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Web designers are constantly looking for hot new trends to catch their visitor’s attention. This list of exciting design trends has changed dramatically in the past 10 years, but dark-themed websites have always been in style. This color swatch combined with many different web elements is a surefire way to draw in attention. If you’re a fan of these deep-rich color schemes please spend some time perusing my design gallery.

Kisko Labs

Crafton

ImGame for iOS

Casa Vaello

FFFFALLBACK

Capo for OSX

Abduzeedo

GR Packaging

Riff Raff Web Design

Abstraktion

ci design

wopro

Cockpit for Mac OS X

Versions App

Espionage

Cornerstone

Plex

Jet Cooper

Designers MX

LA Bubbly

This man’s life

DonQ Rum

Rogge & Pott

Alien Bikes

James Garner portfolio

Pokkisam

Pirata Digital

MadeToKill

Youzee

Kineda

Cobra Creative

Skewed Icons

Justdot

vyniknite.sk

Lubuski Hip Hop

Newcastle Web Design

42 Angels

Kettle NYC

Carbon Ads

Visualbox

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Designers have been transforming the user experience of web forms for over a decade. Input forms are great for personal contact, user registration, profile settings, plus a whole lot more. They are essential in mostly all websites.

In the gallery below I have put together 28 inspirational form layouts to maximize user experience. Professional designers have come up with trendy solutions to even the most complex forms. Gathering data from your visitors can be very difficult at times. But starting with an easy form template can grease the wheels for more conversions.

Greenjob

Journnl

Zaarly

Yaron Schoen

Realmac Software

Tinybas

Diigo

Snoggle News

WPCoder

SVN2FTP

Forrst Login

Awesome JS

Get Credible

Unlocking

Carbonmade

Speckyboy Admin Login

Audio Logic

iCloud Login

Built by Buffalo

Virb

Culinary Culture

Pixellight Creative

Drinkzzz

Blogger Den

Flowapp Login

Sprocket House

13 Creative – Client Login

Wishlistr

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Whenever a user lands onto your 404 page it’s always a frustrating process. As the designer you want to provide solutions to their problem, either traveling back in their web history or maybe hitting your home page instead. Along with these actions you should try wrapping up the page in a pretty pixel display.

This gallery of eye-catching 404 page designs should give you all the inspiration you need! I have cataloged some very interesting layouts from all around the web which not only focus on aesthetics, but also proper user experience. If you have thoughts on the post or wish to share links of your own let us know in the discussion area.

Pinterest

Github

Carol Rivello

Shaw Video on Demand

Deliciously Creative

Pop Screen

Vasa Museet

Jumping Jackrabbit

A Feed Apart

Gowalla

Foursquare

Chunk Games

Snakes in Space

Chris Jennings

Jack Fig

Bright Kite

MailChimp

XHTML Kitchen

Icon Finder

Rubbik

Dream Kumo

Daily Mile

Inflicted

Giraffe

Abduzeedo

Audiko

Frontend 2011

Destiny Islands

Duoh

Spongebob Squarepants

Mozilla Firefox

Oroza

Amazium

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Graphic designers for Apple software often have a way of precision. Mobile iOS apps and Mac OS X have proven to bolster a community of developers publishing under one library. And from this we can see a trickle-down effect into application websites.

Below I’ve collected 36 really unique app websites for iOS and OS X. Keep in mind that most designers and developers are writing code for the apps along with their own websites! It takes a lot of skill to develop under Apple products. If you enjoy the post or have your own thoughts please share them in the discussion area below.

Courier for Mac

Things

Stocks

DropIn

Day One – Mac Journal

On This Day…

Postbox

ColorSnapper

dialvetica

DoveTail

Tourist

Travveling

Instagr.am

Discourse

Typography App

Tweetbot

Alien Blue

Stratus

Cloudette for CloudApp

Kickball

Path

Oink App

Expenditure

Delibar App

Transmit

Renamer

Wallet for Mac

Fontcase

Tea Round App

Sous Chef

Invoy

The Hit List

Snapplr

The Invoice Machine

The Invoice Machine

Binary Tricks – Watts

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Pligg CMS has gathered a lot of attention in recent years. It runs on a PHP/MySQL backend with support for custom templates and modules. But it is still so hard to find an updated Pligg gallery with working links!

