40 Beautiful Examples of Minimal Design for Inspiration
1STWD Editorial
Simply I liked! Why? Because it’s simple…this is the idea of minimalism design. This concept of creating a web page tends to emphasize the idea that “less is sometimes more”. Nowadays all the websites are using big headers, enormous footers all full of colors and amazing pictures; much more an important page should have at least a Flash application.
It is a good point; the color is a key factor in marketing so it is easy to understand the role of it.
In my opinion this kind of design shadows the written content. After all we are searching for some information which in most cases is written (pictures, layout, colors are for attracting people, not to give you good pieces of information). As a reaction to this richness of colors and pictures, minimalism design offers a radical solution: a great and impressive background, a simple or almost nonexistent menu, one or two pictures and a nice content. A few years ago I thought about these websites that they are for dummies and are created by lazy designers. But it is not true! To create such a webpage one needs a lot of experience, many days (why not nights) of work and a very good sense of proportion.
Between a beginner and a professional web designer these qualities are the big difference. Less or more white space can be the difference between a masterpiece and a bad student work. The next 40 webpages are a declaration of love for minimalism design:
1.Jan Reichle
Simple but effective! It has an interesting background with a lot of white and an impressive multicolored shape to avoid flatness. The menu is simple, everything seems to be natural and calm.
2.Chama Inc
Mostly black and white, no stressed sentences, no highlighted paragraphs (except company name, email and twitter address).
3.Finch
This is a little more complicated than the previous one…it has a menu and a picture! I like their motto “My logo is bigger than yours!”
4.elCandor
Nice idea! They put a white and impersonal background to highlight the previous works that are full of color.
5.Kyle Standing
The header is almost impressive (I am subjective so you can have a totally different opinion). The black topside rectangle gives me the felling that some of the content is higher, which is not true. I consider it a hidden sense of humor.
6.Postmachina
Not only white is suitable for a minimalism design. Postmachina created a nice layout based on black. You should also remark that the color of the font is gray.
7.Jason Santa Maria
Red and white; enough to realise that the author is a pro. I really like the design of this site.
8.Jamie Gregory
A very big title and the envelope confer this website an official attitude (but these are not the only elements which contribute to this look). I like it because of the colors, these are used where and how they should be.
9.CRW
A nuance of gray is the background so it seems to be impersonal. To avoid this potential lack of personality the designer writes the content with a very big font. The final result: a very balanced design that looks pretty.
10.Wilson Miner
A seldom used color for backgrounds but that doesn’t mean the design looks amateurish. I like it and the creator has a good mark at originality.
11.Substraction
Everything is black and white. The key of the design is the small “X” near dog. I think that without it the entire page looks somehow unbalanced. What is your opinion?
12.Tudinh
I will surely hire this freelancer should I need his services. It is a very good idea to emphasize what you have done and let the design of the site look natural and impersonal.
13.Sebastian Erdbories
And if Tudinh, the owner of the previous website is busy the next one that I will hire is Sebastian. I thought that I would never say that: but a negative point for this webpage could be that it’s too minimalistic. If you do not have credit on Skype how can I hire him?
14.V Lourenco
Once again, as a personal opinion is this not too minimalistic? The black background looks mysterious so it is more attractive than the previous.
15.Jeff Doe Design
White background with some nice color combinations, so it is what I like the most. Good job!
16.Mattia Viviani
Mattiaviviani presents the situation in a non-commercial format; everything is clear and no hidden message. The blue is a very good choice.
17.Mike Ambs
Yes, I like your webpage! A picture, some links and let the white play its role!
18.Sofa
A solution to avoid too much white space is to use big pictures, footer or header. They chose a big picture of a sofa, inspired by the name of the company.
19.Cabedge
It is one of the best websites I’ve ever seen. The orange line is perfectly situated and it’s the cherry on top.
20.Authentic style
This website inspires a lot of elegance and style. I could say that it is perfect.
21.Huge
22.Omiga pun
23.Ben Hulse
24.Jarad Johnson
25.8020 studio
26.Skinny Ships
27.Design Hotels
28.All day
29.David Bushell
30.Ian James Cox
31.Clearleft
32.D construct
33.Klipp og Lim
34.Somme
35.David Sutoyo
36.Interiors
37.Hot Meteor
38.Dyhrhagen
39.Minimalissimo
40.Visual Box
What do you think about Minimalistic design approach? feel free to share your thoughts with us.
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Belgorod
Posted 30 days ago 22Thanks! #19, #34 and #39 — so good.
Jan-Willem Bobbink
Posted 30 days ago 21To bad some are stretched, but overall a nice set of inspirational work!
Randy
Posted 64 days ago 20Love this article! Keep up the great work!
Randy
Frank
Posted 264 days ago 18Can you include http://www.niuenso.com? Is a nice minimal website
Kate F
Posted 720 days ago 16Brilliant set of sites, your website was recommended in “Design Week” a weekly UK design mag.
Your hard work, is much appreciated my mind is buzzing :)
Dainis Graveris
Posted 720 days ago 17Thank you a lot for feature! Can you let me know with design mag was that? :) Doing our best, by the way soon I will publish article about modern elements in minimal webdesign so keep coming back :)
Chris Hartmann
Posted 733 days ago 15Hi Dainis,
I´m a little bit tired of seeing Huge, Wilson Miner, Jason Santa Maria again and again (btw: great sites). Some of these websites have been created over a year ago. Maybe you and your readers are interested in further minimal website examples. Here are some of my current favorites:
http://www.neimangroup.com/
http://www.leftloft.com/
http://secondandpark.com/
Rock on,
Chris
Randy
Posted 64 days ago 19Thanks for sharing… all three of these site designs are stunning!!!
Randy
Rodrigo
Posted 733 days ago 14Include http://www.marianaonate.com, thanks!
graphicbeacon
Posted 733 days ago 13is it me or do some of these look stretched? please keep the proportions correct as that will make it less misleading. some of them are hardly minimalistic as stated – you may have to update some of these.
Alepho
Posted 734 days ago 12Great.
Thank you.
astho
Posted 734 days ago 11wow… nice collection…
this is inspiring.
thanks,..
João Diogo
Posted 734 days ago 10First time here, and i’ll have to say… awesome post, already on my bookmarks ehehe. Keep up the good work.
.-= João Diogo´s last blog ..bd-ervilha_04b =-.
Arlo Vance
Posted 734 days ago 9I agree with James, most of these sites would not be considered minimalist, and the images are still stretched disproportionately, making it difficult to really see what the site designs are like.
kit
Posted 735 days ago 8Great selection but its a shame so many, if not all are disproportionately shrank to fit the CSS.
hubeRsen
Posted 735 days ago 7Nice ressource, but some sites are not really minimal designs. anyway, good stuff.
Charm
Posted 735 days ago 6nice collection. I am a visiting first time this site and i think its awesome..
visit this site movies.ewebtutorial.com
AKLP
Posted 735 days ago 3Im not really a fan of minimal web design but those sites seem awesome!
James
Posted 735 days ago 2Those are some nice designs but they are hardly minimalist. Really, I think the tile is very misleading.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 735 days ago 4James if you think title isn’t appropriate – then under which category you think these websites would suit better?
William F
Posted 735 days ago 1For #16, the address should be http://www.mattiaviviani.com/
The current link of http://crcbus.mattiaviviani.net/ is an expired domain, so your screenshot shows the “SPAM-vertisement” / search ad page and has NO design
Dainis Graveris
Posted 735 days ago 5thank you for letting us know – I am fixing it right now! :) Cheers.