Jul 28

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33 Artistic Sites

With the millions of websites on the internet, having a unique design is a must to get your visitors’ attention. The following sites displayed below are the few that I personally find inspiring. What made them unique is they used various traditional art techniques and applied to modern web design technology. The result is breathtaking and simply beautiful.

Artistic gallery

I made a large screenshot of the sites in case they redesign their sites. Click on the thumbnail to view the large image, click on the URL to visit the live site.

Common techniques

After browsing the gallery, have you noticed what they have in common?

Watercolor - very subtle watercolor effects.
watercolor

Collage - feminine collage.
collage

Typography - strong emphasis of serif fonts.
typography

Hand writing - commonly used for menus.
hand writing

Bright colors - magenta, cyan, yellow, and green.
bright colors

Delicious Stumbleupon Digg

Style Your Ordered List 30 Artistic Flash Sites

Comments

There are 141 comments (+Add)

  • 1 Edwin

    Nice list!

  • 2 Jeff Finley http://www.gomedia.us

    Thanks, these are some good sites I did not know about.

  • 3 Harmen

    Really nice,
    how do you get that watercolor effects? In photoshop?

  • 4 Timothy Diokno

    Awesome! I was trying to do a web design purely from a paper doodle and then scan them and chop them down for XHTML and CSS.

  • 5 Cori http://shizucor.com

    I’ve always wanted to include watercolor as well as handwriting into my websites. I didn’t know if it was going to be too cliche though but if I like it, I shouldn’t care about clicheness, right? Anyway, great list. They truly are an inspiration to me.

  • 6 Geith http://www.filter9.com

    urban outfitters should be part of this list.

    http://www.urbn.com

  • 7 Respiro Media http://www.respiromedia.com

    One of my favourites is happycog.com. It has a simple and brilliant layout.

  • 8 Colin

    “how do you get that watercolor effects?”

    paper, watercolor, scanner. painfully obvious, isn’t it?

  • 9 Beth http://bamapachyderm.com

    Honestly, I’d put your site around the top of any list of beautiful sites. :D

  • 10 Timothy Diokno

    @ Harmen: I think those are Photoshop Brushes.

  • 11 Fabio Sasso http://abduzeedo.com

    Excellent list, I really like electricpulp.com …..

  • 12 Jermayn Parker http://germworks.net

    Personally I hate serifs on fonts and try not to design with them. The only problem with some of these sites is how long will they load for dial up users?

  • 13 Matt Johnson http://www.mattdetails.com

    I would agree with Colin on the scanning in of watercolors.

    @Timothy - it would depend on which site you’re talking about, but I’m almost positive (95% sure) that the watercolor effects on the happycog.com site was done by hand on paper and scanned in. Jason Santa Maria, the leading designer in this project, does an article on is blog about this.

    @ Jermayn Parker - is that still a problem nowadays? I was just asking myself this question a few days ago - whether dial-up is as widespread and even a concern when dealing with higher-end graphics. I wasn’t able to find any statistics to help us out unfortunately.

  • 14 Nick http://www.webdesignerwall.com

    @Matt, Timothy, Harmen - There are many ways to create watercolor effects. I used Photoshop Pencil tool with custom brushes.

  • 15 Timothy Diokno

    @Jermayn Parker: Serifs affect how fast a webpage loads? Wow! I myself have been using a lot of serifs in my designs and all this time it’s been affecting the loading speed?! WTF!

    @Matt Johnson: That works? I can’t believe it! I definitely have to give it a try myself someday and unfortunately, I’m still using a dial-up connection. Good thing I can still survive! LOL!

    @Nick: Nice!

  • 16 inspirationbit http://www.inspirationbit.com

    I’m surprised this list didn’t make it to the Digg’s front page.
    Is this a new blog? I’ll be definitely coming back to it often.

  • 17 TK

    The sites mentions are lovely indeed. However, there are TOO many sites that are laid out like happycog.com. I can’t deny that it’s a nice site - the watercolors are beautiful but I’ve seen so many sites that have the same layout.

  • 18 LaurenMarie - Creative Curio http://creativecurio.com

    Wow! What an awesome list. Very inspirational. Definitely adding to del.icio.us. Thanks for gathering it!

    I just found your website and it is BEAUTIFUL! Excellent job on the design. It has many elements I’ve not seen before on the web, especially a WP blog (oh, and Inspiration Bit pointed me over here. Thanks IB!)

  • 19 franke

    Nice list! Small suggestion: maybe you should try _blank on your hyperlinks.