I have personally worked on a few projects and would highly recommend checking out the demo to see if you’d want to try it out. For Internet marketers Pligg works similar to Digg, but most webmasters will focus on a specific niche. If you can build a few accounts and connect within the community these websites are perfect for building backlinks and a bit of traffic, too. Check out the gallery below and let us know your thoughts in the post comments.

AlterFilter

Tip’d

FuzeNews

Sphinn

Snoggle News

DesignPoke

BizSugar

Tagza

Cluster Center

FAQ Pal

Blogger Den

Community Radar

Furryne.ws

Graphic Design Links

BlogNews

Dealigg

Openfaves

SEO Swamy

MascotaTube

Dezinews

CSSLeaf

tweetRL

Mototagz

Cuteaholic

CGDigg

fwisp

BallTribe

Pixel Groovy

DesignFloat

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The Internet has given rise to a slew of networked communities. User profile pages have become the norm for cloned systems such as Facebook, Digg, Twitter, and others. This trend has converted even the most basic websites into social havens for users.

Below I have cataloged 26 of the best profile designs found around the web. These feature tons of advancements including block stats, avatars, profile names, and a few other nifty features. Let us know your thoughts on the design gallery in our discussion area below.

Digg v4

Snoggle News

Diigo

Google+

Plurk

Dzone

PHP Camp

Vimeo

Grooveshark

StatiGram

Foursquare

Gowalla

FreelanceSwitch

Netlog

365PSD

Design Moo

Blogger Den

BizSugar

Dribbble

Last.fm

Squidoo

weheartit

Tip’d

Sphinn

Clicker

Forrst

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The ocean is an incredibly relaxing place to be. At nearly every beach and oceanfront property you are able to hear the seagulls and foghorns going off at all hours. It’s an amazing lifestyle which incorporates a lot of beauty and creativity. And if you can’t find yourself at the ocean very often, photography is always an alternative option.

Below I have compiled a fantastic gallery of 34 pristine ocean view photographs. These come from all over the world and feature a wide variety of landscapes. I highly recommend saving any of your favorites to use for later project work. Alternatively if you know of some great photographers or seascape photo galleries feel free to share your links in the comments below.

Ocean View Sunrise

Pier View in Norfolk

Provincetown Harbor

Cape Cod, Provincetown Bay

Atlantic Ocean – Cape Massachusetts

Bench Outlook New Hampshire

Miami Hotel Balcony

Oregon Beach Front

France – Seaside Cottage

Hotel Balcony

5AM Hong Kong, China

Onahama Japan Ocean View

Ocean Park – Hong Kong

Kamakura at night

Machias Maine – The Bold Coast

Singapore Ocean Skyline

Lighthouse Outlook over Atlantic

Ocean Beach San Francisco

San Francisco, CA – Aerial View

SF Bay – Springtime

Ocean View Pier

Water bungerlow

Massachusetts Harbor

Fairmont Orchid

Provincetown Harbor Aerial

Atlantic Steeple

Cape Cod Bluffs Highlands

St. Simon’s Island

Los Angeles, California

Tybee Island, GA

Pacific Ocean off LA

Manhattan Beach

SF Golden Gate Bridge

Seattle, WA Ocean View

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(Image by Jem Stone)

Album covers are a great source of fresh inspiration for your graphic design work. Not only are well-designed album covers artistic, but they’re effective at marketing as well.

The best designed album covers:

1. Give you a clear representation of what the content will be
2. Sell you on the content by looking great itself

In other words, what a great visual design should be.

Think about it: how many times were you intrigued by fantastic artwork, and when you put the music on, it was how you’d imagine it would be like? That was a well-designed album cover at work.

