25 Beautifully Dark Website Designs
Thank you for visiting the Vandelay Design Blog! Inspirational mini-galleries like this one are a regular feature of our blog, so if you would like to receive more inspiration from us, please consider subscribing to our feed by RSS or by email.
A few weeks ago I published a gallery of Beautifully Colorful Websites that drew a lot of interest from designers. I thought it would be appropriate to follow that up with a collection of great designs that feature dark colors. As always, feel free to leave your comments and mention your favorites.
Hydra Studio

Evan Eckard

Print Huge

Brandon Muth

Maurice Krijtenberg

Tim Kadlec

Merix

Drew Wilson

Aten Design Group

Deluxe Digital Media

smashLAB

Taxis Aeroport

Beyondis

Mojave

Missy

The Hot Mag

David Hellman

Quantics

Ten Thousand Things

George Lazaros

Whooray Records

Here’s Life Mission Africa

Daniel Oliver

Shifting Creations

First Light Landscaping

If you liked this collection, also see:
Originally Published February 25th, 2008
Leave a Reply
February 25th, 2008
Nice indeed!
some of these really use the dark colours well!
I like the websites that use graphics as a main feature
Maurice Krijtenberg
Taxis Aeroport
smashLab
to name a few
February 25th, 2008
Jermayn,
Thanks for commenting. Those are some of my favorites as well.
February 25th, 2008
They are different!
Not the same as everything else which is good!
February 25th, 2008
Very nice! I think I’ll include some of these on my CSS gallery NiceStylesheet if that’s alright with you?
-Deron
February 25th, 2008
I think dark themes are great for photoblogs. I don’t like them so much if there is a lot of text.
February 26th, 2008
I like the german http://www.mein-brandenburg.com too.
February 26th, 2008
Evan Eckard’s site is exceptional. I love the clean lines and simplicity - something I tried for my own dark portfolio site.
February 26th, 2008
Niceeeeeeeeee!
February 26th, 2008
Beautiful selection!
February 26th, 2008
One of my favorites: The splash page of the National Security Agency (http://www.nsa.gov). Deliciously creepy. Just looking at it, I feel like I’m being watched…
February 26th, 2008
I like it. I have never used a dark design for a site. These may change my attitude.
February 26th, 2008
Nice collection. The smashLAB is very cool!
February 26th, 2008
My Blog also has a Dark Theme: http://davedragon.rilysi.com
I have always preferred darker themes.
February 26th, 2008
I am working on one. Any suggestions would be great. http://synergydesigns.synergydesigns.org
February 26th, 2008
Nice, really beautiful dark designs
February 26th, 2008
I think http://www.charlottesullivan.net is pretty nice for a dark themed website.
February 26th, 2008
wow, you missed http://www.2advanced.com/
nice list tho
February 26th, 2008
All good!
I like the spaciness of http://www.jvchdworld.co.uk, really good use of black and darkness too.
February 26th, 2008
http://www.jvchdworld.co.uk (comma got thrown in in previous post)
February 26th, 2008
[...] Irgendwie habe ich das Gefühl, dass dunkle Designs für Webseiten 2008 stark im Kommen sind. Eine schöne Sammlung dunkler Webdesigns hat Vandelay zusammengestellt. [...]
February 26th, 2008
Did Daniel Oliver get logo inspiration from David Airey, or the other way around? They seem very similar, at first I thought it was a redo of David Airey’s site.
February 26th, 2008
What do you think: http://www.gwegner.de
February 26th, 2008
Deron,
Thanks for the comment. You can feature anything you want in your gallery.
Azeem,
I agree. Evan’s site is one of my favorites here.
Kelly,
I really have no idea when the site was published. I know David Airey’s has been around for a while.
February 26th, 2008
Thanks for the mention, much appreciated
February 26th, 2008
No problem Adrian. Thanks for stopping by.
February 26th, 2008
[...] 25 Beautifully Dark Website Designs (tags: webdesign inspiration list layout) [...]
February 26th, 2008
[...] 25 Beautifully Dark Website Designs [...]
February 27th, 2008
I wonder what you guys think of http://www.movielol.org …
February 27th, 2008
What do you think of http://www.john-hodgson.com
February 27th, 2008
I am sad that my website was not included as it’s dark and beautiful too!! http://www.soapbxx.com
February 27th, 2008
[...] Designs collects a list of great designs that feature dark colors. google [...]
February 27th, 2008
Nice list
February 27th, 2008
Good list. Interesting to read that one of your favourites is one of the examples I really do not like (Taxis Aeroport).
February 27th, 2008
Thanks for the nod! You’ve got some really great designs displayed here…an honor to be mentioned with them.
February 27th, 2008
[...] Enlace: Vanday, 25 Beatiful dark website designs [...]
February 27th, 2008
[...] web sites. In response to the interest the gallery drew they have followed it up with a gallery of 25 Beautifully Dark Website Designs, which, as the title suggests, features a collection of sites that feature dark [...]
February 27th, 2008
Revnder,
Actually, to be specific I like some of the other ones that were mentioned more than that one. Of the 3 that were mentioned, I prefer the other 2.
