By now I’m sure you’ve figured out that I love minimalist designs. I’ve featured many simple and minimalist websites on SpyreStudios before but this time I wanted to feature sites that not only have a minimalist layout but that also use very little colors.
I tried to find sites that use a greyscale color scheme but that also introduce a vibrant and/or contrasting color, usually for links and buttons. Most of the sites on this list use at most 3 or 4 colors (black, white, shade of grey, contrasting color) excluding pictures and images that are placed in the content area.
The websites are listed alphabetically. Hope you enjoy it!
*Warning: Lots of whitespace ahead! :)
5 Thirty One ↓
72 Rivington Street ↓
39/18 ↓
80/20 Studio ↓
Aen Tan ↓
Andy Rutledge ↓
Anthony James Bruno ↓
Arias ↓
Astheria ↓
Beyond Standards ↓
Big Kid ↓
Brilliancy ↓
Bryan Culver ↓
Cade Martin ↓
Daniel Howells ↓
Daniel Oliver ↓
David Airey ↓
The Deck ↓
Eduardo de la Roque ↓
Derek Bender ↓
Eightface ↓
Feed A Fever ↓
Fell Swoop ↓
FRKT ↓
Header Footer ↓
Hello Stefan ↓
Jamie Gregory ↓
Joni Korpi ↓
Jon Tangerine ↓
LindenTibbets ↓
Made By On ↓
Make Tea ↓
Martin Hipp ↓
Max Voltar ↓
Middle Mind Project ↓
Minimal Sites ↓
NUYU ↓
Offset Media ↓
Oh Deer ↓
Olex ↓
Peter Rozek ↓
Pixel Bot ↓
Rikcat Industries ↓
Rodrigo Galindez ↓
Shaun Inman ↓
Site Inspire ↓
Stefan Persson ↓
Strange Beautiful ↓
Subtraction ↓
Superrevolver ↓
Thirty One West ↓
Voce Antica ↓
Welcome To HR ↓
Year Of The Sheep ↓
Yoo Tae Han ↓
Z8 ↓
Your Turn To Talk
I hope you enjoyed this post! Please share your favorites with the rest of us – I love to read what other people like about minimalist designs and layouts. And what do you think of monochrome designs? Love ’em? Hate ’em?
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For me, I really like the minimalistic themes…
Fantastic collection of sites. I’m preparing to do a redesign of my own site and so many of these are so inspirational.
i love! i am in the process of redesigning my website and simplicity and clean lines are exactly what i am looking for!
May I humbly suggest my own site which I just redesigned with a minimalistic approach 3 days ago. http://reinholdweber.com
Nice list. Here goes another example: http://www.sparkmm.com
Excellent list – as always! Minimalist design is quite often more difficult to achieve and each of these sites accomplish the feat very well. Thanks for the inspiration! As an aside, let me also comment on Spyre’s new look…It has been awhile since I’ve visited and I like it very much!
I’m genuinely flattered to have three of my websites featured here (72 Rivington Street, my own blog, and siteInspire). Thanks so much!
And also appreciate David Arias, Minimalsites, FRKT, and Human Resources… huge fan of all.
I really liked the list and the simplicity of colors and designs. Thanks for the share.
Wow, totally amazing! Clean is good!
R
Twww.anon-tools.tk
Nice list, here’s another one – http://zachkrasner.com/
Nice clean designs indeed. Dugg for “Z8”
Nice collection. I couldn’t help but notice the similarity between “made by on” and “on wired”, what do you think?
http://www.madebyon.com
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Logo: http://img.skitch.com/20090627-tk5n7r2em6d34nuc676cfj7821.png
Shortcut: http://img.skitch.com/20090627-g2thqc7gqtbxd7ij2q7hkr4dni.png
http://www.onwired.com
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Logo:http://img.skitch.com/20090627-xxhaqnufwai5sn2mjrrg48uygi.png
Shortcut: http://img.skitch.com/20090627-e6dmi5mc54wq69rw2byt36557p.png
Glad everyone is digging my site!
Cheers,
AJB
Great list. Mine is also using minimalistic apporach: http://daus.trala.la/ :)
Thanks for the linking my site! I’m very flattered to be in this list of amazing websites by some amazing developers!
Nice list. Here goes another example: http://frischerlook.de
Check mine – http://mariuszciesla.com
Purely inspiring!
more than enough there to inspire me for my next design
Indeed great list.
I recommend this uber minimal design
http://catnipcreative.com
Woot I appeared twice in this post. First as the fifth entry in the list and then as a screenshot within Minimalsites. RT, Dugg and thanks!
I’m flattered that FRKT is associated with these. Thank you.
yep, really nice selection!
Hi
Great list and thank you so much for the inclusion (3918.co.uk).