So next time you need a fresh source of inspiration for your design work, take a look at well-designed album covers. And the following list of the 20 best designed album covers will get you started.

Disclaimer: Best Designed vs. Best Looking

Before we dive into the list, know that it’s best designed, not just the best looking.

The best designed album covers not only look great and are eye-catching, but they do an amazing job representing the content: the band, the brand, the music. You’d be able to tell what the music, artist, and vibe is like just from looking at the cover.

There are plenty of sweet-looking album covers that don’t relate to the band or music. Sure, it’s a nice piece of art, and that’s totally fine, but it’s not well designed. And that’s what we’re focusing on here. Your design should not only look impressive but represent whatever it is you’re designing for.

Anyway, without further ado, here are the 20 best designed album covers for inspiration:

20 Best Designed Album Covers

Weezer – Blue Album

Weezer didn’t look like other rock bands in the ’90s, or sing about the same party-hearty or angst-ridden topics, and this cover starkly and boldly showcases their geekiness.

Having a solid single-color background just put the focus on the band even more – as did having them lined up side by side, rather than posing rock band-style (which their later Green Album did, hence lessening the effect).

Autechre – Tri Repetae

The Designers Republic, the adored design outfit from Sheffield, was famous for designing most of Warp Records’ material – where they could really let loose.

This was perhaps TDR’s boldest cover they ever designed. A shiny golden-brown sleeve, nothing else. No text, no logos, nothing. But the genius is in the detail – by having the color be an industrial-esque color, as well as being shiny (alas, not visible on a digital screen), you could tell that what’s inside is a) electronic music, and b) stark and machine-like.

Plus, having this bare of a cover using a never-used color created mystery – you’re intrigued by the enigmatic nature of the content. Which was true of the music.

Autechre – Draft 7.30

The complete opposite of Tri Repetae, The Designers Republic went to the other extreme of visualizing what Autechre’s music sounded like. Abstract, machine-like, enigmatic, and unpredictable – the chaotic and industrial nature of the design. But at the same time: breathing, human, and emotional – TDR used rounded corners and flowing lines instead of square corners and blocks.

Daft Punk – Discovery

The stark silver text implies electronic – of which the music was just that. But the subtle rainbow colors underneath implies a bubbling of fun, disco, and ’70s and ’80s funk – of which the music was also just that.

Jay-Z – The Black Album

This was a mature, classy, and bold statement of an album for the popular rapper, and the cover perfectly reflected that. The black and grey colors and classic font represents the “I’ve moved beyond the bling rap and gangsta posturing” classiness of the music. But the baseball cap still reminds people that this is rap music.

Ramones – Ramones

Ramones’ music was very monochromatic, and so was their debut album’s cover. Black and white all over. And the clothes and location assures you that this is New York City punk music.

But the Ramones were a no-nonsense band, which the cover also reflects – no graffiti, no wearing of countless accessories, no posturing. Just Converse, jeans, jackets, long hair, and rock ‘n’ roll.

Boards of Canada – Music Has the Right to Children

Boards of Canada makes warm yet distant and hazy music. It sounds familiar and foreign at the same time. This cover represents that dichotomy perfectly. The blue hues, the ’70s image, the people, the location – all warm, all familiar. Yet, there’s something hazy as well – the blurred out faces, and the image seeming like it’s being seen through an unclear filter.

Boards of Canada – Geogaddi

A continuation of the Music Has the Right to Children direction. For this album, BoC added kaleidoscopic sounds to their palate. And—you guessed it—the kaleidoscope is literally on the cover. The tree and orange hue makes it feel warm and familiar, but the kaleidoscope makes it not so crystal clear.

The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers

Never has the Rolling Stones’ sex drugs and rock ‘n’ roll been portrayed as effectively as this infamous cover, designed by the famous pop artist Andy Warhol. The grungy stamp of the text, the grainy black and white image, the tight jeans with the suggestive bulge, the choice of the shot itself being so close up – all prepare you for what the songs inside contain.

