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Showcase Of Clean And Minimalist Designs
By Jacob Gube and Smashing Editorial Team
Minimalism, in the context of design, refers to simple, unadorned designs that embody only the most basic and fundamental needs. In art, it is a movement that has its roots in the post-World War II era, started by highly regarded minimalist artists such as Donald Judd, Carl Andre, and Robert Morris. Minimalism today refers to a certain style (or even a certain attitude or way of life) that transcends different fields, such as architecture, philosophy, law and, of course, Web design.
In this article, we explore the meaning of minimalism in the context of Web design. First, we’ll look at some features of a minimalist Web design in the hope of learning by way of deconstruction. Then, we’ll see a showcase of minimalist designs. Finally, you’ll find some useful resources on the topic of minimalism in Web design.
Showcase of clean and minimalist designs
Though there are different ways to achieve a minimalist Web design, and designers have varying definitions and interpretations of what minimalist Web design truly is, there are certainly some commonalities among what we can consider minimalist designs.
In the review below we’ll consider some common features and attribues of a minimalist Web design. However, let’s first take a look at some truly outstanding examples of excellent minimalist and clean web design.
1. Design is focused on the content
In minimalist designs the focus lies not on the visual presentation, but on the content — the information presented in a “naked”, clean and intuitive way. The property of being minimal refers to the structure of the layout; but it is the main task of every simple design to keep its functionality and communicate the information it is supposed to present.
The content is the focal point of the Web page, whether that content is a showcase of photography, Web designs, or writing. The design provides little to no distraction.
Autumn Whitehurst Illustration
In this Web design, the use of a plain white background and de-emphasized text makes your eyes gravitate towards the artwork.
Frieze Magazine
When viewing this design, note where your eyes look first. Probably, you would have looked at either the large image or the “frieze” logo first.
2. Whitespace is the king…
To make it easy for readers to scan and read the content, minimal designs usually need a lot of whitespace to breathe. In some cases whitespace dominates in the design, taking 60-70% of the whole layout space. In such designs whitespace, while remaining passive, strongly bundles user’s attention on very few site elements and thus effectively influences users’ perception of the overall design.
Rule of thumbs: the fewer elements you have and the more whitespace you have, the more attention will each element in your design get.
Cameron.io uses whitespace as the primary element. Notice how little space is used by content and how strongly your attention is focused on the navigation menu and the blog posts. Please also notice that very calm, neutral and subtle colors are used.
3. Typography is the queen
Typography is used to convey messages to the user. Larger, bold text draws the user’s attention to the intended area. Careful use of color, size and style of text is used in the design phase to underscore important elements and make others less prominent.
i love typography
Notice how the large bold, centered logo on the page manages to grab your attention.
Astheria
This design directs the user’s focus straight to the “featured” content (in this case, the most recent article of the author). Notice how your focus bypasses the logo, even though it appears before the “featured” content; completely the opposite of i love typography’s design, which directs you to the logo/website name.
4. Color palette consists of solid colors
The in-your-face, flashy, loud color schemes associated with Web 2.0 and vintage/retro design trends are avoided. Usually, designers pick one vibrant color and use it effectively to communicate the most important information presented on the site. Such elements are usually clickable; the number of these elements rarely exceeds 5-7.
5. Plain, solid white/gray or solid dark backgrounds are common
Solid backgrounds are effective especially when the content is vibrant and colorful (such as in design showcases). Plain colors doesn’t fight for users attention; instead, they support the readers and make it easy to actually scan the page when looking for the content. “Minimal” designg almost never have vibrant background images — patterns, textures and vivid colors are used very rarely.
kind company
The thumbnail project images really stand out from the solid white background.
The Consult™
The same concept applies to dark backgrounds.
6. A minimal number of colors
Many minimalist Web designs use only one to three colors, and page elements outside the content are often monochromatic. This again reduces distraction from the Web page content.
Rikcat Industries
This design showcases a monochromatic color palette in the foreground.
Cameron Moll
In this design, page elements such as the logo, navigation bar and sidebar use different hues of gray.
7. Text-based logos instead of illustrative, iconic logos
Again, to uphold the concept of minimalism whereby you strip down the design to the bare, unadorned minimum, the logos of minimalist websites are plain and simple.
The Idiot Behind the Iron Mask
8. Clean right angles and lines in use
Very often clean right angles and lines are used instead of rounded and uneven edges. Rounded graphic elements, the main clichée of Web 2.0, and the uneven edges seen in grunge style are avoided in minimalist Web designs.