Means a lot
Stuart
Here is another one: http://hotmeteor.com/
wow. thx for this collection.
I like typography. but dont like to use it :)
BTW, I love the hover effect on the comment images.. I may “borrow” that idea, a little different of course :)
another one thats super minimal http://www.marthakelly.com
Such beauty in simplicity, but so hard to sell to clients. “It looks so plain,” is what I hear a lot.
Your ability to organize and present information is amazing. I would invest in a search engine that could produce results like yours. Another great post.
Minimalism is one of the greatest design success stories. Thank you for sharing these light and clean designs.
Sweet list! Thanks for the mention. Was actually just in the middle of making a small design/usability tweak this morning. Changed all sidebar links blue, not just on hover.
Great collection, thanks a lot :)
Quite the popular post here, Jon. Thanks a lot of the mention alongside lots of inspiring designs. Makes me want to show a little more black in mine, and less gray.
Nice list. Here goes another example: http://www.dackworld.de
One of my current favorites for a local gallery/studio.
@All: thanks a lot everyone, I’m happy you liked the post! :)
@Camille: Thanks! I really appreciate it. For some reason I keep changing the design, guess I can do stuff here that I can’t when I work for clients hehe
@Andrew: humm, good catch! Yes, I agree, they do look very similar, though it’s a good thing both websites look completely different I guess.
@Daniel Howells, Anthony James Bruno, Aen, Johannes, Stuart Hobday: You’re all very welcome!
@LindenTibbets: You’re welcome! I have to say I do like the blue links better :)
@Jim Gaudet: Sure thing! :)
@Jim Cook: You got a good point there. A very minimalist approach won’t work for every type of site, but sometimes it does. It can be minimalist and still get pretty big and successful if you look at sites like emptees.com. Of course when it’s freelance work, it’s not about making it simple and minimalist just because you like that, it’s about what the client wants and needs and what his/her goals are with the site.
@David Airey: You’re welcome buddy! Hey I like the shades of grey, I think if fits nicely with the orange you have (and as you can see I love orange hehe) :)
One or two examples here I would diss outrightly as a pile of poo, as they seem to break every rule in the book and leave me stranded trying to understand what the page is about.
Others, considering they have no colour for most part, are in danger of being easily forgotten, hence missing out on important branding values which add so much to many businesses.
It’s an interesting list of examples nevertheless.
Great post … I’m a fan of minimalist designs … my favourite is the NUYU website!
Nice list guys!
Please check ackackack.com and weweregood.com
Very nice collection. I was just looking for some inspiration for minimalistic designs. Great article.
Nice post guys!
I see these collections of minimalistic web designs all over the place, but it’s hard to find an actual GOOD collection of designs. Nice post, thanks for the inspiration!
I love minimalist designs and my favorite is my site! hahaha. Thank you for this collection.
Hey Jon,
Thanks for featuring our website in this great list. We gave you a little shout out on our blog.
Geo.
They’re nice, but all pretty similar. Minimalist doesn’t have to mean unimaginative.
http://www.dannyisonfire.com is a design that I really like.
nice listing good post and collection of website really impressive.
Interesting collection! I appreciate your effort and eye for clean designs. I bookmarked this page and would really love to visit these sites in detail, probably pick up an idea or two:)
Thanks again for the nice collection.
Janaki
very simple but yet very beautiful. thanks for showcasing this compilation ;)
this is such a fantastic post!!! A big thank you Jon for sharing these sites with us. Simple yet so effective…nice!
I like the collection.
Though most of them are just based on almost standard fonts, some of the templates look really nice..
I surely have to make a separate section in my websites to post collections like this one.
I’ve remarked, many are using a black color scheme – if you play a bit with other colors, some examples may be upgraded quite well..
After seeing this it make you appreciate the simple website designs. Some times simple is the most professional.
Always interested in what others are doing since I am still in the learning process and tend to run with scissors and draw outside the lines — on purpose!!!!
Nice collection! I love clean design. Here’s another one: http://hakki.com – I like how he keeps it so focused at the message, as minimalistic as it gets :)
Great list. Heres another example:
http://www.pomade.tv
Nice list, here’s another one – http://www.dackworld.de/2009/07/17/30-free-minimalism-wordpress-design-themes/
Great post!
Simple is the best.
Thank you for sharing.
Thanks ! I like them all !
I seriously love this type of web design, makes my site http://www.design-intellect.co.uk look embarrassing. Have book marked your list and will study the ins and outs of these styles, any advice? Matt.
nice collection here …
thanks for sharing …
Looks like I’m very late in discovering this, but nonetheless I humbly appreciate the inclusion of my website here. Also, thanks to Daniel Howells for the props. I’m a fan of this web development skills myself. Every time I come across other beautifully designed websites ( many of them shown here) it makes me want to re-design my own again. Thanks again. Beautiful collection here.
