Website inspiration - 28-11-10

Here are four websites that I’ve come across in my web travels which ( I think) are fantastic designs. Perhaps for different reasons but all great nonetheless.

1. Alinga

The Alinga website has a great, nature-inspired, colour scheme that includes flower illustrations decorating a prominent JavaScript image slider and a pop-out navigation menu at the top. I’ve not seen this type of pop-out menu before and it’s a nice effect (it appears on hover so you’ll need to visit the website to see this).

2. Kathryn Cornelius

Lovely watercolor-style illustration dominates this website for web developer Kathryn Cornelius and it’s combined with (presumably) a photo of the designer (and her dog) to give that personal touch. I also like the big footer area although it’s a bold move (I think) to make this such a dark contrast to the top of the page.

3. The 9513

The 9513 website is slightly unusual, and against the trend of centered layouts/designs, because it’s left-aligned (not visible in the screenshot). It’s a blog with a lot of content and it has a fantastically organised grid layout and typographic styles. I also like the ‘grunge’ texture behind the navigation menu; it’s a nice contrast.

4. Outreach

I’ve ‘cheated’ on this one because it’s a WordPress theme called Outreach from StudioPress and not an actual website. However, I love the clean style of this and the orange, brown and pale green colour scheme. The interior pages of this theme are perhaps more blog-like than the others here but the home page layout works well with a main image slideshow linking to specific pages and three/four content items below.

The last word

In my opinion, these are great designs created by some incredibly talented designers. Hat tip to them.