Yet at the same time, there’s a certain reserve. This isn’t sleaze for shocking-sake. The Stones were a super-professional band, and Warhol didn’t cheapen the band’s brand by using cheap thrills on the cover.

(And yep, as many of you no doubt already know, a real zipper actually unzips on the vinyl cover.)

Gorillaz – Gorillaz

Stylish animated “band”, grungy yet bouncy, Japanese anime yet Western? Check. Fun yet serious music? Check. Is it all packed into the debut album cover, along with the graffiti logo elegantly placed? Yep.

Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Aphex Twin’s music contained in this album is stark, bold, and alien yet familiar at the same time. The cover reflects that. The design expertly uses only his logo, and it fills up the entire space with it. The statement is bold, that you’re about to get a bold dose Aphex Twin.

The design also achieves that by literally getting out of Aphex Twin’s way. The logo is enough to convey the content – no tweaking of it is required. The logo itself is stark, bold, and alien yet familiar.

Aphex Twin – Windowlicker

One of The Designers Republic’s most notorious album covers. Aphex Twin’s tune “Windowlicker” is twisted, sleazy, futuristic, and sexy at the same time.

That combination is wrapped up and perfectly presented in the cover: twisted because of Aphex Twin’s head on a female body, sleazy but sexy because of, well, the female body, and futuristic because of the font choice.

Bjork – Homogenic

The metallic background, falling snowflakes, and icy (not to mention awesomely weird) appearance of Bjork are all balanced and evenly arranged. Which is exactly how the music is – Bjork’s weird-but-great voice, sharp icicle beats, and a cold vibe throughout.

You can’t get a much better designed album cover – slick artwork that also perfectly represents the content inside.

Blur – Modern Life Is Rubbish

Blur’s songs on this album yearn for a simpler British life of yesteryear. It’s spelled out in the album title, in the song titles, in the lyrics, and even in the instruments (think less loud guitars, more horns and keys). But yet the songs are utterly modern and the recordings sound clean.

So while the album cover uses a classic font for the title and features a painting (rather than digital artwork) of an old-fashioned train, the Blur logo is sleek and modern. Like with all of these best designed album covers, you know what you’re getting when you look at this one.

AC/DC – Back In Black

Like the Ramones’ self-titled debut album, AC/DC’s Back In Black is very monochromatic. Simple riffs, beats, and melodies. Black and white all over. But the music is harder and stomps louder. Hence the stark black canvas but with the strong logo loudly stomping over it. You know what you’re getting with this album: loud and heavy rock ‘n’ roll.

BT – ESCM

BT’s album is mystical and new age-y while being futuristic and cutting-edge. The serene shot is new age-y, the monolithic block is mystical, and the text on the top is futuristic (the underscore between the words implies technology). ESCM stands for Electric Sky Church Music, and the cover expertly evokes that.

Burial – Burial

Burial’s tunes are ghostly, foggy, late night South London dance music. The beats are hazy and buried underneath layers of rain and pirate radio crackle, the melodies mournful yet hopeful, and vocal fragments echo into the distance. This is music for listening to at night, on a night bus or late walk home on the street.

The shot of foggy, late night South London not only evokes that feeling you’ll get when hearing the music, but the far-away distance of the shot itself hints at the distant melodies and vocal fragments contained within. Even the text has a foggy glow, like a street light glowing in the rainy night.

Pulp – This Is Hardcore

The music on this album, like the title, is sexual and aggressive yet only suggestive. It’s coy instead of explicit.

The cover does the same by being suggestive – the woman in a dark room is in a possibly sexual position, with supposedly something aggressive going on. But you never know for sure what’s happening in the scene. Even the body reveals very little – the arm covering much of it, and only from the waist up is visible.

Tricky – Maxinquaye

Tricky’s debut album is like a box of mystery. You don’t even know where to start opening it – ie. what to make sense of the tunes. Yes, there’s beats, rapping, and singing, but it all sounds so mysterious. The album cover is literally that box of mystery. The design is the box itself.

