When you are creating a new website you may be inspired by seeing other sites that feature unique layouts. The 20 sites listed here don’t simply use a typical two or three column layout. Many of them use background images to interact with and control the layout in some unique way. Some of them I really like, and some I’m not sold on, but all are unique in one way or another.
For more design inspiration, see:
- 25 Beautifully Colorful Websites
- 25 Beautifully Dark Websites
- 25 of the Best Photographer Portfolio Websites
Popmatik - Freelance web designer Rob Leach uses a unique layout for his portfolio site. The site uses a background image of a bottle and the content of the site appears to be on the label of the bottle.
Digitalmash.com - Digital Mash is the home of Australian web designer Rob Morris. What makes the layout unique is the background image of Rob holding the content of the page.
Melissahie.com - A portfolio site with a different twist, MelissaHie.com leads the visitor through a series of different sections of one page that include links to websites in a portfolio, a brief bio, and contact information. As you click on links, you will slide to a different section of the page.
Evanescenceuk.co.uk - The British website of American rock band Evanescence uses a horizontal layout and a navigational scheme similar to MelissaHie.com, where the visitor slides across the site when using the navigation rather than being taken to a separate page.
Sitotis.hr - The background image for Sitotis is a binder that contains the content of the page. Tabs in the binder are used for navigation.
Mussatto.com.br - Mussatto uses a long, horizontal layout that doesn’t require vertical scrolling as opposed to the standard, tall layout.
Basil Gloo - Web Developer Basil Gloo uses an interesting layout on his homepage that separates the page into a left and a right side. The left side contains his personal information and the right side his business information.
Danviv.net - The portfolio site of Dan Viveiros uses a unique layout and several images of cassette tapes.
CraigEarl.co.uk - Photographer Craig Earl uses a layout that features four tall and narrow images that link to different categories of photos in his portfolio: everyday, landscapes, bands, and people.
JeremyCowart.com - Another interesting photography portfolio site, JeremyCowart.com places all of the emphasis on the pictures by taking you straight to the photos in the portfolio. Rather than making you click a few links to get to the photos, they are right there, one on top of the other. What’s most unique is that to get to any content other than photos you can visit the contact, news, and project links.
Huge - This design company uses a large image on the left side of the homepage with the primary navigation and content in a narrow column on the right.
Interview Magazine - Another horizontal layout, Interview Magazine presents a different visual impression than other online magazines.
The Horizontal Way - As a gallery of horizontal websites, The Horizontal Way naturally uses a horizontal layout itself.
Swiths.com - This website uses a large background image of a wood floor and a guy’s feet. The content of the site is on a piece of paper and a notepad laying on the floor.
Davor van Eijk - The homepage of Davor van Eijk places navigation in the center of the page on an angle. The content of the page is in the lower right hand corner.
Ribbit.com - This layout features a large background image of a man sitting on the grass. The sky in the picture becomes the background of the page. The picture and how it interacts with the layout is really what give the page a unique feel.
BootB - This site uses a black background and some drawn clouds at the top of the page. The center of the page contains navigation in a circle that is part of an image of a hot air balloon that is about to float to the clouds.
Vesess - Vesess uses a simple header that includes navigation and then goes into an image right at the focal point of the page. If you scroll down you will see the use of a few columns for some basic information. While it is maybe not as different as many of the sites on this list it is still a break from the norm.
Dinulovic.com - The Dinulovic homepage contains no real content. It uses an image at the center of the layout with navigation on both sides.
StoryAbout.net - The homepage of Hansol Huh’s portfolio site uses a large image that says “Life is Random” in dots. Below the image is a link to the portfolio.
January 1st, 2008
Great list, Steven. It’s difficult to break out of those tidy two column CSS layouts sometimes. Thanks for the inspiration.
January 1st, 2008
this is a nice look at the more creative side of design
January 1st, 2008
Matthew and TyCat,
Thanks for your feedback. I think it’s nice just to see how some designers are using creativity.
January 1st, 2008
These are very creative. With a design like this, I would almost venture to say that content doesn’t matter, the packaging is fantastic!
January 1st, 2008
Wow, some very cool site designs here Steven.
January 1st, 2008
Those sites are really beautiful. Are you going to use the ideas for your projects?
By the way, good to see the Digg button. It’s long overdue. And the 125×125 ad space is timely. I’m sure you’ll get some advertisers soon
January 1st, 2008
Very creative layouts but some of them are unusable
January 1st, 2008
There are some really good ideas there, I love the Evanescence layout as well as the Rob Leach, Sitotis and Davor van Eijk designs, very unique.
Thanks for showing us them
January 1st, 2008
[...] http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/unique-website-layouts/ [...]
