The 35 Most Beautiful Websites in 2010
Brilliant Design: Provide An Amazing Experience
In the ongoing struggle to build powerful online brands, people are becoming more creative every day. New artistic styles are emerging and web design as we know it is being transformed. The beautiful websites referenced in this post are the perfect proof for this concept.
If you operate a website or a blog then pay attention. These sites are doing what it takes to grab people’s attention. Are you? If not, then learn from the following examples. Draw inspiration from the most beautiful websites on the internet and then improve yourselves and your websites.
Old Loft
Nine Lion
Squared Eye
Bouladier
Dara’s Garden
Jeff Sarmiento
Freelenz
Level 2 Design
Sensisoft
Vimeo
Dean Oakley
Stoodeo
Jiri Tvrdek
Osvaldas
Matt Dempsey
Kinetic Technology Group
Hull Digital Live HD
Dialogix
Black Moon Design
Creative People
Matt Salik
Calypso Water Park
Tori’s Eye
Filcka
Trinta
Ewout van Lambalgen
David Hellmann
Tracy Apps Design
Dripping Sunshine
Creative Spaces
Feed Stitch
Prairie Fest
The Great Bearded Reef
84 Colors
Mail Chimp
Group Reflection
I already know what you’re thinking: “Nick. You forgot about (insert website here). That site is a beautiful website and should be included in your list.”
And you know what? You’re probably right. So go ahead and tell me and if I think that it’s one of the most beautiful websites on the internet then I’ll add it to the list.
Nicholas Cardot
Nick uses his blog Site Sketch 101 to express his passion for helping bloggers and webmasters connect with real people through brilliant designs, unique content, and genuine creativity. Nicholas Cardot has 200 post(s) at Site Sketch 101
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- The 35 Most Beautiful Websites in 2010 | Site Sketch 101 | Conceptguy
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- Feel better (then worse) about your website « NCVS Comms Blog
80 Vibrant Comments
I would love to hear yours!
Tony said:
I’m currently reading “The Principles of Beautiful Web Design” and this article came right at the nick of time! It’s always great to have examples to follow and also be inspired to do even better.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Tony » I guess it did. This will provide the perfect support for an article on that kind of a topic.
Eric B. said:
Some very nice examples here! I really like the background on Vimeo. If I have some spare time (which I never do), I’ll have to go and figure out how they do that!
Thanks for sharing!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Eric B. » The way that Vimeo looks is one of the major reasons that I use them instead of YouTube.
Brandon Diaz said:
Usually when these showcases crop up, I just skim over them, as they generally have the same websites I’ve seen on so many showcases before it.
While there were quite a few I’ve known about, I was happily surprised at some fresh designs to bookmark. I love the color use in Filcka and Trinta.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Brandon Diaz » Great to hear that. I sifted through about 500 websites to come up with this list and I’m absolutely convinced that these really are some of the best looking websites on the internet.
Derek Jensen said:
What I have noticed in all of these designs is that they have designed and created their sites to do the following actions:
1. Make a good representation and attract new audience members
2. Focus around their overall purpose and relate that into the functionality and layout of the site
3. Break barriers and letting the creative side be known
As a blogger and a design student (not graphic design) I am really attracted to a site like the 35 above. But, as a blogger you certainly do not want to be a creative as these sites in terms of design/ layout. You want to grab certain aspects and the thinking that went behind these designs.
Why did they organize their header the way they did, etc.?
Nick, a great next post would be to focus on 5 of these beautiful websites and critique or analyze them in a bloggers perspective. Why should bloggers care about their design or what can they specifically learn from them.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Derek Jensen » Let’s right one together. I think that is a terrific idea for a post. Hit me up on skype and we’ll work something out.
Don Gilbert said:
Great list Nick. I haven’t even been to most of those sites.
Once site that I really like the design of and think is very “beautiful” as you put it, is http://scr.im. Check it out sometime. It’s made by the same guy who developed the Admin Bar I told you about.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Don Gilbert » That is a very amazing looking website but I can’t add it to the list because it’s out of date. The copyright still says 2009.