Tim,
You’re welcome. Thanks for stopping by.
February 27th, 2008
You should check out by dark (yet bright) site interhuss.com
In any case, thanks for the cool site links. Most of them are gorgeous..a few are merely good.
February 27th, 2008
thx alot! great sites!
February 29th, 2008
For a minimal site that makes great use of blacks and greys check out
http://www.nizuc.com/
March 3rd, 2008
I love the George Lazaros one. I am kinda into the urban vibe and got that feel from this site but since I am a dude, the hot mag really got my interest. When in doubt, throw a few half nude models on your site and whatch your traffic take off.
March 4th, 2008
Great website!! Keep up the good work!!
March 9th, 2008
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April 18th, 2008
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May 5th, 2008
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May 14th, 2008
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June 9th, 2008
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June 10th, 2008
[...] via : 25 Beautifully Dark Website Designs | Vandelay Website Design via : 25 Beautifully Dark Websites - Part II | Vandelay Website Design AddClipsUrl = [...]
June 12th, 2008
[...] aí a segunda parte de um tal “25 Beautifully Dark Website Designs” publicado em finais de Fevereiro deste ano pelo Vandelay Webdesign. Este segundo post [...]
June 18th, 2008
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July 8th, 2008
http://www.MichaelGrimaldi.net - this dark website really shows up the graphite drawings - what do you guys think of dark sites for artwork?
July 8th, 2008
Phoebe,
I like dark websites for art galleries/portfolios, but personally I find the navigation of that site to be un-user friendly.
July 24th, 2008
I love dark websites. Print Huge is very cool, clean and amazing. Very nice collection…Keep ‘em coming!
July 24th, 2008
That JVC site is beautiful, i love good dark websites
July 29th, 2008
Nice collections!
July 31st, 2008
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August 8th, 2008
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August 31st, 2008
David Hellman design is very very beautiful. I love it very much. I hope to see more designs that really inspires people.
October 2nd, 2008
[...] http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/galleries/dark/ [...]
October 18th, 2008
[...] 25 Beautifully Dark Website Designs [...]
November 9th, 2008
Omg! I’m in love with the First Light Landscaping theme. I will have to sort my blog out fast! Many thanks for the top tip!
November 16th, 2008
Amazing list.
I just posted a similar article about dark portfolios
December 2nd, 2008
[...] the right situation, a dark website background can create a stunning look. As a follow up to the original collection from several months ago, here are another 25 dark websites for your design [...]
December 11th, 2008
Awesome list - how did you compile it? Dark website - really bring out bold colors which are very visually appealing.
December 22nd, 2008
[...] 25 Beautifully Dark Websites [...]
December 24th, 2008
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December 29th, 2008
[...] executed effectively. In the past, I’ve published two collections of great dark designs (see part one and part two), and here is part [...]
December 29th, 2008
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January 2nd, 2009
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January 7th, 2009
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January 7th, 2009
[...] 25 Beautifully Dark Websites [...]
January 21st, 2009
I found these dark designs, very helpful
thanks
Irfan
January 23rd, 2009
[...] http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/galleries/dark/ (part 1,2, 3) [...]
February 13th, 2009
This is creativity,this is a great talent expressed.I desire to have a dark website,how can I go about it.
February 13th, 2009
WOW!! Now I’m not afraid of the dark anymore…
February 23rd, 2009
[...] 25Beautifully Dark Websites [...]
February 25th, 2009
Wow! Definitely inspiring!
March 28th, 2009
[...] 25 Beautifully Dark Website Designs [...]
March 29th, 2009
how can i set up my own dark website?
March 31st, 2009
In this list there is a screendump used for ‘David Hellman’ which is exactly the same design as a website used by a secondhand clothing store http://www.hetwinkeltjearnhem.nl/index.asp?id=dhri88bghntbnnnwqakzy7339mzaspk593422
On this site the design is claimed by someone else than David Hellman.
When clicking on the David Hellman screendump, you cannot find that design. But it made me curious.
WHO IS THE REAL DESIGNER?
March 31st, 2009
Sabina,
David Hellman has since changed the design of his site, as you noticed. I am 90% sure that David’s design was the original and the other was the copy.
April 24th, 2009
Wow…smashLAB does some incredible work. Came across this beautiful dark site http://www.ascenthelicopters.ca/ while looking over their portfolio.
May 15th, 2009
I love dark designs, great collection.
June 4th, 2009
I just thought to recommend our dark website…