January 1st, 2008
Creative sites like these often own the world when their screenshots are published.
Some creative sites have gone overboard with their creativity, causing the usability of their sites to falter. Also, some creative designs such as using a lot of images or Flash application will throttle the web surfing experience of web users.
Anyway, great compilation of sites which took some of time to navigate within them to experience the cool elements, such as scrolling sideways (don’t let me see this in blogs please) in Evanescence’s site.
January 2nd, 2008
Some great research there, Steve. Informative article. It shows how to stand out from the crowd. Of course all those elements won’t really look nice on blogs. Why don’t you do another post, Steven: 20 Blogs with Unique Layouts. I’m sure you’ll find some
January 2nd, 2008
Do you think we will be seeing more horizontal sites in the future? It almost reminds me of flipping through a magazine rather than a website that changes pages as opposed to “sliding” over to the next topic.
I may have to try to incorporate that in one of my next sites.
Thanks for the look at these great sites………….eric aka NoviceSEO
January 2nd, 2008
I enjoy looking at sites that break away from the norm. They really work well for certain purposes. As a portfolio or gallery, they’re great. However, if you’re looking for a way to display information… simple is good.
In my opinion, a website should showcase its design OR its information. Both is simply too distracting.
January 2nd, 2008
nice collection Steven, but I’d like to hear which designs you ‘really like’
good to see you monetizing a bit and yes that Digg button was so needed on your posts!!
January 2nd, 2008
awsome! these are really very creative layouts, i must say. keep up the good work.
January 2nd, 2008
I stopped looking at the sites when they started to resize my browser, use flash only and eventually crash my entire browser. Beside the fact that the sites “look cool” what criteria did you use to pick them? Certainly websites that are resizing browsers, using only flash and eventually crashing browsers are not very user friendly.
January 2nd, 2008
I’ve been seeing the trend towards horizontal layouts for a few years now, and I’m finally starting to like how they’re being executed. I’m kind of surprised that it’s taken this long to get them right, but I’m happy to see web media finally becoming independent of its print roots (especially now that widescreen monitors are so prevalent).
Hmm… new New Years Resolution: try building a personal project web site that uses horizontal layout and scrolling.
January 2nd, 2008
Some of these sites do have cool layouts, some I had to figure out exactly how to work them and where the information was going to be displayed. Nonetheless I always like seeing creative designs, thanks for posting
January 2nd, 2008
Uniqueness does not always a usable web site make.
(and because I’m putting the verb at the end of the sentence, you know it’s true)
January 2nd, 2008
Many thanks Steven!
January 2nd, 2008
Wow some of these sites are very inspiring to me.
Thank you for sharing.
January 2nd, 2008
Great to see such creativity out there!
Keep up the good work!
January 2nd, 2008
Very interesting designs.
January 2nd, 2008
this new site findingdulcinea.com (spelling?) did a whole week long feature on “design goes online” - which doesn’t really name specific sites for their design attributes - but talks about some sites to go for inspiration and history of design , online design firms, and the like. A cool indepth look at e-(and other) design.
January 2nd, 2008
[...] - 20 sites com layouts inspiradores [...]
January 2nd, 2008
[...] 20 Websites With Unique Layouts | Vandelay Website Design (tags: design layout webdesign inspiration web css website reference **) [...]
January 2nd, 2008
thanks for the mention!
January 2nd, 2008
[...] When you are creating a new website you may be inspired by seeing other sites that feature unique layouts. The 20 sites listed here don’t simply use a typical two or three column layout. Many of them use [...]
January 2nd, 2008
[...] Necesitas inspiración para darle forma a tu Sitio Web, al posicionamiento del menú y de la informa… [...]
January 2nd, 2008
To everyone who mentioned that some of these sites aren’t user-friendly, I agree. I think some are and some are not. Even the ones that are not usable I think can still provide some good design inspiration. In a few cases it’s not actually the design that makes them unusable.
Eric D.,
To answer your question, I hope we don’t see more horizontal designs. I find them to be annoying to use, personally. Apparently some people love them, and they are definitely unique.
Eric,
I couldn’t agree more, simple is good when displaying information. A unique design can help you to stand out, but it can also hurt you in other ways.
Pearl,
Ok, here are my favorites in no particular order: Jeremy Cowart, Huge, Digital Mash, and I like the concept of Craig Earle but not the functionality.
LGR,
That’s why I tend to like minimalistic designs, you can avoid most of those problems. However, I didn’t have any of the issues when I was on these sites. Again, this is only meant to be an inspirational gallery, not a collection of great and useful sites. Certainly you have a very valid point.
