It seems these days that many designers automatically settle on the main color in their website’s palette automatically: white. Every other color is just an accent to that. Today, we look at 40 websites that used a bolder color to base their design on — in this case, blue.
It’s harder to pull off a web design that is based on a bold color — the relative safety of a plain old white background is easy to work with. These designers have made it work, though, and this means they can design sites that deliver greater branding benefits using the psychology of color. Check out how they did it.
Critical Zero
Obama 2012
Resume Baking
Foundation Six
Souljade
Yodaa
Carbonmade
The Pixel
Morphix
Vegas Uncork’d
Skype
Twitter Basics
Owltastic
Postbox
Campaign Monitor
Quiip
Elbow Park
Orion Advisor
Bartelme Design
Icebrrg
Birdie
Alex Swanson
Marie Catrib’s
Omaha Barcamp
Kyan
LeaderBe Consulting
Yowza
Ready Made Designs
Knight
Nude Designs
Delibar
Elemodo
Onavo
Jar Design
PSD2HTML
DesignCrowd
nclud
Shelly Cooper
Vimeo
Los Colores Olvidados
Why blue? It’s a bold color but one that’s psychologically fairly neutral and uncontroversial for a business to use — a safe choice. That’s not to say it doesn’t mean anything. Blue is considered a calming color that represents focus, attention, and is both uplifting and motivating. These are all traits that most businesses don’t mind being associated with. While not many businesses will simply say “I need a blue web design” they’ll often request it in their brief or have it as part of their logo. Color psychology does suggest that overuse of blue can come off as sterile and detached, so don’t forget to mix it up a little with other colors that are friendly and pair well.
Daniel Thornton
Latest posts by Daniel Thornton (see all)
- 30 Bold Red Web Designs – April 5, 2012
- 40 Websites That Look Great in Blue – February 6, 2012
- 30 Brilliantly Textured Web Designs for Your Inspiration – September 7, 2011
Some very nice examples. Blue is such a great colour for a website: striking, but not too bold; safe; corporate and easy on the eye.
Thanks for finding and sharing.
[...] Not counting the app folder, there are 19 icons there, 11 of which are predominantly blue. That’s a lotta blue! Inspired Magazine takes this theory one step further and examines 40 websites that use predominantly blue colors for their theme. Check it out here: 40 Websites That Look Great in Blue. [...]
Vimeo and skype are my favorite sites. They are very useful and convenient.
Blu is one of my preferite colours. Thanks for sharing “Souljade” is nice design and I like so much “Nude Design”. I can add http://www.marketing-informatico.com? Thanks for this list!
[...] még egy jópár itt: Inspired Magazine. Megosztás: DeliciousRecommend on FacebookNetvibesTumblrTweet about itRSS CommentKüldd el [...]
[...] 40 Websites That Look Great in Blue – http://bit.ly/xfgljb [...]