  • 20 Ritchie http://www.dodski.com

    Wow!!! what an amazing list. I’ve tried visiting those other site, all I can say that it was a great peace or work. Very nice art. And for the others are really nice too. nice job.

  • 21 Machiel http://cpu-theatre.org

    Hmm.. Nice List! good for a lot of inspiration! I even spotted a former co-student from DVTG (snagt.net). Ah nice start of my day.

  • 22 Shuklendu

    Very good list of website.
    The Common techniques mentioned below teaches more to us

  • 23 Kishore Nagarigari http://www.kishoren.com

    Goog good collection…. like them up

    guess u forgot my site too ;)

    http://www.kishoren.com

    cheers
    kishore

  • 24 dale the merciless http://www.daleharris.com

    thanks for the link! it is an honour to be a part of this list. there really are some kickass sites in there. i’m gonna have to check out this site more often.

  • 25 Lanx

    Your work amazed me~ I love your design :)

  • 26 Mykal http://mykalcave.com

    Ahh glad to see electric pulp on there. I love the organic look.

  • 27 pamQ

    Thanks a lot for posting this brilliant list! I’ve been going around CSS galleries to find inspiration for my redesign–I was going for the same organic, artistic effect but got stuck somewhere–and I’ve always wanted to see all these artistic sites all in one organized list. This has been very helpful!

  • 28 Daniel http://www.books.amazingguide.org

    I couldn’t understand some parts of this article o.us poetry, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.

  • 29 Kyle http://www.headspacedesign.ca

    Hi Kishore Nagarigari,
    Nice site design - I toyed with the idea of doing a right-aligned site, but decided to go with traditional centered. Nice to see someone doing something different. FYI your ajax portfolio tool looks really messed up on my mac - the work partially goes beneath your site background.

  • 30 Deepak Bhattacharya

    Very Good list.

  • 31 abhi

    great list…
    very inspirational..

  • 32 Parthiv http://www.proses.us

    Great site and excellent information

  • 33 Rishi Sinha http://www.colourpencil.com

    Amazing trendy designs.

  • 34 vijay ranjan

    icant express but can feel……… keep it up

  • 35 KENEDIK http://www.kenedik.com

    Thanks for the love! Cool site.

  • 36 Fireproof83 http://www.fgingras.com

    Nice variety of eclectic web design. love it.

  • 37 Santiago http://www.machanay.com

    Wow a lot of art thanks!!!

  • 38 bnl

    I love it…
    this inspires me
    -bnl

  • 39 July C

    i love everything about your site! i hope you keep coming back with great stuff for us!

  • 40 Benjamin Shepard http://812studio.com

    Gorgeous site! Thanks for the eye candy and the brain food. Thanks!

  • 41 VJ Lai

    Brilliant!! Absolutely fantastic!

  • 42 Vikky http://www.mydreamtravels.pinoybizonline.com

    fantastic!!! now, how can a non-artist learn how to these wonderfull inspirational illustrations. Are there any copyright free illustrations of this sort that I can use on my site? congratulations and thank you

  • 43 gülhan http://hangisi.org

    really cool sites

  • 44 imaginepaolo http://www.imaginepaolo.com

    Good feeling 2.0

  • 45 Firebug http://www.visarts.de

    Brilliant Designs! Great inspiration!

  • 46 agnes e

    sooooooo soooooooooper COOOOOOOOL! :)

  • 47 BienB http://www.pixel-inc.net/pixelblog

    Wow, great sites !!!
    Thank you

  • 48 BV

    Thanks for the inspiration.

  • 49 lea http://macangadungan.blogspot.com/

    very inspiring me.
    i know nothing about html, but i do love designing.. i hope i can design mine someday. hehhehehe

    thanks

  • 50 Carly http://twisted-barfly.co.uk

    I have a thing for collage at the moment… even my bedroom incorporates it… I just cant stop buying and collecting arty postcards!

  • 51 GadgetMuse http://www.gadgetmuse.com

    These sites are all great! I’d have to say though that yours is the best. :)

  • 52 Joe http://www.hoo-pla.com/

    This site is the best artistic site I’ve ever been to.

  • 53 Annette

    I really love the collection - very inspiring, keeps me coming back for more!

  • 54 Cristina

    very good!!!!!!!! Thank you for the inspiration… xoxo

  • 55 gonzo

    http://www.urbana.com.uy is a Uruguayan based FM station, with strong power among youngsters in the country. It has yet one more memorable website with great Design! U can also enjoy the music from the web.

