Lately we have see a lot of sites adopting bold and brightish colors, other sites have been taking a minimal approach by subtly using black and white and, especially in recent months, we have seen an explosion of sites using flat colors. But there has been very virtually no mention of the rapid rise in popularity of pastel colors or, as I like to call them, washed-out colors.
Sites that do opt to use pastel colors or washed colors seem to have a calming and reassuring feel to them, and that is something that is truly unique on the web. They invite you to sit back, chill out and enjoy the experience. Here are 50 such sites for your inspiration:
Solasie
Undertheweather
Photodoto
Portably
Smart Phood
Kiliwatch
Hash
Pupa
Every Last Drop
Hard Graft
Kopla
Melonfree
Morehazards
Amazeelabs
Mariecatribs
Fruute
Izumi Massage
Webstock
Captain Creative
Aark
Pearman
Combadi
Concrete Matter
Built by Buffalo
Kinder Fotografie – Evi Hermans
Lotie
HeathWaller
Tokyo Milk
On Departure
Goin’ Nutty
Eynsford Music Festival
The Woman
The Goodetime Gals
Image Festival
Boo Bebe
Deuxhuithuit
Rencontres Entre Les Mondes
Future of Car Sharing
In Motion Massage
Blip
Chimp Chomp
War Child
Raise the Roof
Upon a Fold
Putzengel
Hull Digital
Forefathersgroup
The Lounge
Lucia Soto
Xixi
You might also like…
Our 50 Favorite Web Designs from 2012 →
Examples of ‘Flat’ in Web Design →
20 Websites with Original, Non-Standard Geometry →
40 Examples of Brilliant Responsive Website Layouts →
Our 50 Favorite Web Designs from 2011 →
Essential Elements of a Design Agency Website Layout (with 30 examples) →
30 Highly Unusual Web Designs →
40 Effectively Designed Non-Profit and Charity Web Sites →
Original from: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/speckboy-design-magazine/~3/DxeusuRe4AY/
Branding is a vital and integral part of any business. In fact, even before actually trying out your products and services, branding is what helps people recognize and identify your business. No matter how big or small your business or venture is, your marketing strategy will not work unless you pay proper attention towards branding.
“Branding”, the term itself does not just mean the logo, it can also include various components like logos, posters, banners, advertisements, envelopes, business cards, and so on and so on.
Today, we have put together some examples of branding all presented in a beautiful and clean way — you’ve got logos, business cards, stationery items, and a lot many other things. Be inspired, and don’t forget to share!
VisualMe by Marko Vuleta-Djukanov
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Original from: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/speckboy-design-magazine/~3/ZS3Nx-BGnpE/
Feeling unmotivated? Does everything appear gloomy and dull?
Nah! Have no fear! We know what will lift up your spirits — amazing wallpapers! So we have put together some of the best motivational wallpapers out there, right here, in this gallery.
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Original from: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/speckboy-design-magazine/~3/ebZTHH3alGM/
You don’t need to be a good driver to love concept cars; in fact you don’t even need to be a driver at all to love them. They are all around us and from a young age we have been drawn to them. From small doodles sketched at the back of our school exercise books to great big paintings of cars as toddlers. It’s easy to see that we have always been inspired by the art of concept cars.
As the years have gone by modern technology has become more innovative allowing designers to create advanced car capabilities, consumer product developments and other features needed in concept car design. This process involves a suite of software, imaginative thinking and creativity.
Multiple designs are created to show all sides of the cars interior and exterior. Every angle must be illustrated; this is to avoid any bugs during the later rendering process. There are many programmes out there used to create concept car sketches, creative professionals use tools from Autodesk Alias, Computer aided design (CAD) and Adobe Photoshop.
There is no guarantee of manufacturing a concept car design; most are usually deemed as not road worthy, but the creativity and skill exposed amplifies how talented car designers are. Their imaginative, futuristic concepts wow audiences all around the world and give us a glimpse in to the future.
Every good idea begins on paper so we have handpicked an innovative selection of concept car sketches for your design inspiration:
Zyklon 2.0
LaFerrari Concept
Pagani Titan Concept
Audi R Zero Concept
Honda EV STER Concept
Sintesi Concept
Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR Concept
Mazda Furai Concept
BMW Mille Miglia Concept
Lamborghini SPIGA Concept
Hyundai Genesis Coupe Concept
Jaguar C-X16 Concept
BMW i8 Spyder Concept
Bentley EXP 9 F Concept
Aston Martin PT220609 Concept
Porsche’s Sport Turismo Concept
Audi Shark Flying Concept
Mercedes Benz CLS Concept
Toyota FT-HS Concept
MG Midget Car Concept
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Original from: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/speckboy-design-magazine/~3/S7fBROLGbP8/
Over the years (as you can see from 2008 and 2010) design agencies have consistently produced clean and spacious homepages using a simple tried and tested formula: Large logo, a simple medium-sized tagline, main section used for showcasing some of their best work and finally listing some basic contact information in the footer. It is a very simple formula, but it has worked effectively.