Melissa,
You’re welcome.
January 2nd, 2008
[...] 20 Websites With Unique Layouts. For the most part I think this article is right on the money. But one site they linked resized my browser to 100% of my screen width. With a 24″ monitor it was VERY frustrating. That should be a golden rule of web design post ‘95: never screw with your user’s browser settings . . . EVER! This entry was posted on at 1:05 am and filed under url. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed. « YouTube - The Original Human TETRIS Performance by Guillaume Reymond [...]
January 2nd, 2008
You could aslo add this site, it is quite interesting
http://web.burza.hr/en/
January 2nd, 2008
i wrote wrong e-mail in the post above…..
January 3rd, 2008
20 diseños unicos de webs…
Entre ellos se encuentran páginas de diseñadores web con ganas de impresionar a sus clientes, artistas, grupos de rock, revistas, gente que quiere dar su propia imagen a su pagina, o simplemente gente que quiere explorar o mostrar lo que se puede hac…
January 3rd, 2008
[...] Vandelay Design nos ofrece una recopilación de 20 webs con un layout distinto al tradicional. [...]
January 3rd, 2008
[...] I found Melissa Hie’s website thanks to Vandelay’s website design blog. [...]
January 3rd, 2008
Digital Mash really caught my eye.. and Basil Gloo. We’re in the process of redesigning. Our aim.. a different layout and the ability to be user friendly ! Possible ? I think so !
January 3rd, 2008
[...] is very difficult. Some of the web developers though have success in that. Vandelay put together a list of 20 website with unique layout. I like some of them. Check it out and decide [...]
January 3rd, 2008
[...] 20 Websites With Unique Layouts | Vandelay Website Design (tags: cool design lists web2.0) [...]
January 3rd, 2008
CubanCigarsDave.com/nofollowownsyourface =)
January 3rd, 2008
Thanks for publish my site too
January 3rd, 2008
thanks for the list, it’s really inspiring
January 3rd, 2008
[...] 20 Websites With Unique Layouts | Vandelay Website Design (tags: inspiration webdesign layout css) [...]
January 3rd, 2008
[...] 20 Websites With Unique Layouts | Vandelay Website Design (tags: inspiration layout CSS) [...]
January 3rd, 2008
Wow Steven, thanks for sharing these. There are some pretty cool and inspiring designs here. Just wondering, but how did you come across them all in order to compile such a great list?
January 4th, 2008
[...] 20 Websites With Unique Layouts by Vandelay Design. [...]
January 4th, 2008
[...] presented Unique Website Layouts and if you digg through the comments, you’ll be able to find Steven’s favorites [...]
January 4th, 2008
wow, I really enjoyed some of them!
I’ll get a custom one one of these days!
January 4th, 2008
[...] Steven Snell lists 20 websites with unique layouts. [...]
January 4th, 2008
Nice list there. All those sites had one thing in common (other than being unique): they were creatively done without using a layout as you said. In my experience, most of them have probably been made through Photoshop and other related tools.
January 5th, 2008
[...] 20 Websites With Unique Layouts [...]
January 5th, 2008
thank you for the great links!!! i translated some parts of this article in Japanese. if you have any problem with that, let me know.
January 5th, 2008
I would recommend http://www.asvalia.com also.
January 5th, 2008
You missed a great one.
http://www.alienmelon.com/
For a graphics, web and flash design company.
Browse through it. You won’t be sorry.
January 6th, 2008
Hii here is one page site
http://www.telugucinemastills.com
January 6th, 2008
[...] post by Vandelay Design and software by Elliott Back This entry is filed under 2554. You can follow any responses to this [...]
January 6th, 2008
I really like the Mussatto layout, it’s very original and functional. The second best is probably the Popmatik layout.
January 6th, 2008
wow all those make my work look like crap!! I wish I was that good.
January 6th, 2008
[...] with unique layouts I came across this today: 20 Websites With Unique Layouts | Vandelay Website Design if you’re stuck for inspiration for the layout of that rad new site you have in your head, might [...]
January 6th, 2008
[...] maakt kan je geïnspireerd geraken door andere site’s met unieke layouts. De 20 websites die hier te vinden zijn maken geen gebruik van de typische 2 en 3 kollomen layout. Er wordt gebruikt gemaakt [...]
January 7th, 2008
[...] Enlace: 20 websites with unique layouts [...]
January 8th, 2008
[...] 20 websites with unique layouts - When you are creating a new website you may be inspired by seeing other sites that feature unique layouts. The 20 sites listed here don’t simply use a typical two or three column layout. Many of them use background images to interact with and control the layout in some unique way [...]