Royksopp – Melody A.M.

Royksopp crafted these tunes to be the perfect soundtrack to the morning rise – or the early morning return from a late night. Breezy melodies and groovy beats with a hint of melancholy. Oh yeah, and the duo is from Norway, so the coldness of their winters inevitably creeps into the music.

The morning photo in the cover perfectly evokes that feeling. It’s that undefined state of late night and early morning, where the sun is just beginning to rise, and it’s still cloudy. And that oh-so-intentional white border creeps the feeling of winter and snow into the otherwise warm vibe.

Best Designed Album Covers for Inspiration

Hopefully these 20 best designed album covers provided some fresh inspiration for your graphic design work. Remember: the best designed album covers not only give you a clear representation of what the content will be, they also sell you on the content by looking great itself.

That’s how the best designed album covers can inspire your graphic design work: to not only look fantastic but do a great job of branding and marketing as well.

What’s missing from this list? Cheesed that favorite your album covers didn’t make it? Share more well-designed album covers in the comments below.

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Minimalist design is one of the most significant design movements of the 20th century and early 21st century. It isn’t the flashiest, or the most popular, but it arguably penetrated more fields than almost any other art or design trend. Everything from user interfaces, to hardware designs, to cars, to films and games, to the web and visual designs of today – all those fields and more were influenced by minimalism.

(Image by Jason Garber)

Your friends might not know what minimalism is, but chances are they’re currently using or viewing a minimalist design: a modern phone, a clean web or application interface, looking at a slick brochure or other graphically-presented information, sitting in a simple living space on a sleek sofa, and so forth.

The reason why minimalism penetrated so many fields yet is less known than, say, pop art or something, is because it’s more of a principle than a visual style. And since it is only a principle and direction of designing, designers outside of architecture and industrial design can apply and improve their designs as well – including many web and visual designers of today.

Okay, so minimalism is great and important and all. It’s not flashy but is more influential and widespread. Got it. So what the heck is minimalist design? Let’s find out, along with its roots and key figures. This article will give you a brief history of minimalist design, then offer some practical tips for use in your web and visual designs, and then showcase some examples of minimalist web design.

1. What Is Minimalist Design?

Minimalism is a design trend that started in the 20th century and continues today, most prominently through companies like Apple and various graphic and visual designers. A minimalist design is a design stripped down to only its essential elements.

The unofficial mission statement for minimalist design came from architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe:

Less is more.

Another motto was from designer Buckminster Fuller:

Doing more with less.

There’s not much else to add to that, other than reiterating that minimalist design is more of a principle than visual design. It doesn’t matter if you’re designing a website, a flyer, a user interface, a piece of hardware, a house, or anything else – you remove the unnecessary (ie. can the design still function at a 100% level without it?) and keep only the essential elements.

2. Roots of Minimalist Design

Like with anything in life, minimalist design was influenced by certain things that came before it. Specifically, what influenced minimalist design was:

1. The De Stijl art movement
2. Architects like Van Der Rohe
3. Traditional Japanese design

I. De Stijl

(Image by Tom Rolfe)

De Stijl was an artistic movement in the Netherlands that started in 1917 and lasted till roughly the early 1930s. “De Stijl” is Dutch for “The Style”. The movement included painters, sculptors, architects, and designers.

De Stijl pushed for simplicity and abstraction by reducing designs only to its essential form and color, sticking to only:

• Horizontal and vertical lines
• Rectangular forms
• Primary values white, black, and grey
• Primary colors blue, red, and yellow

In addition to that, many of the elements or layers don’t intersect, letting each of them to be independent and not covered or interfered by other elements.

It doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to figure out how De Stijl influenced minimalist design.

II. Van Der Rohe

(Image by seier+seier)

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German architect who’s considered a pioneer of modern architecture, and his architectural style during post-World War I laid the groundwork for minimalist design. He has designed many landmark buildings, including Chicago’s Crown Hall and New York’s Seagram Building.