Ron Leyba said:
Level 2 design is simply the best. Simple but it really shows what the site does. Designs!
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Self Improvement said:
Holy smokes, these websites look amazing. I never seem some that good..and I’ve seen good ones before. It’s crazy how when you look at the VERY FIRST websites and today’s website design, it’s so different.
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Dave Doolin | Website In A Weekend said:
Has anyone checked the traffic numbers and conversion rates for these sites?
I’m not the biggest fan of SS101 design (sorry Nick), but I very strongly suspect SS101 traffic blows most of these away. Big time.
My site design sucks way worse than SS101 to be sure, but a couple of spot checks shows my traffic pummels some these sites. And I’m not even working it that hard, certainly not as hard as Nick.
Don’t sell yourselves short, folks! Content is the cake. Design is the icing.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Dave Doolin | Website In A Weekend » No need to be sorry. You know that I value negative feedback. I always appreciate the other perspective on it. Just remember that they aren’t going for lots of traffic. Many of them are design sites where people just send a few referrals to and they quickly become clients. So the few hits they do get are possibly worth more than the many hits that we get. They may be measuring success in a different way than we do.
Dave Doolin | Website In A Weekend said:
You’re absolutely correct, Nick, noting their definitions of success may differ.
This is true for me as well. One very important goal for my site is demonstrating technical competence with php and back end coding. I’m not a front end coder, not at all, my code almost always runs invisibly.
So a measure of my success is respect from colleagues coding on the back end.
Just as a measure of success for many of these websites is the respect of their peers in the design world.
Still, I’ll take the traffic, thankyouverymuch.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Dave Doolin | Website In A Weekend » Ha ha. I’ll take the traffic also, but as you say their desire for success may be summed up in the desire for the respect of their designing colleagues.
Arcnerva Web Design said:
Hey, where is our site? Haha, just kidding. I have seen some of them before and some are new faces.
Oh and SS101’s design looks nice. Not sure about the left justification but hey, its unique, which is cool.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Arcnerva Web Design » Thanks. Yeah, it is kind of different but the template doesn’t offer an alternative format so I just left it that way. I don’t know any other sites that do that so it’s kind of unique.
olybop said:
Very nioe selection oO very nice effects on some website
great post
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Nicholas Cardot said:
olybop » Thanks. I’m glad that you liked them.
Osvaldas said:
That’s a pleasure to be mentioned under that kind of title and among such a great websites. Thank you!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Osvaldas » You easily deserve it. Your site looks stunning. You did a great job putting it together. I’m very impressed with it.
nFormas design said:
Thanks so much for the collection and references…
Gonzo the Great said:
Hi Nick,
great collection of very inspiring websites! (missing n-design website?)
It’s quite obvious that the designs from blogging templates have set a trend for this year.
Thanks for sharing, Cheers & Ciao ..
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Gonzo the Great » Thanks. You just gave me a great idea. I should do a round up one of these weeks of the best looking blogs for the year. That’s a cool idea. By the way, N-Design really is amazing. I’ve added it to the list.
Nadia said:
Impressive. I admire the creativity, imagination, intelligence and focus of the owners and web designers.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Nadia » I do also. These people really know what they’re doing. I’m just bedazzled by their work.
Glen said:
While I do like sites that look good I don’t like going to a site and having to click again to get to the content.
I’m probably in the minority on this but if I went to most of these sites I’d probably just look at the page, leave and never return..
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Dave Doolin | Website In A Weekend said:
I’m the same way.
Remember, you are (probably) not your market!
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Reed Botwright said:
Love the list! Especially Matt Salik’s.
A comment on traffic and access to content: you are correct about featuring content on the front page, but only for blogs. Quite a few of these sites are either designer portfolio sites or web apps. Especially for the portfolio pieces, to put anything but an emphasis on the graphics would be a waste of our eyeballs.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Reed Botwright » I concur. I have nothing more to really add to that. They are looking to impress clients, not drive massive amounts of traffic.
Eric said:
Design is very nice, yes, and content is still one of the most important things over all.