Wow…..this is something I was looking for. These websites look very clean and professional. Honestly, I was tired to of those bright and colorful designs. I am not saying that they are bad but seeing these sites with minimal color scheme was a treat to my eyes. Thanks.
New to the site… will be a frequent visitor. Some fantastic examples and insight.
I would like to get some thoughts on my site: http://www.theedesign.com/
Thanks guys!
Guys, also check out Minimalissimo at http://minimalissimo.com. We blog about minimalist design and try to practice what we preach!
minimalism can never become outdated, eh? one thing minimalism is, unlike high-end designs, it offers great platform for improvisations and modifications that can still be minimal!!
I really like the 80/20 Studios design. That, and Site Inspire. Those are my ideas of what clean, elegant professional websites should look like.
The Cade Martin one looks really fantastic as well. Perfect for a personal blog, or perhaps a screenprinting service.
nice collection there buddy! I’m a big fan of minimalism in fact i’m also designing minimalist templates and this list gave me inpirations in most of my designs
Hi, I just left a comment on your article titled: “20-examples-of-dark-minimalist-website-designs-with-great-typography” which I thought was an excellent and inspiring piece. In the comment I said that dark websites are excellent, however because of “glossy” screens on new PCs and Macs, (and glass screens on mobile phones) fingerprints and dust or glare can detract from the overall web experience.
With white/ light webdesign (even though I really like dark designs), for asthetic appeal they are much better as it reduces glare and screen dust/ fingerprint visability.
Some good examples in addition to the excellent ones you have shown above are:
http://www.teNriA.com | http://www.Apple.com | http://www.HugoBoss.com | http://www.CK.com | http://www.Dior.com
These are some of my favourites and most inspirational as they look really classy.
Great post–thanks for the inspiration!
I got inspiration from these sites to come up with the first revision of my website here at http://www.employeratlas.com – it may be a little to simple though. Any suggestions?
Awesome designs I think I am going to redo my portfolio site using this clean minimalistic style. It never gets old!
I will redo my owm website with insiration from these designs.
These inspired me a lot…thanks for the list. It makes me think to collect minimalist design websites that use Joomla CMS as their platform. But it’s a little hard to find the sites with this design approach…
That stuff will defenatelly help me building my webstie in a better way. Thanks.
I love this simple but beautiful stlye. Thank you for this great collection, some already bookmarked.
Usually a big fan of dark designs, but some of these are really nice! Bookmarked!
Hiya,
Great post, I think keeping minimalistic and clean is good it has lots of advantages aswell, such as quicker load time and search engines love them as their usually easy to read.
I think i went over the top here; http://www.randomfactgenerator.net Haha!
Thanks again!
Great post on this website…really its very useful for website designers..fine thanku..nice sharing
Nice collection! Here are some more: http://newevolutiondesigns.com/30-outstanding-minimalist-web-designs
I tried to also keep it clean and simple by using as little imagery as possible and just letting the content be the design. Check out http://www.reversedout.com and let me know what you guys think and if there is an opportunity for me to improve or even simplify more. Thank you.
Great collection of inspiration! I came up with this very simplistic design for my portfolio. What do you think? http://www.aarontolley.co.uk
Amazing round-up of some of the best designs I’ve seen in a while
wow! i’ve bookmarked this page mate. each site is interesting and no wonder, i’ve already picked up an idea or two from some of them. I’ll closely watch through them once again..thx a lot
Minimalism can be powerful, yet It’s very easy on the eyes. I went for a more minimalist approach on my design portfolio myself- let me know what you think http://www.yuriyz.com.
Very very nice design.. Loves it..
These are beautiful… Simple yet attractive.
Very few pages aren’t trapped by the “grid effect”. Many of these sites are inanimated, or static. I agree about “Minimal use of elements”, but you have to make your page moving anyway. Cade Martin, or PixelBot, or Voce Antica are good examples. Thanks for the showcase, very inspiring.
wow! i’ve bookmarked this page mate. each site is interesting and no wonder, i’ve already picked up an idea or two from some of them. I’ll closely watch through them once again..thx a lot
http://www.subbmitt.com is a very minimalist social news site. I like it better than Digg or Reddit because of its simple clean design. Nicely done.
I tried my hand at making a minimalist site:
http://www.we.bsit.es
http://akado.fi/ – my minimalist website
My creative work, thanks, http://folioway.iwakthemes.com
Great job putting this list together — I love the underlying simplicity of a minimalist design and how it focuses the reader’s attention onto the content itself.
I’ve written a similar post on Why a Minimalist Website Design is Better, check it out:
http://rainleader.com/2011/06/less-is-more-why-a-minimalist-website-design-is-better/
It’s interesting to see how minimalist design and basic color schemes can be used in many unique ways. Thanks for the great list of examples.