9. Minimal ? white, gray and black colors
White/black (or dark gray) is the typical color scheme of minimalist Web designs, but others use different colors to achieve the same goals.
10. Use of vibrant, colorful images
The use of colorful, bold images can enrich the visual impact of the design by providing a stark contrast to the muted, solid colors of the minimalist design elements.
11. Use of grid-based designs
Many minimalist designs use a grid-based layout to reflect the structured, right-angled, rigid nature of minimalism.
Resources
- New Minimalist in Web Design
A discussion of the “new minimalist” trend in Web design. - Minimalist in Fashion Web Design
A discussion of minimalist Web designs in the fashion industry and possible reasons for choosing this style of design. - Design 2.0: Minimalism, Transparency, and You
Learn the reasoning behind a design company’s choice of minimalism for its designs. - The Anatomy of a Minimalistic Web Design
Steven Snell breaks down the different parts of a minimalist Web design. - Is Minimalistic Design More Effective?
A showcase of minimalist designs by Adelle L. Charles. - Administrative Debris
Ryan Tomayko talks about his journey into a minimalist design. - Minimal Sites
A showcase of minimalistic web designs.
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Jacob Gube is a bilingual web developer (JavaScript and PHP), web designer, author, and the Founder/Chief Editor of Six Revisions: an online publication that shares useful development and design resources and tutorials for web professionals.
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Loading ...- 134 Comments
- 1
- 2November 17th, 2008 3:42 pm
Wow. It’s amazing. Tks for sharing this.
Salaam. - 3November 17th, 2008 3:42 pm
Minimalist design, great typography and smart grid design go hand in hand. Great examples here, cheers!
- 4November 17th, 2008 3:46 pm
I love seeing excellent examples of minimalism in design (and thanks for linking to one of my articles). It seems like it would be an easier style of design, but it’s probably more difficult to do well with minimalism than other styles of design.
- 5November 17th, 2008 3:50 pm
In my previous incarnation my web site was of very simple layout and entirely css based…. you make me think to back to this roots!
Nice article!
- 6November 17th, 2008 3:52 pm
Thank you so much for featuring my portfolio!
- 7November 17th, 2008 4:03 pm
Great collection!!!
- 8November 17th, 2008 4:35 pm
Fabulous collection. This style speaks to me, and all these sites stand out in an over cluttered and under-grid(ed) web design culture. Simplify, simplify, simplify! Thoreau had it right, and so do these sites. Thanks for sharing!
- 9November 17th, 2008 4:54 pm
Minimalism doesn’t guarantee great design, but minimal designs have a much better chance of being great (i.e., visually pleasing and effective). Minimalist design is oriented to the user/reader, and is the exact opposite of the “Look-what-I-learned-in-Photoshop-class-today” mentality you see so often today. THANK YOU for this wonderfully refreshing look at minimal design.
- 10November 17th, 2008 5:11 pm
A few weeks ago I stumbled upon and fell in love with the huge letters combined with the minimalistic design.
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- 12November 17th, 2008 7:03 pm
You guys should feature my site in the next round (I wish I was found in this round), because I think I embody most of those qualities. I absolutely LOVE minimalism and I think it is paramount for blogs, because those should be ALL ABOUT the content, the words, which is usually a reason to turn to the minimalist style as you all have outlined in this article. Some sites, as mentioned above, should not focus on minimalism because it does not work with their sites well. Portfolio sites or promotional sites usually require heavy graphics and showcasing details of their work, minimalism does the opposite. Either way, minimalism is amazing and should be utilized more in the web, especially in the blogging world!
- 13November 17th, 2008 7:12 pm
Hey guys I’m the UX Manager at Coptix. Thanks for the nod, it’s quite an honor.
- 14November 17th, 2008 7:27 pm
Great for inspiration! Thanks Smashing!
- 15November 17th, 2008 7:51 pm
Do you want minimalist and clean designs check this website http://www.ruibarrocadesigner.com
- 16November 17th, 2008 8:10 pm
It would have been great if you posted the screenshots of these websites instead of partial graphics! Anyway, nice post, and a great collection. I wonder how you guys find such impressive and interesting sites throughout the year!
- 17November 17th, 2008 8:15 pm
What a nice collection and some nice tips to build a nice minimalistic design. I’m not the greatest designer, I’m more of a developer, so these topics help me build my skills in website interface design.