However, these sites do look very interesting but I think a lot of them look like they’re just trying to over do it. That’s just my take on it.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Eric » That’s certainly an interesting take on it. Notice that many of them are designers themselves so I think that it kind of makes sense for them to try to show of the best of the best of their abilities.
Tycoon Blogger said:
Creative People has a killer site. These are great sites and most are web design firms which makes sense since it is their business to have a great site design. I did not see too many blogs in the mix..
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Tycoon Blogger » They really do. As far as blogs, I’ll probably be putting together a collection of the most beautiful blogs in the near future. That would certainly make an excellent post also.
Ed said:
Great collection! Looking forward to some new posts about more blog designs!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Ed » Great. I’m definitely going to be working to keep fresh, impressive designs in front of all of us so that we can all keep improving our sites.
Ben l Awesome Wallpapers said:
Amazing designs! I like Tracy Apps Design, and Calypso Water Park the best:)
Also, I think Web Designer Wall is another great example of a beautiful website:)
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Ben l Awesome Wallpapers » We Designer Wall will very likely make it into my “Most Beautiful Blogs” collection that I’ll be working on. It really looks great.
Ben l Awesome Wallpapers said:
Now that I think about it, here are a couple more beautiful websites:)
SpoonGraphics
Web Designer Depot
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Ben l Awesome Wallpapers » Those are great. I’m working on a beautiful blog roundup and both of those will probably be included.
Lee Ka Hoong said:
Great list of beautiful website Nick! The design from Level 2 Design looked superb and creative. I appreciate web designers as they always have some creative art work especially they can do whatever design for their websites and blogs.
I have 1 or 2 blogs with great design on my mind, but just have yet to come to my head…I’ll list here once they come to my head..
Anyway, great collection Nick!
Cheers,
Lee
Nicholas Cardot said:
Lee Ka Hoong » Me too. I’m always impressed with the work of a good designer. I think that people drastically underestimate the importance of a great design.
Lee Ka Hoong said:
Yea, absolutely! I definitely appreciate their awesome design all the times. A great design definitely helps in building brand for your blog, if we are not good in design, then it’s better to outsource it. I plan to outsource my blog theme design later on as well.
Suresh Khanal said:
Each design is supreme and very attractive. Some are so luxurious like lensisoft and level 2 design! Great.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Suresh Khanal » I completely agree and I’m glad that you like them. These designers definitely did a great job.
Ben Lang said:
Wow those sites are incredible, the more unique the more beautiful they are
Nicholas Cardot said:
Ben Lang » They sure are. I completely agree. These sites are amazing to look at.
Shawn K. said:
I feel inadequate, I consider myself a good web developer / designer…but when I look at many of these I just can’t compare.
I’ve never been able to even grasp perfecting myself graphically.
The best work I’ve done all on my own is my main website.
http://neotelos.com/
I’d really like to see broken down design patterns/tutorials of how these designers made these pages.
Every time I look into design tips I tend to get a little bit better!
*btw, I like that “notify me of followup comments”, it’ll help remember me to check back here
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Shawn K. » We definitely need to have some break downs of the principles used in the design of these sites. That’s for sure. We’ll have to come up with something.
Shawn K. said:
Any feedback you have for me on my main page? (other than finish updating it, lol)
I do like the design on your blog, but I know you had a little help.
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sernan said:
nice collection, impressive indeed… most of the developers did such a nice job, having an awesome design also attracts visitors and adds credibility to the site.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
sernan » It sure does. What better way to show credibly as a designer than to present your potential clients with amazing designs.
Olusegun Adedokun said:
Waoh,
Talk about being spoilt for choice.
I’m having a hard time choosing my favourite between level2design. bouladier and calypso.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Olusegun Adedokun » I know what you mean. They’re amazing.
Seth W said:
While I find that these sites are beautiful, many of them I think are just artwork and not as useful for converting readers.
Also, a few of these sites load very slowly due to their large images.
