Smashing Magazine - we smash you with the information that will make your life easier. really.

Nice.

wow… AMAZING…

really inspired

Great list of inspirations..i liked Le Bloe’s blog…

I think the word elegant was misused here.

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)

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.

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)

Very nice list.

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.

Well doesnt really get me off my chair

Some nice inspirations. Thanks.

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.

wow, makes me realise just how mediocre I am….

Very well done, nice roundup of designs.

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.

egal:
See my comment, it’s number 16.

Papyrus? Eek! Whatever you do, don’t mention Comic Sans… Oh, bugger!

Really cool designs, I really think Smashing is reading my mind sometimes!

Most of those blogs contains soooo much, it makes them so confusing to read.

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…

E’ un’ottima raccolta d’ispirazione

I like the web science one. That one is really cool. Hey how come my blog deisgn is not listed here? ;-)

Hi there!
Nice list I’d say :)

And I just wanted to suggest this (german) blog: http://asmodiel.de

Wow. These are all wonderful! Great work! I don’t comment on SM enough. I should show you guys some love.

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.

Cool!
here is else interesting site in collection you

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.

absolutely love the Alpha Aesthetica, so clean, yet detailed and well laid out

nice work,i like design of Fubiz

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.

Great collection! Thanks for inspiration!

Amaziiiing!!!!

I love Istok Pavlovic’s blog. It is so unique! Thanks!

I like this blog : http://WiseCodes.com

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

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!

Very nice, lots of useful inspirations.

excelent!

Where is the french webdesigner ….