Van der Rohe strived for simplicity and clarity in his architectural designs by:

• Using modern materials like steel and plates of glass
• Having a minimal structural framework
• Including lots of open space

He is the one who popularized the term “less is more”, which as mentioned earlier, is one of the unofficial mission statements for minimalist design.

Like with De Stijl, the connection between Van Der Rohe and minimalist design is clear.

III. Traditional Japanese design

(Image by Tanaka Juuyoh)

Adding only what’s needed and removing the rest has always been a focus in traditional Japanese design. If you look at old Japanese architecture and interior design, you’ll see that there were very few flourishes, simple color and design choices, and clean lines and forms.

There is a connection between Japanese design and Japanese culture. Japanese culture is infused with Zen and simplicity. Everything from how food is prepared, to how it’s presented, to how it’s ate, to things like tea ceremonies and stone gardens – all place a focus on simplicity and focus to the activity at hand. Anything that isn’t essential to the activity is not included. Even traditional Japanese clothing like the kimono exude simplicity. There are practically no flourishes and decorations. Every element of the garment is designed with essential functionality in mind: freedom of movement, natural cooling, comfort, durability, and ease of putting on and off.

Naturally, minimalist designers would be influenced by traditional Japanese design; usually more so than much of traditional Western design such as Gothic or Victorian.

3. Brief History of Minimalist Design

Minimalist started in the early 20th century with architecture, roughly around the 1920s. Post-World War I architect Van der Rohe was one of the first prominent architects who used principles in his designs that came to exemplify minimalist design. The reason minimalist architecture started taking off was the availability of modern materials: glass, concrete, steel. Also, standardized ways of building were forming, which helped to more effectively design and build minimalist buildings. The trend continued through the mid-20th century, with notable designer and architect Buckminster Fuller (more on him below) designing domes using simple geometric shapes that still stand and look modern today.

The focus on simplicity spilled over into painting, interior design, fashion, and music. That’s how the following were formed and are now commonplace: minimal painting, minimal music, the minimalism school of composing, and so forth. Painter Frank Stella was quoted as saying, “What you see is what you see”. Minimal art in particular especially grew in the 1960s in America. Similar to De Stijl, painters reacted against the abstract-expressionism art and used only the rudimentary geometric shapes in their works and didn’t add decorations or any other elements.

Naturally, the focus on simplicity also spilled over into consumer products, with designer Dieter Rams (also more on him below) using minimalist design in products for Braun. Ikea, the Swedish furniture company, is another example of minimalist designed consumer products. The furniture is so simple that it’s designed for everyday people to be able to assemble with ease, often without even needing instructions due to it being self-explanatory.

And of course, minimalist design carried over naturally into the digital realm, with visual and web designers applying minimalism principles into their own designs and designs for clients.

4. Influential Minimalist Designers

There were plenty of people doing minimalist designs, but like with any trend or movement, there were a few key figures that were more prominent and influential than the rest. Two key figures in minimalist design were Buckminster Fuller and Dieter Rams.

Buckminster Fuller

(Image by mksfca)

Buckminster Fuller was an American designer who’s best known for his architectural design of the geodesic dome. Born in 1895, Fuller’s futurist tendencies helped him to design minimalist geodesic domes in the middle of the 20th century which could stand on its own – and still stand today.

Dieter Rams

(Image by Ged Carroll)

To designers, Dieter Rams should be an even more familiar name. Rams is a German industrial designer who was born in 1932 and was head designer at the Braun company, where he helped design things like record players, radios, calculators, and consumer appliances.

Rams heavily pursued minimalist design, focusing on including only the essential aspects of a product so that it’s not filled with non-essentials. That resulting product would then be simple and as pure as possible. Rams’ self-described design approach is:

Less, but better.

