Some really unusual, inspiring websites have been launched in the last couple of weeks–let’s take a look at some which have stood out!
Tobias van Schneider
Known for having one of the best beards in the business (and a C.V. which is frankly too meaty to detail here) Tobias recently launched a new design for his personal blog. Highlights include beautiful typography, a bold layout with strong use of whitespace, and some visual treats courtesy of canvas and SVG masks. Check it out, there’s lots to take in:
Another feature I’m a big fan of is the white border which frames the whole window, seen above.
Aussie Designers
If it’s bold you love, you’ll agree with me that this one-pager does a grand job. It promotes a Slack channel for designers in Australia, and the colours say it all. Extra points for the copy and the URL too. Good on yer, Stevo.
Google National Parks
To recognise and celebrate 100 years of National Park services, Google Arts & Culture put together this website. It showcases all manner of natural wonders, with the kind of immersive interactive experience you’d expect from Google.
The hover effects on the slides you see below are thanks to a mixture of vw units and transform(), and we’ll soon be posting a tutorial explaining how you can achieve a similar thing with flexbox (stay tuned for that!)
Logo Pizza
Get ‘em while they’re hot! The brainchild of Dave DeSandro from Metafizzy, Logo Pizza is a limited collection of fifty logos available for purchase. To highlight scarcity, and create an element of urgency, the price of each logo rises by $20 every time another sale is made.
Again, extra points for the URL.
Here it is. I've been working on a collection of 50 logos. Now you can get em https://t.co/nY87HJrfXS🍕 pic.twitter.com/omg12E3Tch
— Dave DeSandro (@desandro) September 13, 2016
Red Square Agency
Red Square’s new website is pretty straightforward in terms of what’s visible, but I enjoy its simplicity. I especially like the use of Young Serif (by Rafael Bastide); an open source font used for the headings.
Jen Simmons (lab)
Jen Simmons publishes all kinds of cool, cutting edge stuff on her lab website, and now she’s experimented with the homepage itself. To fully appreciate this responsive angular composition, you’ll need the latest Firefox Nightly build.
I relaunched https://t.co/bZfrNlTAue with a nod to Jan Tschichold, Mino Somenzi, & Piet Zwart. (Use Firefox Nightly) pic.twitter.com/8nQzgYPvTK
— Jen Simmons (@jensimmons) September 8, 2016
It uses a clever combination of grid layout, transform: rotate(45deg); and writing-mode: vertical-lr; to place text in a layout reminiscent of the Bauhaus masters.
Chris Berridge
In-keeping with my taste of enjoying bold, large, clean layouts, Chris Berridge’s revamped website ticks many boxes. Graphik will always make headings look amazing, and just look at those massive thumbnails toward the bottom of the page. Love it.
New WordPress Theme #1: Adios
Another design which uses a white frame around the page. Not a new aesthetic, but I’ve always been a fan. And Google’s Poppins font gives a similarly bold geometric look (if a little less refined) to the previous example.
New WordPress Theme #2: Rushmore
Stylistically, what I enjoy about Rushmore is the skewed post image. It’s not complicated to achieve; there’s a white div block at the bottom, which is absolutely positioned, layered just above the image, which then uses transform: rotate(5.65deg); to tip it. On narrower screens the rotation is removed and everything returns to horizontal. Simple yet effective.
The End
Some great examples there, I think you’ll agree! Some websites which lean on classic, familiar design, others which have really pushed the envelope in terms of layout and concept. Which are some of your favourite newly launched, or redesigned websites?
