Personal Websites: 25 Examples for Your Design Inspiration
Published in GalleriesPersonal websites are becoming increasingly popular and they are often provide an excellent source of design inspiration. In this post we’ll feature 25 examples of well-designed personal websites. This showcase presents a variety of different styles. You’ll see mostly blogs and/or social streaming sites, but there are a lot of different approaches and design styles.
This is a beautiful blog theme for a personal website. The full-size background photo is the first thing you’ll notice, and it’s also probably the most memorable aspect of the design. The site uses an attractive, stylish layout for the content area.
A simple one-column layout with a subtle textured background.
Min Tran’s site has an elegant green header/nav menu that helps the site to make an excellent first impression. The logo is in badge-style in the center of the navigation menu.
Francesca Battistelli’s site uses a fun, colorful design with hand-drawn elements. The header includes a picture of Francesca, and the main content area of the front page is in a blog style.
Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg’s personal site (of course, powered by WordPress) has a creative header that definitely grabs the attention of visitors. It uses a hand-drawn style with bright colors in some places. The content area is blog-style.
Gregory Wood’s site uses a simple layout with heavy emphasis on typography.
Another minimalist approach, Stuart Hobday’s site uses a black and white color scheme and a lot of whitespace.
David Kim’s site also has a minimalist-style design, and content is presented blog style. Social networking links are also displayed prominently.
Well-know designer Chris Spooner of course has a great-looking personal blog. It’s a fairly simple layout that uses a badge for the logo and a subtle texture.
Designer Brian Hoof has an awesome personal blog design. It makes nice use of typography, a simple but stylish navigation menu, and a content-focused design.
Scott Robin’s personal site takes a different approach than most other sites being showcased here by using a dark background. The design is heavily typography-oriented, and content is present in a blog format.
Jennifer Dake’s site uses a repeating background pattern, some watercolor effects, and a creative header. The end result is a personal site that makes a great impression. The main content area includes a brief bio, and blog content follows.
Simon Collison’s site uses a responsive design to accommodate mobile visitors as well as those using desktop browsers. The design uses a subtle background pattern, a grid layout, and beautiful typography.
Doug Neiner’s Tumblr blog uses a sticky sidebar including a photo of himself.
Allison Weiss’s blog design features a header with large hand-drawn text. The rest of the layout is fairly minimal and uses a black and white color scheme.
Surfer Julian Wilson’s site is colorful and makes use of an abstract background image. It also features a large photo of Julian and his surfboard.
The design of Adelle Charles site’s features a large background photo and links to social networking profiles.
Andrea Mann’s site uses a dark design and a large profile photo of Andrea on the front page. An audio player is also included on the page.
Brian Jeremy’s blog design uses a dark background and some bright colors. The background image includes some hand-drawn elements.
Laura Marchbanks’ blog includes a header with a photo of Laura. The content area includes a brief bio, and blog content below.
Daniel Howells’ blog uses a simple color scheme and a minimalist design.
Daniele Liberati’s site includes a bio, photos, and links to blog updates.
Dan Butterfield’s personal site prioritizes social networking profiles, especially Twitter by displaying tweets in the main content area.
The header design is probably the first thing you’ll notice when visiting Brian Yerkes’ site. The site’s design makes use of textures as well as a fairly standard blog-style layout.
Shashi Tharoor’s personal site has somewhat of a news-style layout with excepts and links to a lot of different content.
For more design inspiration please see:
31 Responses
The Collison site is wonderful, but most here lack a strong personal id… rather generic template like work unfortunately.
Nice roundup. Dan Butterfield and Francesca Battistelli sites got my attention.
Marc,
I see what you are saying but each person is going to have a different purpose or goal for their site and for the design. Although a generic template like feel is not really what anyone is going for, I don’t think.
Thank you so much for posting my blog! But the screengrab used is kind of out of date -
http://danielhowells.net
Matt Mullenweg’s site is the best for me – very fresh and lively. Totally unlike anything else I’ve seen recently.
I agree, a few are quite original and personal but a lot of website on this list have a very generic theme. I wish the list showcased more specific designs.
IMHO, I thought the Collison site was absolutely beautiful.
Stunning design.
Nice collection. I really dig Jeniffer Drake’s site.
Really nice collection. Thanks!
Great assortment. I was shocked to see the name of my friend, Chris Spooner. But it was a different Chris Spooner. I’ll have to let my buddy the doctor let him know he has an alter ego in cyberspace
Great collection, indeed.
Nice collection, interesting website. Noah Stokes – Es Bueno is my sure favourite. Always been a fan of Simon Collison’s website as well.
nice collection. Inspires me to make myself a personal blog.
Francesca Battistelli is the so good…
Thanks for your sharing.
Great roundup, I especially love the Francesca Battistelli design, so rich and well balanced.
very impressive examples.Nice collection.
Great collection, simple home page designs look so good, but unfortunately there is no text to pick up by search engines.
Thank you as always for sharing this eclectic collection of lovely and unique websites. ♥
Gregory Woods is my fav. love the simple display of information.
Will Vandelay be doing any compilations of well displayed data?
Like Gregory Woods or Nicholas Felton?
Craig,
In many cases the owners of personal sites aren’t really that concerned about search engine traffic.
Some amazing sites! Brian Hoff & Noah Stokes are probably my favorite. Lovely designs.
I really like Stuart Hobday’s design. It’s nice and simple.
Awesome sites – Really liked the sites and the ideas that it generates
take a look at this site: http://blog.sfaranda.com/
Nice collection. Thanks for sharing
finding hard to decide the best design from these,impressive work
How funny, I was trying to build a list of this sort myself when I came across your list! It’s great, inspiring and really the cream of the lot.
And it made me decide against creating one if ny own! As usual, Vandelay does it best!
Anyway, I had these three in mind; perhaps you can add them to the list.
http://www.marekfoss.org
http://www.damonlynch.net
http://WWW.vhbelvadi.com
putting yourself into your design makes it really personal. It directly gives a sense of physical introduction who ever the viewer comes into your website
Thanks for the article steve.
I am going to use one of these designs for my site !!
very good designs!
Super post. Really interesting choices available.
I’ve gone for a really simple approach which I use more for me than anyone else. Just key social media icons. Works a treat.