  • 56 Mohammed

    we have to say thank you, otherwise we don’t deserve what you are doing for designers.

  • 57 lawton chiles http://songsblog.com

    Very eye-opening the use of CSS to style these sites and how easy it is- well
    all except for the planning :)

    The point is, regular folks CAN do this! Thanks for the inspiration.

  • 58 kay http://www.e.heartbomb.org

    wow..these are all so gorgeous…it’s so hard to find nice inspiration these days but these are just wow. O_o

  • 59 TheArchived http://www.thearchived.com

    Wow verry nice, I like them alot and i have to say good work!

  • 60 ChrizDee http://www.chrizdee.de

    Oh - nice. Thanks for listing my blog :-)

  • 61 Ashish Lohorung Rai http://meroblogs.blogspot.com

    Cool links…Thanks for the research …keep it up!

  • 62 Mehmet Poyraz http://www.kurutma.net

    very very good thanks all of them

  • 63 SeanC http://www.iel.spokane.edu

    Very inspirational. I work in education (general IT, including web/design for our institution). The Biola.edu ite is a great example of expanding on what can be a very boring (though informative) topic - college admissions, tution, general campus info. Having something attractive gives off an aura of creativity and modernism. I don’t want to pigeonhole certain institutions but I find it interesting that a religious university would go with something so unconventional (a SF or UK fashion school? it would be expected).

    Our look is tired and the layout/function didn’t play out as well as I would have liked. I also got myself trapped into a handcoding nightmare with CSS and includes - basically leaving all the updates up to me and another team member (rather than a CMS method that we could hand off to the various departments) - second, and most important, we squeeze in updates and refreshes amongst the million other non-web related IT functions we have to do daily.

    I would appreciate some C & C from you or any of your readers - maybe a suggestion on a CMS that would work better as a standard page by page site than as a blog.

    That all aside, how are you managing the screenshot links? It’s a very cool feature, how they open up over the regular page, leaving the user still ‘here’ but centering attention to the info they requested (the s.shot).

    Great site!!

  • 64 Jessica http://piccolina.deviantart.com

    Personally, I find YOUR sites inspiring! But thank you so much for listing these websites and pointing out what can make or break a unique design. Very helpful. :)

  • 65 estell http://supergirl.panalangin.net

    i am awed by YOUR site! and these sites are just as fantastic. the watercolor effect is just breath-taking!

    thank your for these inspirations. i’m inspired to create something artsy cause my site is not really artsy as of now. thanks!

  • 66 Alex

    I like this list! One more that I came across recently, surprisingly an online shop - http://www.aguacateandco.com

  • 67 Will Smith

    WOW! these are really cool. Thanks, i visit your website just as much i do with engadget and DIGG :D.

    hehe

    keep it up.

  • 68 Victor Fauziek Sidharta

    Thank you for doing this, your work are very inspiring. And please give out more great designing tutorial and tips. Keep up the good work

  • 69 Volkan http://kurutma.googlepages.com/

    thank you for your helps for web designers.

  • 70 Glen L Graham http://thegnrgroup.com/blog

    I’m digging your designs keep up the good work. Nice blog

  • 71 Mohammad Shekari http://www.mohammadshekari.com

    Hello
    I’m am a web designer.
    This page was so useful for me, too.
    Please visite my website:
    http://www.mohammadshekari.com

    Thanks

  • 72 Iman http://7pagesdesign.com

    Great Works!
    Iman Abolfazli
    http://www.7pagesdesign.com

  • 73 Hello people http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/freemusicd/

    Hi boys!1738fe6edf81b4e96535e33db7ce68db

  • 74 TheSites http://www.metacafe.com/channels/thesites

    Nice, great links.

  • 75 Jenna http://nosite.com

    Preved dyatlam!

  • 76 Goldy http://www.thehotmag.com

    Pretty inspirational designs!

  • 77 Artyom http://www.havanatrends.com

    Hi,
    Check this site.
    I am an amateur web designer.
    And I need your opinion about this work.

    Thank.

  • 78 khaiDesigns http://www.khaidesigns.net

    great inspiration!
    thanks for sharing.

  • 79 ptoone http://www.ptoone.com

    Nice Links!

