Smashing Magazine - we smash you with the information that will make your life easier. really.
Showcase Of Elegant And Original Blog Designs
When visiting a blog for the first time, you get an instant and strong impression from the design and layout. Cluttered and confusing blog layouts can be an instant turn-off, while sleek and elegant designs immediately captivate the audience.
The 35 blog designs featured in this showcase engage visitors with a memorable layout, elegant design and good usability. They have no need to shout; they attract attention through sheer elegance and beauty. Through careful planning and judicious placement of elements, each of these layouts brings something unique and truly special to the Web.
Designers can take inspiration from these featured designs to create their own brand of magic.
You might also enjoy this previous article:
- 50 Beautiful Blog Designs, which lists other exemplary blog designs.
[Offtopic: by the way, do you know the Smashing Network has its own Smashing Network RSS Feed? Only excerpts are displayed in the feed.]
Elegant And Original Blog Designs
Istok Pavlovic
An elegant watercolor design with close attention to details. Notice the navigation menu, RSS button and headings in the sidebar. The footer is incredible, too!
Chris Guillebeau
The attention to detail in this blog design is incredible.
Hicks Design
This blog design features a stationary menu interface with scrollable content. The muted colors are set off with bold tangerine accents that pull the whole design together.
Ma.tt
Beautiful graphic design is the highlight of this blog design. Dream-like images fill the screen, while the simple navigation bar waits to take the reader on a journey inside.
Newtoyork.com
An original blog layout with white space and an unusual design for the comments area.
Ayakaito
Muted colors, reminiscent of days gone by, give this design a comfortable vintage feel. The beautiful graphic in the header and simple navigation in the sidebar below set this blog design apart.
Alpha Aesthetica
An elegant grid-based design with incredible typography.
Hugs for Monsters
The author’s own artwork was used to create this stunning design. The layout is simple and tidy, yet a work of art at the same time. As an added bonus, humor is used to entertain readers as they enjoy the view.
Outlaw Design Blog
The bold use of color and heavy reliance of graphics work well together in this stunning blog design. The warmth of the color scheme and background create an inviting atmosphere.
Le Bloe
Shades of blue and gray with a splash of color make this blog design a work of art. The content is neatly presented and visually stunning.
Typographica
A celebration of typography awaits. Intelligent organization and simple navigation allow readers to immerse themselves in the simplicity of beautiful text.
Agami Creative
Watercolor at its best: a beautiful design in which each color is carefully chosen and skillfully used.
retinart
Grungy design with beautiful typography and unique distorted design elements.
Belvoir George
A visually impressive blog with awesome typography. This design makes perfect use of an appealing and striking background image.
Stephen Caver
This layout is an example of excellence in simplicity. The main navigation is the focus, and there are absolutely no distractions.
Amour Chaleur
Beautiful, original illustrations, and the one-column layout is creativity at its best.
Neural Net Effect
Very subtle design with an interesting structure, excellent use of imagery and nice typography. Simple, clean and elegant are the reasons this one is in this showcase.
Bert Timmermans
Clean and compact, this blog’s design organizes content like a book. The navigation is housed in the bookmark-shaped tabs, which smoothly glide into view as the mouse rolls over them.
Good Little Wee Blog
Simple shapes and cartoonish graphics make this blog design memorable. Content is organized simply and logically, making navigation extremely easy.
Forgetfoo
Simple, clean, minimalistic and beautiful.
Web Science Man
Color and graphics dominate, but don’t overwhelm, this design. Elegant navigation sits at the top for ease of use, making this blog design both fun and highly functional.
Talking of Design
One look at this blog design is enough to see that the designer is also an artist. The judicious use of animation draws interest without adding clutter.
Kris Colvin
This well-organized blog design has a slightly grunge feel. Interesting graphics in the header attract attention, and the content begins right away, leaving no room for boredom.
Lyrical Media
The easy navigation in this bold and simple blog design offers a quick snapshot of the content. Although usually difficult to pull off using an image this large and dominant in an elegant design, this layout seems to do it with ease.
The Design Superhero
Bold color combined with simple blocks of content displayed in a straightforward way are the highlights of this blog design. The content is neatly organized, with no clutter to distract readers.
Visual Nightmare
A unique blog design with grunge elements and a simple yet distinctive blog structure.