Keep these coming, they are great. - 18November 17th, 2008 8:44 pm
Thanks for the great selection. I’m featuring some of the work in my web design class in Bangladesh.
- 19November 17th, 2008 9:15 pm
Nice collection of some amazing sites here. I really like the write-up at the end that pulls out some common features.
I think my site uses many of these principles too: http://www.aptdesignonline.com
What do you think?
- 20November 17th, 2008 9:22 pm
thank u
- 21November 17th, 2008 9:22 pm
You gotta mention Khoi Vinh’s site, Subtraction when you’re talking about minimialist!
- 22November 17th, 2008 9:57 pm
Great post! I am a minimalist so I thank you for this showcase
- 23November 17th, 2008 10:37 pm
Nice roundup.
- 24November 17th, 2008 11:15 pm
Minimalism is difficult to pull off. It’s great to see this roundup of sites by designers that know what they’re doing with minimal elements.
- 25November 17th, 2008 11:32 pm
I love minimalistic design. After the glowy “web 2.0″-style and the already not so new trend: “grunge”, I would say: minimalistic design is the new shit. Keep it simple and focus on the content.
- 26November 17th, 2008 11:57 pm
who cares if your first or not?its not a contest..
great post SM,I love topics about typography..
- 27
- 28November 18th, 2008 12:29 am
You people save my life on a regular basis :-)
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- 30November 18th, 2008 1:02 am
I too love minimalist design on the web.
And this is an outstanding collection, well done.Just to add my two cents, came across a nice photo site that embraces minimalist principles allowing the user to focus on the pictures and not the website. http://www.markboyle.com.au
- 31November 18th, 2008 1:07 am
Sorry… but this is not the real world.
These design are beautiful, but are design relative mode, design or art environment.. or this kind of design is acceptable. Now let’s back to the real world where clients from small companies or industries pay to us. I doubt who have an internet agency can do this with all your clients. Don’t get wrong.. i love clean design… but in the real world.. things are different. - 32November 18th, 2008 1:13 am
I love the minimalism. Great collection.
- 33November 18th, 2008 1:20 am
Hey, really nice designs!
My website would also have fit in this showcase :)
BORABORA
Great collection! - 34November 18th, 2008 1:26 am
WOW!!!
Thank you for featuring my web site. <3 - 35
- 36November 18th, 2008 2:10 am
lovely <—minimalist
- 37
- 38November 18th, 2008 3:32 am
Awesome Post. Thank you.
- 39November 18th, 2008 4:14 am
This showcase is absolutely wonderful !
Thanx a lot. - 40November 18th, 2008 4:16 am
Great post and great examples of some well structured, well designed and clean sites… excellent
- 41November 18th, 2008 4:16 am
great article and examples
- 42November 18th, 2008 4:19 am
great article and examples ;-)
- 43
- 44November 18th, 2008 4:27 am
Thanks for the great article. There are some fantastic examples included, which will definitely come in handy for inspiration.
- 45November 18th, 2008 5:24 am
Wow, great article. I love simple designs.
May you like our church homepage
- 46November 18th, 2008 5:41 am
Go check my own website, it’s quite clean and minimalistic also!
- 47November 18th, 2008 5:42 am
Simplicity is not the goal.
It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expetations.
Paul Rand. - 48November 18th, 2008 5:45 am
@24.
I have to semi-agree, while all these designs are great for their purpose, they only really fit with portfolios.
I love minimal designs, but 90% of the time I don’t get to do them – simply because the client is spending a lot of money with me, and they don’t really feel they are getting what they paid for if the design is minimal.
Often my best designs are minimal, and I spend the most time on them. It’s a shame to watch them dissappear.
But great list of inspiration anyway, the more sites like these are about, the more the my statement becomes a thing of the past. One day the average client will be able to look past all the fluff and be happy with a clean and simple design.
- 49November 18th, 2008 5:54 am
It’s easy being minimal, the hard part is making it look good and striking! :) I found 50% of designs showcased not quite interesting, and the other half just awesome and so interesting I would like to see designers move that way more. There is more to minimalism than just making a white background and some big typography heading in a sans-serif font.
And I have to agree with the guy above…it’s hard to sell minimal… :) Most clients don’t see the work behind it. They just want shiny buttons haha :)
Very good article!
- 50November 18th, 2008 6:06 am
Wow! Thanks!