  • 80 ucretsiz ilan http://www.ucretsizilan.net

    wow nice post thanks man

  • 81 Marco

    http://www.asvalia.com is artistic site

  • 82 Web Design Denver http://www.shycon.com

    I love the Noodlebox one a lot. I can’t put my finger on it but it just seems like the perfect design

  • 83 Christina http://www.robinsnook.com

    Where can I find someone who can make a creative & cute website? All the designers I am finding from web searches are all so generic and formal. I need a creative cute design for a scrapbooking website. Why is it so hard to find someone with creative juices flowing?

  • 84 New Zealand Home Based Sales Recruitment http://google.com/group/hot-hot-neww/web/cornell-capa

    Sarah Buxton

  • 85 My Sister Eileen http://google.us/group/hot-hot-neww/web/verizon-wireless-music-center

    Maurice Sutton

  • 86 Bryan http://www.nwsource.com/

    Just wanted to send you a thanks for the inspiration. I referred to this site many times during the redesign of - http://www.nwsource.com/

  • 87 Goldy http://www.thehotmag.com

    @Christina: Are you still looking for a web designer? I checked your sites, but there is no contact form there. How can I contact you?

    Nice collection of sites by the way!

  • 88 Renan Hagiwara http://www.recoha.com

    Nice gallery… Thanks for share… !

  • 89 eric

    very inspiring sites, so creative indeed.

  • 90 Skot http://www.scottbarrettdesign.com

    These websites are absolutely fantastic. I am truly inspired. I really like the hand drawn elements. More please.

  • 91 ellen http://ellenmcdermott.blogspot.com

    Hi there, I’m one of your lurkers who’s coming out specifically to say that, without a doubt, your site has the nicest design I’ve ever seen. I just love those flowers!!

    regards,

    ellen from ireland

  • 92 Andreas http://www.ostheimer.at/

    Very inspiring designs…great…

  • 93 IT Services India http://www.gigaturn.com/it-services-from-india.htm

    Nice examples, we are developing web 2 sites with artistic view for our latest projects.

  • 94 Angie Bowen http://www.arbent.net

    I just finished redesigning Arbent Creative Designs and this article was very helpful. Thank you!

  • 95 SarYta Eugenio

    Muy interesante las tecnicas utilizadas para desarrollar estas web, donde puedo obtener mas informacion o asesoria particular para un diseño tan original como estos… gracias…chau

  • 96 Adrian

    I got to say it, I love your designs!

  • 97 High Quality Designs http://www.gigaturn.com/website-design.htm

    Best designs, I have seen ever on this site.

  • 98 Hanush.H.Nair http://designz-web.blogspot.com/

    Forgot one,

    http://www.webdesignerwall.com

    :)

  • 99 nina http://ninaerrey.id.au

    Its good to see lots of colour.
    boo the boring greys of old!

  • 100 anyssa http://anyssacristina.blogspot.com/

    I really appreciate your work, congratulations!!!!
    The Brazilian designers are thankful
    ;D

  • 101 Seo http://aytugakdoganodulluseoyarismasi1.blogspot.com

    Thanks for sites.

  • 102 Raaj Cena http://www.my-template.org

    Cool Examples

    Thanks For It as It Help me a lot for devlopment of my this site

  • 103 blogger666 http://www.gahlon.se

    These are great design. A good inspiration. Are the web 2.0 era coming to a halt?

  • 104 Denver Web Design http://imulus.com

    There is a really nice selection here, my only comment would be that there is so much going on with this page that I feel like my ADHD is going to get me lost.

  • 105 lokendra http://xboxdesign.com/

    good design gallery i like it i am gating good refrange thanx to designrs

    i love it

  • 106 Website Design Perth http://www.igenerator.com.au

    Glossy really gone? I only changed my logo to glossy about six months ago :(

    How about a poll on preferred website styles (like your SEO one)? Might be useful in spotting the definitive stand-out next trend…

  • 107 Ben

    I really hate to say it, but I dislike the watercolor, collage, and handwriting styles of design. For some reason even the dime-a-dozen glossy style seemed more concrete than these designs.

  • 108 小子 http://www.jingjingde.net/jing

    实在是完美了 喜欢呢啊

  • 109 İslamiyet http://www.hadis.biz/portal

    thank you

  • 110 film izle http://www.film.izlesek.org

    Thanks for gd job

  • 111 nicole http://nicolebaker.livejournal.com

    I love those kinds of styles too!

  • 112 accolvetrargo http://www.citeulike.org/profile/apekoff

    Hello! eliminating effexor withdrawl symptoms

  • 113 ntas http://www.kalicido.com

    thanks!
    good sites

  • 114 tips

    I like your website I will share this with friends

  • 115 Met-art http://www.met-art.lt

    good design gallery i like it i am gating good refrange thanx to designrs

    i love it

  • 116 Adrian Sotelo

    Hello I was wondering how web designers do, so everytime somebody clicks on a image a big window show up and he background is black.