Kimberly Coles
A three-color blog theme, with hand-drawn design elements and a watercolor background.
Chengis.me
Bold, bright and beautiful, this blog design focuses on complete simplicity. Menus smoothly appear when the mouse rolls over the images, giving the visitor plenty of tasty choices.
David Torondel
A blog with a “traditional” two-column layout, many illustrations and a really cute design.
Escaping the Word Cage
Chain-link fencing has never been more beautiful. The unusual blend of hard and soft make this design unusually beautiful.
Fubiz
Color contrast and exceptional organization in this blog design gives visitors not only a visual treat but also easy navigation. Content is neatly displayed in concise blocks, making it simple for users to find their way around.
Bjørn Friese
Bold color and contrast and exceptionally good use of typography allow this blog design to work beautifully without images. It comes as no surprise that the author states in his bio that he loves both color and typography.
Blogless
Minimal design meets great typography and a one-column layout. The result is simple and elegant.
Bonus
Pixelpretation.com
The footer in this one is really hard to forget.
Northern Classics
… and so is this one.
Further Resources
- 45 Excellent Blog Designs
- 30 More Excellent Blog Designs
- 45 More Excellent Blog Designs
- Now More Than Ever: 50 More Excellent Blog Designs
(al)
Gerri Elder is a freelance writer, Web developer and social media enthusiast. She can frequently be found on Digg and Twitter.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...- 77 Comments
- 1
- 2
April 28th, 2009 8:11 pmNice.
- 3April 28th, 2009 8:28 pm
really inspiring for me…I have planned to make a unique blog too
- 4April 28th, 2009 8:29 pm
wow… AMAZING…
really inspired
- 5April 28th, 2009 8:32 pm
Not sure about the ‘elegant’, but sure a lot of them are original…
- 6April 28th, 2009 8:40 pm
Great list of inspirations..i liked Le Bloe’s blog…
- 7April 28th, 2009 8:41 pm
coooooool
- 8April 28th, 2009 8:49 pm
I think the word elegant was misused here.
- 9April 28th, 2009 9:35 pm
Nice list…..
i would like to Recommend one more site here…
http://www.hiddenpixels.com - 10April 28th, 2009 10:00 pm
Some of these are really pretty sweet…some are kinda… well… really not so sweet…
i would like to take a moment to petition any designers out there to please stop using the Bleeding Cowboys font…(as in Outlaw Design Blog) its starting to become another PAPYRUS eeek! (i’m sorry i know i shouldn’t have said the “P” word… haha) - 11April 28th, 2009 10:16 pm
Le Bloe’s blog is WooTheme’s free ‘Irresistable’ theme with a few new images.
- 12April 28th, 2009 11:15 pm
Great examples of blog design. Though sometimes I wonder if all those great designers do not feel restricted by the blog design itself. I mean, is there something beyond blog design? Maybe something where the layout follows the individual content and not that everything from text, to photos, to illustrations, videos etc. is put into the same long container list? Something that is not so predictable like flickr photos and twitter tweets in the sidebar? Something more individual than always the same concept? … I don’t have an answer (and also use wordpress for my projects) and this is not to say that blogs are bad. I just wonder if there is more than the current blog design to present (especially visual) content.
- 13April 28th, 2009 11:41 pm
AT LAST some new designs for us hungry designers. Great list post with NEW items on it and designs we haven’t already seen dozens of times. Keep up the good work!
- 14April 28th, 2009 11:42 pm
Nice list, and thank you very much for the inclusion! made my day
Alpha Aesthetica is such a beautiful design, isn’t it? I’ve returned to it a few times just to have a good look at the layout.. I also quite liked the textures of lebloe too
Matthais – I know exactly what you mean, but it stems from a couple of things i think – there are a lot of resources floating around of what to put into your sidebar, what to have in your header, your menu, etc etc.. and they’re all very similiar tips, because its just what work at the moment. It’ll change as time goes on and blogging as a platform/design grows..
and plus, it’s way more work to have something unique.. a lot of people don’t want to put that effort in.. they have a thought, a design that looks good and want to put their thought thought into that design to get it out quickly and easily.. its what’s appealing about blogs :)
But there are those who break away from this (Jason Santa Maria for example)
- 15
- 16April 28th, 2009 11:45 pm
Very nice list.
