25 Beautifully Dark Website Designs
Published in Galleries
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.
If you’re looking to learn more about design websites, please see our post Learn Web Design for plenty of resources to help your educational pursuit.
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
For more design inspiration please see:
Published February 25th, 2008 by Steven Snell
114 Responses
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
Jermayn,
Thanks for commenting. Those are some of my favorites as well.
They are different!
Not the same as everything else which is good!
Very nice! I think I’ll include some of these on my CSS gallery NiceStylesheet if that’s alright with you?
-Deron
I think dark themes are great for photoblogs. I don’t like them so much if there is a lot of text.
I like the german http://www.mein-brandenburg.com too.
Evan Eckard’s site is exceptional. I love the clean lines and simplicity – something I tried for my own dark portfolio site.
Niceeeeeeeeee!
Beautiful selection!
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…
I like it. I have never used a dark design for a site. These may change my attitude.
Nice collection. The smashLAB is very cool!
My Blog also has a Dark Theme: http://davedragon.rilysi.com
I have always preferred darker themes.
I am working on one. Any suggestions would be great. http://synergydesigns.synergydesigns.org
Nice, really beautiful dark designs
I think http://www.charlottesullivan.net is pretty nice for a dark themed website.
wow, you missed http://www.2advanced.com/
nice list tho
All good!
I like the spaciness of http://www.jvchdworld.co.uk, really good use of black and darkness too.
http://www.jvchdworld.co.uk (comma got thrown in in previous post)
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.
What do you think: http://www.gwegner.de
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.
Thanks for the mention, much appreciated
No problem Adrian. Thanks for stopping by.
I wonder what you guys think of http://www.movielol.org …
What do you think of http://www.john-hodgson.com
I am sad that my website was not included as it’s dark and beautiful too!! http://www.soapbxx.com
Nice list
Good list. Interesting to read that one of your favourites is one of the examples I really do not like (Taxis Aeroport).
Thanks for the nod! You’ve got some really great designs displayed here…an honor to be mentioned with them.
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.
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.
thx alot! great sites!
For a minimal site that makes great use of blacks and greys check out
http://www.nizuc.com/
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.
Great website!! Keep up the good work!!
http://www.MichaelGrimaldi.net – this dark website really shows up the graphite drawings – what do you guys think of dark sites for artwork?
Phoebe,
I like dark websites for art galleries/portfolios, but personally I find the navigation of that site to be un-user friendly.
I love dark websites. Print Huge is very cool, clean and amazing. Very nice collection…Keep ‘em coming!
That JVC site is beautiful, i love good dark websites
Nice collections!
David Hellman design is very very beautiful. I love it very much. I hope to see more designs that really inspires people.
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!
Amazing list.
I just posted a similar article about dark portfolios
Awesome list – how did you compile it? Dark website – really bring out bold colors which are very visually appealing.
I found these dark designs, very helpful
thanks
Irfan
This is creativity,this is a great talent expressed.I desire to have a dark website,how can I go about it.
WOW!! Now I’m not afraid of the dark anymore…
Wow! Definitely inspiring!
how can i set up my own dark website?
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?
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.
Wow…smashLAB does some incredible work. Came across this beautiful dark site http://www.ascenthelicopters.ca/ while looking over their portfolio.
I love dark designs, great collection.
I just thought to recommend our dark website…
thank you nice sharing.
All are really cool. But here’s are my favorites,
Maurice Krijtenberg
Merix
smashLAB
Ten Thousand Things
Shifting Creations
Thanks for Sharing!
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!
We too, fall in the same category: http://www.brokenglass.in
Do have a look at it…
Hopefully to get into your next list
Thanks,
Shiva.
Great list of beautiful websites – i just love it, thx for sharing!!
Good Compilation
Hi,
I notices that one which is nice too:
http://www.krispykrush.com/
What do you think?
All of them are really cool. But these are the gratest:
Maurice Krijtenberg
Merix
Great list of beautiful websites
Man these are wicked, I love them. I really like the Hydra Studio design, pink and black is my fav colour combo. Cheers.
Great examples!
Very interesting and inspiring list!
Here is a nice dark design that you can keep in mind for the next list. =)
one more dark colored web design – http://www.seo-monitor.eu
These sites are pretty nicely designed, utilizing the contrast of a dark background and light elements of importance. Check out this one: http://blog.nomadicflow.com
Brilliant selection, thanks for the inspiration for future web designs
David Hellman design is very very beautiful. I love it very much. I hope to see more designs that really inspires people…..
Good selection !
Take a look on this Fresh collection of Amazing Dark Websites here
http://www.dreamincoloronline.com/20-amazing-dark-websites/
Oh no, there are many other nice dark Websites, sorry.
Rene,
Of course there are many other nice dark websites. This post is only intended to show a sample of them.
Nice collection, my favourites are David Hellman and Here’s Life Mission Africa. I don’t know if that’s saying something as these are amongst the least dark of the sites.
David Hellman design is very very beautiful. I love it very much. I hope to see more designs that really inspires people……
i love to use dark color every time i make a website…..Now i want to learn coming from you on matching a color in bright color in my website because i can hardly use a bright color..
Very good work David, very good design.