  • 117 Adrian Sotelo

    like when you ckick the portfolio images on this site, a window pops up

  • 118 Miss Blossom http://www.blossomgraphicdesign.com

    This is a magnificent collection. I would love to appear in your inspiration sites one day.
    The more I learn one your site the more I realise how little I know and how much I need to learn.
    Cheers and thanks so much for this and all your wonderful work.
    Di

  • 119 Matt

    @adrian

    It’s a javascipt effect called lightbox, there are many versions but that is the basis. Very easy to implement into your code.

    here is a good site that explains the effect - http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/

  • 120 katrina http://katrinzz.deviantart.com

    Very cool and inspirational site! I visit this almost everyday to get my creative juices going :)

  • 121 5reeef http://www.5reeef.com

    i love it
    thanx brother

  • 122 değerleme http://www.anreva.com.tr

    Wow. Very artistic. : )

  • 123 hawcrofts http://www.hawcrofts.co.uk

    Cool sites!

  • 124 Cachito

    Sorry to say the images didn’t display after clicking on the screenshot thumbnails, although the ‘lightbox’ effect worked fine here >>

    http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/

  • 125 Amri iHidayatulloh http://amri166.blogdetik.com

    Halloo. it’s very nice to see your website.. it’s interesting, i like your design.. can you teach me. how to design as better as you…

    ha.. ha.. I wanna learn more…

    Thank you.. you have inspired me by your Web….

  • 126 Reza http://mm-creative.net/

    Simple, cool, and cutes design

  • 127 Krestort http://vytorin.avon-market.com

    Recently one of my friends started an obsession with the actor Nicholas Cage (mostly because their names are both Nicholas - sounds strange but he is strange and that isn’t the point). After asking around the rest of my friends he seems to be a very controversial figure.
    What does the forum think? do you love the all action superhero? Or do you hate the droning voice of the man who does nothing but action shooters?

  • 128 psevdolokulop http://watchesellers.freehostia.com

    How many times you eat during a normal … every day life?
    are you the type of person who eats a bit and often?
    or rarely and too much?

    i usually have 3 and i’m the 2nd type of person (though it’s not that healthy)

    8 am breakfast

    3pm lunch

    9pm a snack.

  • 129 ant http://www.rhythmplate.com

    This sites a good early example of handwriting fonts - http://www.rhythmplate.com. And if you check the wayback machine/web archive, its much older than ‘now’ as its initial design goes back to 2003… one of the pioneers of this look maybe?

  • 130 Janice

    The designs showed here show what simple and tasteful design is all about. Another one to consider that is basically a vast collage that when taken together is itself beautiful is at http://www.onepageoneworld.com. At first I didn’t know what to make of this site but after visiting a few times I got the idea and now I hope that others visit to experience it.

  • 131 Bill http://fashionow.net

    Simple, cool, and cutes design

  • 132 videolar http://www.videolar1.org/

    I will consider to use one of it for our new site. Thanks..

  • 133 videolar http://www.videolar1.org/

    I will consider to use one of it for our new site. Thanks.

  • 134 bagsin http://handbagsurf.com

    Simple, cool, and cutes design. Give me so much

  • 135 Cyrus

    Great , 33 Artistic Sites
    Great article. CSS saved web design
    Cyrus
    Visit http://www.psdtoxhtmlcoder.com

  • 136 blog http://balkandugunu.blogspot.com/

    thanks you.good article.

  • 137 emily http://emilyhaggar.com

    check this artistic site out - http://www.wonowmedia.com

    and thanks - really inspiring list

  • 138 Mike http://www.comastore.com

    Where can find so much sites like these?

  • 139 sanjay gupta http://www.punishmenow.co.uk/

    Hello,

    Thanks a lot.The articles of your site is really helpful and usable for visitors.
    This site http://www.punishmenow.co.uk/ is more helpful for online shoppings of products.

    Sanjay Gupta
    Software Test Engineer
    gupta.sanjay31@gmail.com

  • 140 vincent http://www.hibirdal.com

    The designs showed here show what simple and tasteful design is all about. Another one to consider.

  • 141 Bathroom Glasgow http://www.completebathroombuild.com

    The point is, regular folks CAN do this! Thanks for the inspiration.

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