- 17April 28th, 2009 11:46 pm
So many blogs here are not developing for content, but develop content to support the design. Not long ago this was the wrong thing to do, but more and more people seem to forget or suppress this, but what for? Even more specialized blogs?
- 18April 28th, 2009 11:51 pm
Sure, there are real precious ideas to see here. But shoutless with elegance only a few…
Miss this one: http://gag.careforkidsfarm.com
Good article otherwise. - 19April 28th, 2009 11:57 pm
Thank you very much for having chosen my blog. Considering the quality of the others, i am honored !
I particularly appreciate Newtoyork and Ayakaito. - 20April 29th, 2009 12:00 am
Well doesnt really get me off my chair
- 21April 29th, 2009 12:03 am
The Stephen Caver site is a bad example, imho. I was clicking and nothing happened, until I found out that the navigation took up all of my browser space and the content was below the fold. To say that there’s no distraction….one huge distraction: the navigation (and logo). Looks: good. Usability: not so good….
- 22April 29th, 2009 12:04 am
Some nice inspirations. Thanks.
- 23April 29th, 2009 12:06 am
Does the Lyrical Media guy read .Net magazine (or Practical Web Design in the US) by any chance? Not really sure how they got away with that one.
- 24April 29th, 2009 12:40 am
Does the Lyrical Media guy read .Net magazine (or Practical Web Design in the US) by any chance? Not really sure how they got away with that one.
If you check out the post on his blog about the redesign you’ll see he explains exactly where the inspiration came from and why it looks so similar to a magazine.
- 25April 29th, 2009 12:42 am
Istok Pavlovic and Hugs for Monsters are the two most original designs I’ve seen for a long time, absolutely fantastic work.
- 26April 29th, 2009 1:05 am
wow, makes me realise just how mediocre I am….
- 27April 29th, 2009 1:07 am
Excellent round up.
I feel bad about my new blog design now!
- 28April 29th, 2009 1:52 am
Very well done, nice roundup of designs.
- 29April 29th, 2009 2:06 am
Hmm most of these blog designs is a grunge style, and no doubt that most of them are beautiful… But I think it’s wrong to call these (alot of these) ‘ORIGINAL’, they are really not. In that way it’s obvious that the Author of this, has a love for the grunge (/ cut/paste) web style, but it does not represent originality.
- 30April 29th, 2009 2:08 am
is it just me or is the new trend using big pictures to make up for the fact that content isn’t important anymore? most of the examples above look like they are not made with the intention that the reader actually reads a blog but browses it.
i mean not all of them are bad, but some are and en plus blog design looks so predictable: take the standard wordpress theme, add some graphics and voilà there you go. - 31April 29th, 2009 2:28 am
Nice list but I agree with some comments above. The grungy style is becoming the ‘easy’ way. Just plaster some textures and the content will go in the holes…
Also a shame that only about 5% of those sites have valid html code…But that’s another topic.
- 32April 29th, 2009 2:51 am
egal:
See my comment, it’s number 16. - 33April 29th, 2009 3:18 am
Thanks
- 34April 29th, 2009 3:23 am
Papyrus? Eek! Whatever you do, don’t mention Comic Sans… Oh, bugger!
- 35April 29th, 2009 3:28 am
Excellent List! Awesome Blogs.
- 36April 29th, 2009 4:07 am
Really cool designs, I really think Smashing is reading my mind sometimes!
- 37April 29th, 2009 4:41 am
Another great collection of blog designs! The world needs more good looking sites like these! Thanks for sharing once again Smashing!
- 38April 29th, 2009 5:11 am
Most of those blogs contains soooo much, it makes them so confusing to read.
- 39April 29th, 2009 5:45 am
Great sites but I think that we all need to get over blogging and move onto real world designs that are results oriented. Show me how a IT contracting company built their site to attract customers, and what research and techniques were responsible for the successful design and more stuff like that instead of hey, here are some beautiful cool designs. I think that we are all going to be over being connected every two seconds and want to move onto to real world design and development projects that make our society more efficient. I want to see more innovative stuff come out of this place.
- 40April 29th, 2009 5:53 am
Alpha Aesthetica is my favorite on that list. Simple, elegant, perfect.