Rams also has a ten principles to good design. He states that good design:

1. Is innovative – uses technology to innovate
2. Makes a product useful – emphasizes the usefulness and functionality
3. Is aesthetic – beautiful and makes people feel good
4. Makes a product understandable – at best, it’s self-explanatory
5. Is unobtrusive – is neutral and lets user impose their personal style on it
6. Is honest – doesn’t promise things the product can’t deliver
7. Is long-lasting – is timeless
8. Is thorough down to the last detail
9. Is environmentally friendly – conserves resources and space, both physically and visually
10. Is as little design as possible – gets out of the way of the product

5. The Right Practical Approach to Minimalist Design

Knowing the history and key figures of minimalist design is nice and all, but knowledge without action is useless (outside of entertainment purposes, of course). So here are some resources on the right practical approach to minimalist design.

Principles of Minimalist Web Design – a Smashing article with examples that runs through the essential principles of minimalist design and how to apply it to web design:

• Less is more – use only elements that are necessary for your web design; the end effect is greater than the sum of its parts.
• Omit needless things – don’t include unnecessary elements in your designs; include only what’s necessary to the content and function of your website (including certain design and graphical elements that directly affect readability and usability).
• Subtract until it breaks – remove elements until your design stops working the way it should (stops being user-friendly or stops delivering your intent experience); the point right before that is when you’ve achieved the most minimalist design possible.
• Every detail counts – what you choose to leave in is vital, so think of the feeling you want visitors to have, then include only the details that will create that feeling (funky, modern, clean, sophisticated, and so forth).
• Color minimally – use only the colors that interact well with each other and create the feeling you want visitors to have.
• White space is vital – don’t try to fill every space, instead use white space to emphasize certain elements over others.

The Ins and Outs of Minimalist Design – a Design Shack article that looks at key aspects of minimalism in web design and showcases examples from designers who got it right. The key aspects it covers are:

• Typography – choose clean, simple fonts with a high level of readability.
• Strong grid alignments – a readable and pleasing arrangement of content; our eyes are familiar with this pattern, and we want items to line up in a predictable manner.
• Contrast – increased contrast can drastically improve your design’s readability and user-friendliness.
• White space – emphasize where you want viewers to look while making them feel comfortable and less claustrophobic.

6. Examples of Minimalist Web Design In Practice

Now that you know some of the history of minimalist design, it’s time to make it relevant and applicable to you, the web designer. The following links showcase examples of minimalist web design in practice. All of the principles of minimalist design applied to websites.

• Showcase of Clean and Minimalist Designs
• Minimalist Design Gallery – Showcasing Minimalism in Web Design
• 50 Inspiring Examples of Minimalism in Web Design
• A Showcase of Effective Minimalism in Web Design
• 40 Beautiful Examples of Minimalism in Web Design
• 25 Beautifully Minimalist Websites

Over to you: are you creating minimalist designs? Why or why not? Share you reasons for why minimalism is either the greatest thing in the world or a bunch of nonsense in the comments section below.

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Icons come in all shapes and sizes. While the clean and minimalist style is better suited for applications and navigation menus, those highly detailed icons can sure add some eye-candy to your designs.

In fact, a lot of the icons in this post are so detailed that they could be used as feature rather than to complement say an interface or an application menu. I hope you enjoy the showcase. Feel free to chime in and leave a comment at the end of this post.

Red Moleskine

Lightroom Aperture Icon

Playground Icons

Canon 400D Lens

Moleskine Helvetica Icon

Free Designer Portfolio Icon Set

Massive Media Icons

Archigraphs Collection Icons

Moleskine Icons

Car Icons

Magic Tablet

iMod For Dock

Lovely Website Icons Pack 2

Camera Nikon

Incredibly Detailed Drinks Icon Pack

Gentle Romantic Icons

Outdated Icons

Aka-Acid Icons

Chinese Wind Icons

Smashing Royal Icon Set

Your Turn To Talk

I hope you enjoyed this post. Do you know of any other big detailed icons that you think deserve some attention? Feel free to chime in and leave a comment below :)

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