Fast forward a few years to 2013 and web trends have dramatically changed, technology has greatly improved, user expectations are much higher and the mobile web has well and truly arrived. Typography is much larger nowadays, sliders are used instead of static images, parallax scrolling & single pagers are overly popular… there are so many changes and improvements that we can’t possibly list them all here.
But the one thing that hasn’t changed, despite all of the progress and as you will see from the beautiful and clean agency sites we have for you below, is that that simple, yet perfect, web design agency formula still works and rings true: Logo – Tagline – Best Work – Contact Info.
It is timeless.
You might also like…
Our 50 Favorite Web Designs from 2012 →
Examples of ‘Flat’ in Web Design →
20 Websites with Original, Non-Standard Geometry →
40 Examples of Brilliant Responsive Website Layouts →
Our 50 Favorite Web Designs from 2011 →
Essential Elements of a Design Agency Website Layout (with 30 examples) →
30 Highly Unusual Web Designs →
40 Effectively Designed Non-Profit and Charity Web Sites →
Original from: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/speckboy-design-magazine/~3/TcFJxMOj-T0/
Ahoy! Even though today be not International Talk Like A Pirate Day, a body’s not be stopp’d from checkin’ out some awesome pirate artwork, starboard?
T’day, our honorary shipmates’ve put t’gether this fine piratey collection o’ artwork related t’ pirates. Have fun, don’t forget t’ leave yer comments!
You might also like…
Original from: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/speckboy-design-magazine/~3/RzpVzc7g0Ng/
We see advertisements on a daily basis — television, newspaper ads, billboards, internet, and so on. Many such advertisements exhibit a great level of creativity, especially when it comes to themes related to fantasy.
In this gallery, we have compiled some of the best creative ads that are inspired by fairy tales.
Got a fairy tale…er, we mean, advertisement that we missed? Share it with us in the comments below!
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Original from: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/speckboy-design-magazine/~3/73GGwF7fltU/
Geometric shapes are widely used as design and framing elements, navigation components or as a way of drawing users’ attention to certain parts of a website. The most popular geometric elements in web design are obviously rectangles and circles. But what about using other geometric figures? Triangles, trapeziums, rhombuses or even hexagons?
In this showcase we will show you that not only simple shapes and figures can be used for designing a website effectively, but as you will find below, a number of sites that use unusual and complex shapes as a way of enhancing their web design.
You might also like…
40 Examples of Brilliant Responsive Website Layouts →
Our 50 Favorite Web Designs from 2011 →
Essential Elements of a Design Agency Website Layout (with 30 examples) →
30 Highly Unusual Web Designs →
40 Effectively Designed Non-Profit and Charity Web Sites →
50 Websites with Fantastic Color Schemes →
25 Web Sites Featuring Video as a Background →
30 Beautiful Hand-Drawn Style Websites →
Original from: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/speckboy-design-magazine/~3/f7WTMlZkowM/
A couple of weeks back, we talked about the flat design aesthetic. Just in case you missed it, here is how we described flat design, “Flat design means designing without the usual gradients, pixel perfect shadows, and skeuomorphism that’s been rampant in recent years to achieve what appears to be a ‘flat’ interface.”
And yes, just in case you haven’t yet jumped onto the flat design bandwagon, today we have put together 20 awesome examples (plus some Dribbble shots) that illustrate beautifully the concept of ‘flat’ in web design.
…some ‘Flat’ Dribbble shots…
For some more Dribbble examples click here: Flat Design on Dribbble.
Or, you could check out ‘Flat Design’ on PatternTap.
More on Flat Design…
What Skeuomorphism Is (And Isn’t)
Skeuomorph on Wikipedia
The Flat Design Era
On the “flat design” aesthetic
Is “Flat” UI design better?
The Flat Design Era – Discussion on Hacker News
The Flat Design Aesthetic on Hacker News
You might also like…
Review of Popular Web Design Trends from 2012
The Dark Side of User Experience Design
The Flat Design Aesthetic: A Discussion
Design Patterns for Creating Exceptional User Interfaces on the Web
User-Centric Website Design
Responsive Image Techniques & Resources
Original from: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/speckboy-design-magazine/~3/J4qfMsrhSnA/
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