I have to agree with others here, that the majority of blogs are too busy looking. It’s nice to focus on the content, if you’re a blog. It’s one thing to make a marketing site or a micro-site, but blogs should be about what you are writing../
But I guess personal blogs are mainly for attention whores, so might as well put on the stripper glitter and tons of makeup…
- 41April 29th, 2009 5:55 am
All designs are great !!! Can’t say any one blog to be my favorite as every blog design has some uniqueness.
Regards
- 42April 29th, 2009 6:31 am
E’ un’ottima raccolta d’ispirazione
- 43April 29th, 2009 6:40 am
Awesome stuff!
- 44April 29th, 2009 6:41 am
I like the web science one. That one is really cool. Hey how come my blog deisgn is not listed here? ;-)
- 45April 29th, 2009 6:49 am
This is an excellent list! I especially like Istok Pavlovic’s blog,
- 46April 29th, 2009 7:12 am
Hi there!
Nice list I’d say :)And I just wanted to suggest this (german) blog: http://asmodiel.de
- 47April 29th, 2009 7:21 am
dang it all no link dropping… :( well I was gonna say I thought my blog was pretty nice too. hmm in anyevent.. Smashing rocks thanks for the inspiration…
- 48April 29th, 2009 7:40 am
Wow. These are all wonderful! Great work! I don’t comment on SM enough. I should show you guys some love.
- 49April 29th, 2009 7:59 am
Interesting mostly grungy list of designs, though I wouldn’t call them elegant really.
el·e·gant (l-gnt)
adj. Characterized by or exhibiting refined, tasteful beauty of manner, form, or style
The word elegant is also used to express refined simplicity, clarity or sophistication.Not trying to be irritating about this but the word elegant has been used just way too many times to describe the wrong type of designs in the last year or so.
- 50April 29th, 2009 8:20 am
When visiting a blog for the first time, you get an instant and strong impression from the design and layout. Cluttered and confusing blog layouts can be an instant turn-off, while sleek and elegant designs immediately captivate the audience.
I hate to say this, but Smashing Magazine is getting cluttered. I never minded the sidebar ads, but the jarring (and huge) Nokia block tips the scale.
- 51April 29th, 2009 9:29 am
Thank you very much for featuring for featuring my design, FRIEZE – Design by Bjørn Friese You are doing a young man a very big favor.
However, you got my name wrong. My name is not Bert Timmermans but is Bjørn Friese. If you would mind to update my name i would be you ever gratefull
(SM) Sorry for inconvenience, Bjørn, the name was updated. Thank you.
- 52April 29th, 2009 10:40 am
really inspiring for me. Thanks a lot. Noah Lieske
- 53April 29th, 2009 11:01 am
These are all very beautifully done.
Like others, however, I’m really curious to see where design trends are going to take us next. I love the look of grunge and “sloppy” collages and the scrapbook feel… yet at the same time, they’re getting over-used.
I remember back in the early 2000’s when the style was that impossibly tiny and hard to read text and a lot of usage of futuristic, abstract shiny 3D elements.
I’m betting the pendulum will start to swing back over to extremely clean, minimalist trends in a year or two.
Thanks for sharing these, though – I’m always inspired by the different approaches people take – even if a lot of them are all a different approach to the same trend.
- 54April 29th, 2009 11:22 am
Here’s my own person site, an original design, built on top of wordpress: http://karlherrick.com
- 55April 29th, 2009 1:04 pm
absolutely love the Alpha Aesthetica, so clean, yet detailed and well laid out
- 56April 29th, 2009 4:42 pm
Great list but you left off one of my all time faves:
http://www.komodomedia.com/Love that blog design!
- 57April 29th, 2009 5:25 pm
nice work,i like design of Fubiz
- 58April 30th, 2009 12:38 am
Thanks for your response Smashing Magazine!
Unfortunately, the name of Bert Timmermans site has now been changed to Bjørn Friese and the name of my site is still Bert Timmerman.
- 59April 30th, 2009 2:59 am
Excellent collection. A pretty common style on most of them but I personally like the tactile, flawed, human feel on them. Its real and appropriate for personal blogs.
- 60April 30th, 2009 4:17 am
I saw this site in the forums too: staticvoid.tv. I think it’s another beautiful one.
- 61April 30th, 2009 4:21 am
Great collection! Thanks for inspiration!
