50+ Gorgeous Navigation Menus
Published November 10th, 2008 in GalleriesWhen I’m looking at excellent websites for design inspiration, one of my favorite aspects of design to notice is the navigation menu. While I enjoy seeing excellent designs of all types (minimal to artistic to colorful to dark) and various aspects of the site (including headers and footers), a well-designed and well-executed navigation menu can have more impact on my appreciation of a site than any other single piece of the design.
In this post I’d like to take a look at more than 50 stellar examples of navigation menus that positively impact the design of a website. The list includes a great deal of variety. Regardless of what you personally prefer, there should be some inspirational examples in here for you.
For more design inspiration, see:
- 50 of the Best Church Website Designs
- 25 of the Best Photographer Portfolio Websites
- 25 Beautifully Dark Website Designs
For more design inspiration, see:
120 Responses to “50+ Gorgeous Navigation Menus”
Superb list. Thanks for featuring our site.
Thanks for including us here with such great company.
Felix and Henry,
You’re welcome. Excellent work!
Thanks for including and neat list as well!
Many thanks for including my site in the list. There are some great examples that I haven’t seen before.
God, there’s so much talent about!
Do you actually do any work or do you spend your day looking at everybody elses work?
Thank you very much for featuring my site!
Am really flattered right now
Keep up the good postings!
Great post! Very nice for some inspiration!
This is truly a great and inspiring list; some stunning examples here, nicely done, thanks for sharing!
Andy,
Not as much work as I used to. Surfing around is actually part of my job now, it’s pretty cool.
Great stuff. Vandelay is an awesome design reference!!!!!!
Some more great stuff there! Well done for putting together yet another great collection
I’ve been spreading the word about your blog
Great post… i do agree… I love a good navigation… it sets apart the good and the great…. Fantastic post
Wish we made the list. Maybe next time http://www.michaelaustinproductions.com
A very nice collection of navigation menus. Some are unusually interesting but they definitely have an impact. Thanks for the inspiration, I picked up some good ideas for mine.
Some of these were great. Some not so much. Example: the website Good. Very bland navigation. Could use something more attractive while maintaining simplicity.
Timothy,
Obviously I disagree since I included Good on this list. Yes, it’s simple, but that appeals to me. Thanks for sharing your opinion though.
Wow, very inspiring stuff. I especially like the Rzepack Pure nav.
Thanks Steven, Great list
one that i recently found, that i really love is: http://www.weareskylarkin.com/
Cool, thanx!
Thankyou muchly for the inclusion!
Great list,
I also feel like another commentator that some of them are a little bland/ almost repetitive
Some of them are quite wonderful intheir unique ways – Carbonica for example
Great collection and awesome variety. It’s nice to see some very simple plain text menus featured along side the graphic-intense menus.
Thanks again!
Beautiful list~
Wow, quite a list there. It must have taken some time to compile.
Great Collection! Congratulations!
nice list… really cool menus.. love all of them … now i just have to learn how to use them … bit new to websites..
Do you offer design services?
Those are extremely elaborate designs..
I would be interested in securing your services. =)
Acai,
Yes, we do offer design services, but these are not examples of our own work, just exemplary work from various designers.
Great list of navigation examples. I always think that the navigation of the site is one of, if not THE, most important part of the design. At the end of the day, the site can look amazing but if no one can get to the information they want to find they are going to click away and, more than likely, not come back.
Thanks for such a great list!
I really enjoy the variety, each site is unique in some way!
Some very inspirational sites there
Thanks a lot for layouts. A new article about buttons would be very useful too.
AMAZING!. Loved most of them. They´re really inspiring. I will be talking about this post in my blog hopping my readers come and have a look. Thanks
thank you great inspiration for sure
thanks for the mention! these are all really great examples — good post.
I love these lists, but I’ve read an article recently on “Inspiration Overload”. I hope you don’t mine me posting a link. (Remove it if you want).
http://www.viget.com/inspire/overcoming-inspiration-overload/
Basically, it says that there are people (you know who you are) that tend to get overwhelmed by too much design inspiration, and don’t know what to do with it all. In the “good old days” an inspiring piece would appear in the form of a Frazetta painting or an album cover. You really had to seek out the good stuff. Nowadays (is that a word?) we are surrounded by stunning work from countless talented people. The trick is knowing when to stop looking and when to start working!
John,
No problem posting the link, it’s relevant to the post. Yes, I agree with you.
Wow, what a nice collection of navigation menus. A lot of them are quite artistic but the simple ones are cool too.
very good, excellent list, other list but of headers
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/02/01/smashing-header-graphics-contest/
Thanks for the cool list. It is very convenient for me!
A really good list, thanks for that one. However, I wonder why you left out the Branford Magazine Template. In my opinion its the best magazine template out there.
But maybe your selection was more into design than functionality?
Jorgs,
Thanks for the comment. I didn’t include any templates in this list, that’s why Branford wasn’t included.
Awesome designs. These give me some great inspiration, thanks!
Great menus. This is a great inspiration
Great list! Thanks for the inspiration
I like the menu at the top of this page too
> http://www.colourlovers.com/palettes/search
Amazing sites! Will mine ever be worthy (www.realifedesign.ca)?? lol
Hey! This is a great compilation. Thank you for your nice work
thank you nice sharing.
Hey! This is a great compilation. Thank you for your nice work
i like these desins who s designers?
i really like these… really well done !!
thank you nice sharing.
i’ve been looking for this all time.. Oh! Thank u man, so much
There are perfect.
A lot of work still needed o this part of web design..
like these desins who s designers?
Great list! Thanks for the inspiration
Thank you very much for featuring my site. A lot of work still needed o this part of web design
A lot of work still needed o this part of web design..
Hey! This is a great compilation. Thank you for your nice work
Great and inspiring thanks to an archive.
great list of websites I really love the Carbonica navigation!
Great and inspiring thanks to an archive.
A new article about buttons would be very useful too.
thanx for web dsign examples
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