January 8th, 2008
[...] 20 Layouts Bildkritik, Fotografie, Jeremy Cowart, Linktipp Abgelegt unter: Wahrnehmung, Kaffeetscherl [...]
January 8th, 2008
These are some really nice designs gotta bookmark this for future reference!
January 8th, 2008
The list you compiled is great, some of the best techinical sites I have seen. I ran across this one http://crepp.net/ this ones good too.
January 10th, 2008
[...] from time to time such as 60 Elegant and Visually Appealing Designs by Smashing Magazine and 20 Websites With Unique Layouts by Steven Snell which gives out link credits to these blogs. You will only need to make sure that [...]
January 10th, 2008
[...] week I published a gallery of 20 Websites With Unique Layouts, which got a mixed response. The post did very well with social media and most of the comments were [...]
January 10th, 2008
[...] Hintergrund. Man kann also auch so ein Design zugänglich machen. Bislang ist es unzugänglich.Vandelay DesignWebdesignPermalinkPersönliche DatenName:Webseite:KommentarMangels php auf dem Webspace ist das [...]
January 10th, 2008
[...] unangenehmes Flackern, das nicht sein muss. Und vor Allem: Es ist so einfach, das abzustellen! Vandelay DesignWebdesignPermalinkPersönliche DatenName:Webseite:KommentarMangels php auf dem Webspace ist das [...]
January 13th, 2008
Jan Gernen gives us this beautiful site design: http://www.yanone.de .
take a look
January 14th, 2008
[...] habe ich auf vandelaydesign.com eine Auflistung von 20 einzigartigen Webseiten Layouts gefunden die ich hier nun gern auf deutsch [...]
January 15th, 2008
[...] ועוד שווה לראות, vandelaydesign מציגים 20 אתרים עם עיצוב שונה ומיוחד [...]
January 18th, 2008
[...] 20 Websites With Unique Layouts (tags: design) [...]
January 22nd, 2008
[...] from time to time such as 60 Elegant and Visually Appealing Designs by Smashing Magazine and 20 Websites With Unique Layouts by Steven Snell which gives out link credits to these blogs. You will only need to make sure that [...]
January 23rd, 2008
[...] appeal to everyone. In recent weeks I’ve published two different galleries of web designs of unique website layouts and minimalistic websites and the sites featured in these galleries take different approaches to [...]
January 31st, 2008
[...] 20 Websites With Unique Layouts Vandelay presents innovative designs [...]
February 5th, 2008
[...] appeal to everyone. In recent weeks I’ve published two different galleries of web designs of unique website layouts and minimalistic websites and the sites featured in these galleries take different approaches to [...]
February 11th, 2008
Those are some really great website designs. I wish that I could do something like that.
February 16th, 2008
very nice designs!
February 18th, 2008
[...] 20 Websites with Unique Layouts - This is a mini gallery that I put together last month. [...]
February 19th, 2008
[...] 5. User Experience / Workflow 6. Purpose 7. Clean Code 8. Fast Loading 9. Efficient Code 10. Layout 11. Information [...]
February 21st, 2008
Those are some good looking 20 websites. Good looking but I didn;t visit any of them. They are too fancy schmancy for me. I like down earth websites that contain information first and usefulness second and truhfulness third.
February 25th, 2008
Wow… this are all great web site i ever seen specially melissa.com… keep it up melissa.. hope i can have like melissa’s web site
March 3rd, 2008
[...] Navigational buttons, bars and menus provide the designer with an excellent opportunity to be creative and add some style to the design. What better tool to use for this purpose than [...]
March 6th, 2008
[...] To see more examples of creative layouts, see 20 Websites With Unique Layouts. [...]
March 10th, 2008
[...] Para ver más ejemplos de layouts creativos, véase 20 páginas web con diseñós únicos. [...]
March 10th, 2008
[...] Para ver más ejemplos de layouts creativos, véase 20 páginas web con diseñós únicos. [...]
March 11th, 2008
[...] Ejemplo: MelissaHie.com usa un diseño único que se diferencia de otros sitios. El sitio en realidad solo es una gran página, y la navegación te lleva de una parte de la página a otra. Al hacer clic en un vínculo nos desliza hacia la siguiente sección, hasta que volvemos al principio. Para ver más ejemplos de layouts creativos, véase 20 páginas web con diseñós únicos. [...]
April 9th, 2008
wow..thanks so much for the share.. They really are inspirational, all out of the box designs.. How bout some good web design with curves?
April 19th, 2008
this is great design. thanks for share man..maybe someone can try to design other unique layout :D. tell me if u do
June 19th, 2008
Very very nice, il ike these layouts very much, great job!!!