- 62April 30th, 2009 8:03 am
RTP.pt is the website of the national PORTUGUESE television. pt domains are from Portugal; pl domains are from Poland…
- 63April 30th, 2009 5:51 pm
Amaziiiing!!!!
- 64April 30th, 2009 7:02 pm
hey everybody lets all be different together!
bunch of trend following new-media douchebags…
- 65May 1st, 2009 7:17 am
I love Istok Pavlovic’s blog. It is so unique! Thanks!
- 66May 1st, 2009 9:56 am
Nice collection. Love it. Thanks
- 67
- 68May 3rd, 2009 2:07 pm
Some good designs here. I have to say, though, I’m not a fan of the two-column layout, in which one column is divided into two to serve as the sidebar. It feels cluttered or confusing to me, and I always have to read through one side of the column and scroll back up for what’s in the other side of it. I’ve noticed a lot of design blogs doing this and it frustrates me since there are usually some good “blogroll” links and other info in there. Am I just being crazy?
- 69May 3rd, 2009 3:01 pm
I see that the wootheme Irresistible was mentioned, I use it to :D I really like that theme with the custom frontpage enabled.
Im new to this Wordpress thing, so I need to learn how to tweak the theme eaven more.
There is plenty of nice themes out there and the Bjørn Friese one is verry original :D - 70May 5th, 2009 3:44 am
Very nice! Thanks!
- 71May 5th, 2009 11:55 am
I find the most interesting thing about this list to be how each blog design creates the right personality to present the content. From Bjørn and Aesthetica’s beautiful typography to Lyrical Media’s powerful image… so much variation depending on the designer’s personality and what they’re conveying. And many thanks for including my humble blog (a very nice, but very big surprise) – ‘unusually beautiful’ will do nicely!
- 72May 15th, 2009 6:29 pm
Wow,, thank you so much for posting my blog on here!
I’m really honored to be put featured in smashing magazine!! - 73May 18th, 2009 9:23 am
Very nice, lots of useful inspirations.
- 74June 24th, 2009 8:09 am
super kool!!! amazing worx
- 75September 6th, 2009 7:25 am
excelent!
- 76September 15th, 2009 11:26 pm
Hello
No french in this list….boooo :)
- 77September 15th, 2009 11:27 pm
Where is the french webdesigner ….
- 00
There are no trackbacks at this time. If you are interested in leaving a trackback, please use this URL.
Leave a Comment
Make sure you enter the * required information where indicated. Please also rate the article as it will help us decide future content and posts. Comments are moderated – and rel="nofollow" is in use. Please no link dropping, no keywords or domains as names; do not spam, and do not advertise!
Interact
Popular
- 100 Wordpress Themes
- Photoshop Tutorials
- Fantastic Wallpapers
- 40+ Excellent Freefonts
- Dual-Screen Wallpapers
- Wordpress Themes for 2009
- Illustrator Tutorials
- Incredible Free Icon Sets
- High-Quality Free Fonts
- 30 Scripts For Galleries
- Photoshop Text Effects
- Useful Icon Sets
- Web Design Trends
- iPhone Wallpapers
- Before Launching a Website
- CSS Layouts And Templates
- Photoshop Actions
- Stunning Pictures and Photos
- Fantastic HDR Pictures
- Logo Design Tutorials
- Free Design Templates
- 10 Mistakes In Logo Design
- Photoshop Custom Shapes
- 40 Creative Design Layouts
- 8 Layout Solutions
- 53 CSS Techniques
- Photography Techniques
- Black & White Photography
- Styling Design Elements
- CSS-Based Forms
- 50 jQuery Techniques
- 50 Portfolio Websites
- 50 CSS Techniques
- Creative Logo Designs
- Desktop Wallpapers
- 25 Open Source Mac Apps
- 50 Free Icon Sets
- How The CSS Selector nth-child Works - http://bit.ly/cgPMqe
- 33 New High Quality Adobe Illustrator Tutorials - http://bit.ly/bTgFbu
- How to Drastically Improve Your Designs - http://bit.ly/a9L1sb
- A Quick Look at Mobile Web Designs - http://bit.ly/9TCWCG
- How to Test your JavaScript Code with QUnit - http://bit.ly/da853c
- jQuery 1.4 API Cheat Sheet - http://bit.ly/5zYYnE
- Beautiful, Elegant and Free 48px Icon Set - http://bit.ly/cSWcBR
Very cool