- 51November 18th, 2008 6:20 am
I agree with Zhille, I also found many non-interesting and if I came across these sites I would still hit the back button. There is no reason why a site cannot be striking yet minimalist.
I have observed over the last two years designs taking backward steps to simpler times but the backward steps are using lessons learnt over the years so are cleaner, smarter and much more useable.
Far too many designers clutter pages way beyond the point of being able to use them so I hope this rubs off on a few :-)
- 52November 18th, 2008 6:54 am
Great list, how am I going to get any work done today?!
- 53November 18th, 2008 6:54 am
Thanks for the nod.
HUGE
- 54November 18th, 2008 7:19 am
Appreciate the plug!
- 55November 18th, 2008 7:24 am
Great List thanks! Awesome to see Hillman Curtis on there
- 56November 18th, 2008 7:36 am
Great article! If you do a second round consider my site, i think it embodies many of the principals outlined above:
- 57November 18th, 2008 7:38 am
Use SVG instead of raster and you can minimize your filesize too :-)
- 58November 18th, 2008 7:45 am
BetterInteractive.com blows. It looks like something you learn in HTML 101.
Seriously, if I’m looking for someone to do web design, I’m not choosing someone whose site is 3 colors. Bad ones at that.
- 59November 18th, 2008 8:05 am
thanks for the link, love the quality content you always provide
- 60November 18th, 2008 8:14 am
Thanks for the showcase, it was very complete ! I dugg it.
- 61November 18th, 2008 8:34 am
This is a great collection of nicely designed sites, but I would hardly call a lot of these designs minimalist. Quite a few use more than the barest essentials to get their point across. I think the word minimalism gets thrown around a lot to mean any website that isn’t grungy or something, but use of the term is pretty subjective.
- 62November 18th, 2008 8:44 am
Great List!! love the diesel one! i’m a huge fan of large image sites! (hence the current style of my own…)
- 63November 18th, 2008 8:50 am
I agree with you Chris!
- 64November 18th, 2008 9:25 am
a nice collection and good reminder to keep things simple and get back to the core of good design. some of my favorites…
http://www.pinch.nu/
http://www.justinaram.com
http://www.kingston.ac.uk/outthere/ - 65November 18th, 2008 9:34 am
Thanks for the link!
- 66November 18th, 2008 9:35 am
Thanks for the link guys.
TomM.
- 67November 18th, 2008 9:53 am
I love the clean/minimalistic design! Especially ilovetypography.com!
- 68November 18th, 2008 10:54 am
Great work. Some are truly inspiring.
Thanks. - 69November 18th, 2008 11:51 am
Top notch!
- 70November 18th, 2008 12:38 pm
I won’t be saying anything different than those above. Excellent list! Thank you for taking the time to compile.
And thanks, Brooke, for adding our firm, Pinch. A Design Office. We subscribe to the same principles as most of these sites and will continue to root them on. Simple is better.
Kindly,
Erichttp://www.pinch.nu
http://www.pinch.nu/bespoke
http://www.twitter.com/Pinch_Bespoke - 71November 18th, 2008 12:45 pm
That was a superb piece of work. I will find some way of fitting it into my teaching. I also know your website and highly rate it. Cheers
Paul
- 72November 18th, 2008 12:57 pm
Anyone see a similarity between This and Khoi Vinh’s site?
Kind of shameless, me thinks.
- 73November 18th, 2008 1:49 pm
To use the newly coined dictionary word “meh”.. none of those sites is all that inspired and there are too many to focus on.. terrible post.
- 74November 18th, 2008 1:56 pm
Great list, as usual !
Maybe you’ll the website of my web agency : Tilt Studio - 75November 18th, 2008 2:16 pm
great list!
- 76November 18th, 2008 2:49 pm
Always a lot of inspiration in here…Thank you.
- 77November 18th, 2008 7:17 pm
woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow……………..
- 78November 18th, 2008 8:00 pm
Beautiful examples. It is strangely hard to nail simple!
- 79November 18th, 2008 9:22 pm
I love this post! I especially love minimalist designs whether it is web or print! THANKS
- 80November 19th, 2008 12:33 am
Excellent collection of sites.
kudos for designers! - 81
- 82November 19th, 2008 1:48 am
Wow. I’m over the moon. Thanks for including my little site amongst such great examples…I couldn’t be more pleased at featuring on Smashing Magazine.
