One of the great parts of being a website designer is being able to look for inspiration off such talented people. The standard of work and creativity shown by designers today when coupled with the latest browser support is sometimes quite breath taking.
One of the best resources for showcasing this talent is on sites like CSSMania and I spent a short while going through some of my favourite sites that showcase amazing graphic design skills. Please take a few moments to have a click through each of them as the designers of each of the sites are a credit to their profession.
MTGrafik
We shall start off today’s examples by looking at a company called MT Grafik. They’re a Turkish media company that have created a character to be used throughout the site that bears a resemblance to Pinocchio. They have also created a roadway scene with the sea in the background just above the footer. The detail that goes into the design is second to none and its certainly one of the most creative sites I’ve ever visited.
Inspiration Dormant
Inspiration Dormant is a book that is available for the iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. The site makes use of the images used to create the book and really showcases the design skills of the artist.
OPResume
OPResume is an online portfolio and resume website. The reason that this site is amongst my favourites is that it is developed using the latest JavaScript technologies available. This could have been developed in Adobe Flash but people are starting to create such inventive designs just using clever scripting taking away the need for the Adobe Flash Plugin. The level of detail at the bottom of the sea is quite unbelievable and this really does show that Flash maybe coming to the end of its reign for animating websites.
ISee
ISee is a Portuguese web design company that has created a three eyed monster that is used throughout the site. One of the features that stands out on this site is the interactivity based on mouse movement. This is becoming quite a popular technique in web development to try engage the user with the site.
Pixelbaecker
Pixelbaecker use quite a common idea in that they create one long page that can be navigated by the user. The “scroll to anchor” style feature makes the page easy to navigate without having to move around pages. I think that these sorts of websites are an acquired taste, and certainly not suitable for all projects, but with these inspirational graphics, it works perfect for portfolio style sites.
Intacto10year
Intacto10years is quite possibly the most intricate of the sites listed. It is almost a video presentation when you set the site on automatic, as it scrolls through the past 10 years. The amount of detail that has gone into the creation of the site and the ability to load that much information without the site appearing to lag behind is quite a testament to its creators.
Chilid
Chilid is a Polish site that uses a whale as its main character to navigate you through the site. The whale is seen in many different outfits carrying out a range of activities but helps engage you with the site as you work your way around the site. The site is simple in its design but it is also easy to navigate which helps a broad range of users to find out information they need quickly so it definitely gets the thumbs up from us.
Salveomamute
Salveomamute is a site dedicated to saving the Mammoth. It includes a range of videos and interactivity that makes it a fun site to take a tour around. Although the site is written in Portuguese, the imagery and videos make it a great site to visit without being able to read some of the sections.
Art4Web
Art4Web is the unique site on this list. This is the only site that makes use of photos at the same time as including graphic design. The photo’s they’ve chosen to use have a cartoon feel to them and are really accompanied by shapes and objects all over the page. The page appears clean and I find the typography particularly well thought out to work with their images.
Hello Studios
Hello Studios is a digital studio based in Australia. They have created a few characters that are used to help you navigate throughout the site. They have also chosen to use a one page design with the “scroll to anchor” technique and it loads seamlessly. These types of website have been starting to increase over the last year or so and the ideas people are coming up with to utilise the technology will only get more creative.
Well I hope that some of these websites have given you a little bit of inspiration to go and try out some of these techniques. If you have any more sites that you’d like added to the list, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll add it to our list.