I think what they do is incredible, but if you are a blogger without a site like that I say, “No Worries” because your goals are usually far different then theirs.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Seth W » I certainly agree with you. I think that they’re intended goals are certainly different than ours but they do have some terrific concepts that we can learn from.
Shamim said:
Hey! I am really amazed to see their blog. The designs they are using is Awesome. But the designs is only applicable on personal site.
Will it be good if i use some high crafted design on any of the SEO blog?
Nicholas Cardot said:
Shamim » You have to find a good balance. You want to make something that looks amazing but you still want it to load quickly and provide an easy navigation structure for your users.
Will Fowler | Payday Loans said:
Greats sites nick I’d say that this newer look of these sites is very earthy lot of earth tones a little grungy not so squeaky clean like original web 2.0 sites. I really like these and of course I often use vimeo.com, and feedstitch very useful sites. -will
Nicholas Cardot said:
Will Fowler | Payday Loans » I’m a big fan of textures and earth tones. I’m really not fond of the web 2.0 and glossy look. It spread so quickly and exploded onto so many sites that it just got old too quickly to me.
Fire said:
Thank Nicholas. All the examples are really inspiring us and we just figure out the idea for our next coming blog.
What a true inspiration!
Thanks
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Fire » That’s great. I hope that you’ll send me a link when you get it up. I definitely want to see that.
Antoine Guédès said:
Really awesome websites!
Great list.
Here is a website I really enjoy a lot: http://www.rubbik.com
Have a look, you should enjoy.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Antoine Guédès » Wow! Rubik really does look great. Thanks for that link. It’s awesome.
Shane said:
Awesome collection!
Good webdesign really is something to behold.
Although, looking through all of those examples, it does seem that there is a certain “cool in 2010″ look to them – a certain similarity that most of them share.
Cheers,
Shane
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Shane » It’s a very organic look that’s been emerging recently in the world of design. It requires much more time and skill than much of the gloss Web 2.0 styles that were so prevalent a few short years ago.
Ian Paul Marshall said:
Wow!!! Lot’s of great inspiration here. Thanks so much for putting this together.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Ian Paul Marshall » You’re welcome. I had a really good time digging through these sites and thinking about the design trends that have been emerging recently.
Matthijs Groen said:
Seriously, some sites are pure Flash. That is not a website, its a datafile loaded an external computer program, with a display box in the browser. A website is something the browser renders and brings to life. A website is HTML + CSS + Javascript.
There are some great designs there though, but not all of them are websites.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Matthijs Groen » I’m pretty sure that a flash website is still classified as a website. I included very few websites that are 100% flash anyways so I’m not sure why that’s overly relevant anyways.
Neil Smith said:
Wow, you should simply rename this list to “35 websites that look like they were designed by the same person”
Are they beautifully designed? Yes!
Are they original? No!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Neil Smith » Ha ha. That’s a funny critique. You think they all look like they were designed by the same person? There is such a variety of styles, colors, elements and features that I feel compelled to strongly disagree with you.
Shawn K. said:
As am I, that comment is quite ignorant. [not your response, the other guy]
Although, I will admit more variety can be found. (not that you don’t have variety already)
I wish I had recalled the url…there is a firm that has worked with Nintendo and Car manufactures many times that makes amazing websites, their homepage has been an inspiration to many developers.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Shawn K. » If you think of that website address be sure to let me know. You’ve really intrigued my with your description of them. I would love to see their work.
Shawn K. said:
I will admit they primarily use Flash, so some developers may not view their work as legitimate websites.
I couldn’t find them yet, but I do know for a fact they designed this microsite in 2005:
http://micro.gameboy.com/
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Brendon Grobler said:
Some great examples of illustration here.
This may be a little off topic but I have to compliment sitesketch101 on some of the best comment styling I have seen. Awesome.
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King Sidharth in Meditation said:
This was much needed. I am redesigning my teen enterprise website and it was really helpful. Thanks Nick
Btw check out my site, would like to have a critique?
Ali Lane said:
Honoured to have my site listed in this post! :]
rabsin_d said:
This sight also is a beautiful website: http://rabsing.com/
You might want to check it out.
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