43 pm

    *sigh* Commented on wrong post before, argh.

    This steampunk design makes me drool: http://sekimori.com

  70. 70
    Max Black
    October 25th, 2008 5:58 pm

    I found the CSS/XHTML-only “speaking block” navigation of High Resolution an inspiration for a design I’m doing. Thanks!

  71. 71
    ronda hd
    October 25th, 2008 7:49 pm

    this is my favorite – simplegreenclean.com
    but on this list i really like the nonesuch layout

  72. 72
    ali
    October 26th, 2008 3:59 am

    i enjoye design

  73. 73
    meli
    October 26th, 2008 2:36 pm

    i also luv http://www.cooloutfit.at
    just a little fashion blog – written in german, so i can´t really read it – but the layout just nails it! perfect for a fashion blog!

  74. 74
    Igor Jovic
    October 26th, 2008 2:56 pm

    @ Mr.Diggles #74

    I agree with you on this point and I have asked myself the same question. BUT, I don´t think that the focus in this case is on Usability, instead the focus is basically as they write “designs that literally stand out”.

    I think that a lot of these blog designs are beautiful and outstanding but the usability on some of these blogs is not so good. For instance, if you disable images in your web browser, suddenly you are handicapped because the main navigation disappears, (Main navigation = HUGE Image) .

    Anyway, Keep up the Good Work SM!!

  75. 75
    Green
    October 26th, 2008 7:20 pm

    I like “viget.com/extend” & “Marchand de Trucs”!

  76. 76
    Adam
    October 26th, 2008 9:03 pm

    Impressive long list

    -Adam

  77. 77
    Indrazz
    October 26th, 2008 11:51 pm

    wooow great design… may I get one of these theme?

  78. 78
    Kris
    October 29th, 2008 11:03 am

    I like the fact that this list includes elements of all design styles. I think we’re in a bit of a car crash when it comes to popular and inspiring blog design, taking bits and pieces from one another to form a finished product. Personally, I welcome our new Frankenstein design overlords.

  79. 79
    Basant Kumar
    October 30th, 2008 3:09 am

    Really the blog designs are beautiful and excellent and it helps the designers for designing new templates and new websites also.

    Really excellent work!

  80. 80
    Rachel
    November 3rd, 2008 2:23 am

    A really lovely list! I think Ali Felski is my personal favourite :o)

  81. 81
    Gunjan
    November 4th, 2008 3:05 am

    Wow Really it’s nice design

  82. 82
    RAM
    November 7th, 2008 1:23 am

    cool website

  83. 83
    Jim Green
    November 11th, 2008 3:04 pm

    Beautiful designs, but the busyness of many of the blogs simply takes my eye and interest away from the content.

    For me, when it comes to a blog, form should always follow function. Less is more. Blah blah blah.

  84. 84
    Snook
    November 30th, 2008 3:07 am

    Good selection ! :D

  85. 85
    Toby Cummings
    December 7th, 2008 9:26 am

    I’m honored to find one of my site designs (www.lynnterpretation.com) on your list. Thank you so much for recognizing my work. I’ve long been a big fan of smashing!

  86. 86
    CarGuy
    December 17th, 2008 2:49 pm

    very interesting..nice

  87. 87
    Blah
    January 4th, 2009 10:37 am

    Most of these made me cringe — several extremely busy layouts in this herd

  88. 88
    blogsfamily
    January 5th, 2009 9:32 pm

    That really artistic blog design, thanks for share, its very useful for me

  89. 89
    gitong
    February 4th, 2009 12:35 am

    It’s really inspire me. Thx guys.

  90. 90
    nami
    February 6th, 2009 6:28 pm

    It’s “粋” in Japanese.
    It means smart.

  91. 91
    mbak maya
    February 25th, 2009 1:59 pm

    it’s amazing jobs!

  92. 92
    moto reza
    March 1st, 2009 11:01 am

    thanks very good

  93. 93
    Burçlar
    March 15th, 2009 12:13 am

    “Macalicious” is amazing blog design.

  94. 94
    wordpress theme
    March 15th, 2009 11:20 am

    Good selection :)

  95. 95
    duke
    April 3rd, 2009 11:37 pm

    Very good collection.

    duke
    LInk

  96. 96
    solexy
    April 20th, 2009 8:27 pm

    great list, thx

  97. 97
    gonetil
    May 10th, 2009 6:55 am

    I think Gisele Jaquenod’s blog is just great :D

  98. 98
    Pyboadeonmemo
    June 3rd, 2009 8:31 pm

    Sweet blog. I never know what I am going to come across next. I think you should do more posting as you have some pretty intelligent stuff to say.

    I’ll be watching you . :)

  99. 99
    frank
    June 4th, 2009 8:08 pm

    very creative people, lots of inspiration!!

  100. 100
    Mario Xiao
    June 9th, 2009 3:27 am

    cool! Very inspiring design

  101. 101
    Lauren
    August 22nd, 2009 2:29 pm

    All of these are amazing! Great list.

  102. 102
    Saket
    September 8th, 2009 3:43 am

    I liked the macalicious design, it was awesome.
    btw, guyz have a look over this site theme, its also wonderful ;- .http://www.techhacker.org/

  103. 103
    mewt
    October 1st, 2009 9:46 am

    awesome blog…

  104. 104
    Barbara27
    October 22nd, 2009 3:43 am

    Manners matter a lot to me. ,

  105. 105
    Alex12
    October 23rd, 2009 2:43 am

    I’m looking for all these wonderful safari based applications to go native for the iphone. ,

  1. 00

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