June 21st, 2008
[...] sites with a typical two or three column layout? Challenge yourself to design a site with a unique and creative layout. Being able to design effectively in a wide variety of different styles can be difficult, but it [...]
June 23rd, 2008
[...] creative art. We’ve all experienced situations where we’ve been wowed by a site with an exceptionally creativity design or functionality. However, we’ve also had frustrating experiences with sites that try too [...]
June 26th, 2008
[...] is a creative art. We’ve all experienced situations where we’ve been wowed by a site with an exceptionally creativity design or functionality. However, we’ve also had frustrating experiences with sites that try too hard to [...]
June 28th, 2008
Very very nice
July 22nd, 2008
[...] is a creative art. We’ve all experienced situations where we’ve been wowed by a site with an exceptionally creativity design or functionality. However, we’ve also had frustrating experiences with sites that try too hard to [...]
July 25th, 2008
Wow…very beautiful collections….I like swiths.com. Very creative and artistic!
August 11th, 2008
That’s a great list right there. I need to learn how to design better :/
August 13th, 2008
Digitalmash rocks and interview magazine.I love the way they are layed out.
August 13th, 2008
Very very nice, il ike these layouts very much!!!
September 25th, 2008
hi,
all designs are really wonderful.. but ribbit is what I like the most…
sites described in the comments are also really nice…
it inspires us to design innovative designs…
btw… thanks for this wonderful compilation of designs..
November 10th, 2008
[...] 20 Websites with Unique Layouts [...]
November 20th, 2008
[...] Veja “20 Websites With Unique Layouts“. [...]
December 17th, 2008
[...] web, podemos inspirarnos al ver ver a otros sitios que incluyen diseños únicos. En el artículo 20 Websites With Unique Layouts, nos dejan una selección de 20 sitios que utilizan una sola columna en su deseño de página, nada [...]
December 24th, 2008
[...] 20 Websites with Unique Layouts [...]
December 25th, 2008
some colorful things shining my eyes
January 1st, 2009
[...] Dark Website Designs 30 Beautifully Blue Web Designs 25 Beautifully Colorful Web Designs 20 Websites with Unique Layouts 25 of the Best Photographer Portfolio Websites The Best Designs Vi.sualize.us Possibly related [...]
January 15th, 2009
I think you all should check out:
http://www.civilwarvideos.com
I made this website and I think it fits this category well.
January 20th, 2009
not very appealing
January 28th, 2009
Very nice websites:)
I like them.
January 29th, 2009
Good collection.
Yes, they are uniq.
March 3rd, 2009
I really like the Mussatto layout, it’s very original and functional. The second best is probably the Popmatik layout.
March 25th, 2009
[...] more…. Share and Enjoy: [...]
March 27th, 2009
[...] 20 Websites With Unique Layouts | Vandelay Design Blog (tags: webdesign inspiration gallery layouts) [...]
March 28th, 2009
[...] 20 Websites with Unique Layouts [...]
April 2nd, 2009
An inspiring list
April 7th, 2009
[...] The Horizontal Way has a cool design. (via Vandelay Design) [...]
April 13th, 2009
i impressed of ur design… very unique…
good job..
April 14th, 2009
great look :O
April 14th, 2009
great gallery..^^
April 14th, 2009
[...] and mold-breaking layouts (VandelayDesign has an interesting article on unique layouts along with 20 great examples), I feel that if your goal is to communicate effectively with your reader, it’s best to stick [...]
April 22nd, 2009
I love the design of websites and davorvaneijk.com thehorizontalway.com
April 25th, 2009
Too good stuffs here.
I have never seen a ideas like these.
I have got good ideas from these site for my stydy Projects.
all the sites are good but i like the most is melissahei.com.
May 1st, 2009
great gallery..
May 5th, 2009
Wow… all those websites are amazing, someday I’ll design one 100% flash =) hehe…
Thanks for the info!
May 9th, 2009
Good collection.
Yes, they are uniq.
May 22nd, 2009
Slide seems to be the buzzword these days. With improved hardware (read more RAM and processing power) and faster connectivity, the slid design can be an absolute pleasure for most users.
Actually, anything that challenges the vertical layout and up-and-down scrolling is fresh and interesting. The use of Ajax and the ‘no-refresh’ design also helps. Good post.
May 30th, 2009
Whoa… this site is pretty awesome
your layout is really well designed, and your blogs are (judging from what i’ve read) very interesting. heehee… consider yourself favorited. 
June 10th, 2009
[...] 20Websites with Unique Layouts [...]
June 10th, 2009
[...] 20 Websites with Unique Layouts [...]
June 10th, 2009
[...] 20 Websites with Unique Layouts [...]