- 83November 19th, 2008 8:20 am
Yes, I definitely agree. The more you make your design simple..the better way to convey the message–this is practically important most especially in business.
- 84November 19th, 2008 12:40 pm
Great collection. Always tough to create a minimalist design which works.
Although I don’t agree with all your selections, I still think there are some goodies in there.
- 85November 20th, 2008 1:27 am
Nice article and thanks for the link. All good considering when we first launched our site we came in for a load of criticism.
- 86November 20th, 2008 6:11 am
Yeah, beautiful collection. Love minimalist designs…
- 87November 20th, 2008 1:04 pm
Some of these design are not minimalistic in a strict sense. But I find them really beautiful, for example, Clandrei, and even more than the more strict minimalistic design.
LOL my website clearly doesn’t qualify for minimalistic :P - 88November 20th, 2008 4:29 pm
niceee..
- 89November 21st, 2008 8:11 am
I like minimalist designs but I have to say that you have some examples that are not that impressive… but there are some really nice ones.
- 90November 22nd, 2008 1:31 am
The images don’t seem to be working, or is that just me?
- 91November 22nd, 2008 6:20 am
for some reason the screenshot were not be displayed te me… (hope grammar is ok)
- 92November 22nd, 2008 12:21 pm
MAJOR snorefest.. a couple good ones, but not many.. most lack originality and any true creativity.. nothing here really blew my mind.. there was no ‘man I wish I had done that’ moment, and that’s how I judge design. overall the list is too scattered and lacks homogeny thus it is boring.
- 93November 22nd, 2008 3:23 pm
Great list check this one out too:
neuemodern.com - 94November 23rd, 2008 12:14 pm
Best article i ve ever read!
- 95November 23rd, 2008 8:21 pm
Thanks for the round up. The tip about typographic logos inspired me to go the minimalist route for my blog’s logo. Great idea.
-Alex
Digital Alex - 96November 25th, 2008 5:35 am
Nice article. Thank you for sharing this!!
- 97November 26th, 2008 11:36 am
Nice examples!
For minimal treatment of longer texts, see Stories & Novels. Note the stylesheet for some time-saving CSS techniques for indenting, spacing and other typographic elements which can make long chunks of text—like essays, stories or even novels—more legible.
- 98November 30th, 2008 12:04 am
Awesome ! Most difficult to design is something minimalistic ! COOL ! M LOVING THIS ! TKS for sharing…….
- 99December 3rd, 2008 11:45 am
Great examples! It should be mentioned though that with minimalism comes scrutiny. IOW,the fewer the elements that are presented the more important it is to consider heirarchy, proportion, negative space, color, typography, etc.
It’s like using all CAPs…they’re only effective when used sparingly and with restraint.
- 100December 4th, 2008 7:40 am
Thank you so much for including Sitening in the post. I am so honored to have one of my designs featured with so many great and inspiring sites!
- 101December 26th, 2008 10:50 am
Hi. Good site.
- 102
- 103
- 104February 19th, 2009 12:22 am
There is a typo here –> Minimal” designg almost never have vibrant background images — patterns, textures and vivid colors are used very rarely.
design not designg. Please check - 105March 7th, 2009 3:15 am
This web portfolio is kind of nice. The music adds something to the overall atmosphere, is is a loop or is it by an artist?
- 106
- 107April 23rd, 2009 3:24 pm
Excellent analysis, white space, palette, etc..
Thx for sharing all this great site designs! - 108May 2nd, 2009 7:58 am
Nice article. I redesigned my blog (http://wl.blog.br) implementing some ideas of the minimalist web design. Minimalism gives beauty and rationality for the websites.
- 109June 25th, 2009 10:50 pm
These are a few of my faves:
http://www.alexafalcone.com
http://www.visuelle.co.uk
http://www.thisisrealart.com - 110July 14th, 2009 4:19 am
I’d like to propose this: http://www.minimalismi.com
It’s a site ABOUT minimalism! - 111September 10th, 2009 11:45 pm
If you are like SlimBeam, and into sites ABOUT minimalism, then also check out http://minimalissimo.com.
The site itself is also very minimalist!
- 00
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- @ilmv oh ok then ;)
- @ilmv no, the SM Book will not be out of date :) We made sure it contains universal design, usability and marketing principles.
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- @HrvojeKC yes, that's an interesting idea. Maybe when the waiting is over, we'll write a detailed post about it.
you made my day :)
i’m a minimalism addict ;)
btw. FIRST! :)