Minimalism Around the Web: Design Inspiration & WordPress Themes
This post showcases minimalist design from around the web, and briefly explains the ideology of minimalism. It is to be used as inspiration for anyone, and as a resource for web designers.
Minimalism. Underappreciated by Nature
Minimalism used in Website Design is under appreciated, as in so many other areas of design. Considering its nature, this isn’t so surprising. Minimal is a term used to describe work that is stripped to its most fundamental features. In other words only the basic and necessary elements are used, making it easy to miss the true beauty of minimalist works.
How can something be beautiful if there is nothing there? The real beauty of minimalist works comes from what is not there, and perhaps more importantly the functions each basic element serves. A minimalist reduces multiple elements that each serve different purposes into single units that have many visual and functional responsibilities.
It was first said by Robert Browning that “Less is more,” and since then his idea became a fundamental philosophy for minimalist ideology. His saying was later adopted by German Industrial Designer Dieter Rams “Less, but better,” which beautifully summarizes what Minimalist design is really all about. It’s using less, and creating a more fulfilling experience. Since then minimalism has been an idea that has influenced many of todays most renown designers, including people like Johnathan Ive (Designer of iMac, iPod, iPhone) and John Pawson.
Minimal Web Design Showcase
The bare, sleek appearance of Behind Design is complimented nicely by its focus-on-hover content areas.
Bureau for Visual Affairs uses simple elements like lines, numbers, and blocks of color to create a simple yet totally cohesive website. Minimal use of color draws the eye to desired locations in an instant, while a single image is of upmost importance to the viewer.
designhaus berlin isn’t just a portfolio. It feels like a portfolio. And it does so with hardly any visual cues aside from a typographic grid. Many of the pages display with separate background colors which resembles flipping through a creative portfolio in a more tangible sense.
Erratic Wisdom adheres to grid. How do we know? The whole background of the site is a dot grid with simple labels instructing viewers how to use the site.
Giles Revell’s Portfolio is straight to the point. Images featuring Giles work are even spread out across the page, and are identified in the page header when hovered over. No happy text, all very nice looking.
Maurice Kuhlborn’s site is split into horizontal bars, each with it’s own content. One of the bars doubles as a navigation, and a description of the current page being viewed.
Non-Format’s uses a splash page of sorts , which immediately gives you an idea of the caliber of work the rest of the site contains. Navigation expands and collapses as needed, always retaining interest on the incredible creative work this Norwegian/British team is responsible for.
Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects might be a hard name to swallow, but the presentation of their projects is elegant as it is simple. The entire background of the homepage doubles as a photo from one of their projects, while the rest of their site manages to keep identical navigation structure despite heavy style changes. The text feels minimal, and emphasis is very much on the photographs.
Parsley Studio uses a collection of simple images that fill a background to make it stand out, and these images function as a navigation system for their portfolio. Actually, if you try browsing their full portfolio, you’ll notice they don’t use any text whatsoever until hovered over.
qlear is a much darker site than many other minimalist sites featured here, but the display of content remains simple and inventive. Browsing through the portfolio is a seamless, smooth, intuitive process. The header doubles as a place to get to know the creator, Kevin Kalle.
ReinH is a personal blog/journal that hops right into the latest post. Aside from a faded background image, it’s a layout composed of only text, but the different shades create a distinguishable content hierarchy.
Tim Jarvis – A Base Reference contains very little text, as the primary content are the beautiful photos. The home page loads a different work everytime it’s loaded, each bringing it’s own mood to the entire site.
Tom Booth’s portfolio is divided until multicolored categories. Clicking a category expands it allowing the viewer to quickly navigate to a specific work.
Twistori is a unique concept that uses Twitter to display different emotions from around the web as they are posted. The navigation also acts as the means of separating posts. The page automatically updates, and there is even a screensaver that can be downloaded to use it on the go (For Mac OS X).
Jan Reichle uses the background of the site as a clever logo type. The site functions in a similar manner to a file structure on a PC or Mac, effectively showing what is available, and precisely where the user currently is.
Muller is formated to feel like a catalogue, and a catalogue it feels like. The block grid makes the content easy to parse, and the simple display of work communicates the work effectively.
Shaun Inman uses an animated flash background, but it all feels so simple and right. Outstanding grid work in play here. You may know Shaun from his work with Mint.
Vitor Lourenco puts on a wonderful display of what a perfect web interface may look like. Aside from working on Twitter, Vitor’s portfolio contains some impressive work.
John Pawson may be one of the most highly respected minimal designers of this day an age, with quite a portfolio under his belt. His site is clearly demonstrates his beliefs of trying to achieve simplicity in art.
Minimal WordPress Themes
If you’re a WordPress user, you may take interest in some of these themes with a minimalist aesthetic.
“Cardeo Minimal WordPress Theme” – This simple WordPress theme is split into 3 columns on a white background with hardly any noise. Images are given upmost prominence.
“Hemingway” – A dark, simple, and elegant WordPress theme split into several columns and rows. The entire layout is divided and organized by nothing more than blocks of text and simple lines.
“Just Lucid” – Not quite as elegant as Hemingway or Cardeo, Just Lucid does offer a wider post format for WordPress users that need the extra width, but want to keep things clean.
“Modicus” – Minimal with a hint of attitude is how I would describe Modicus. It has a few unique quirks to itself, but Modicus is definitely a theme worth experimenting with if you need a minimal layout. It’s fast, ad friendly, and includes an optional homepage.
“Minim” – Another theme by Upstart Blogger that feels a bit more clean. It’s lightweight giving it the speed advantage over other sites, and formatted to accept standard ad formats.
Minimal WordPress Themes elsewhere on the Web:
Slightly Unrelated, but You Might Also Like This
Creative Package Design
Again, websites certainly aren’t the only place minimalist ideas are put into practice (it could be argued that web design was minimalist trends last compared to most forms of design). Check out this incredible collection of well crafted products after you finish up here.
80 Comments
KISS is the key to very successful minimal design
Flag as inappropriateHi David,
Flag as inappropriateit’s wonderful to see your collection here and a great affirmation for me to stay on track. i am from Germany but live in New Zealand and design minimal web sites here.
Maybe consider adding one of my creations to your list?
Thanks for the great tutorials
Phaeder
Some great inspirations, thanks for the selection.
Flag as inappropriateVery nice :))
Flag as inappropriateI’m sort of late to comment on this post, but there are some extra ordinary websites in this list. I love minimalism.
Flag as inappropriateTHanks for sharing !!!! :)
Flag as inappropriateHere you’ll find more minimal CSS Designs:
Flag as inappropriatehttp://www.minimalsites.com/
Thanks for sharing this great list, great design, very inspiring
Flag as inappropriateGood stuff, thank you for this.
Flag as inappropriateExcellent post. Thanks27
Flag as inappropriateExcellent post. Thanks20
Flag as inappropriategreat i never seen before.45
Flag as inappropriatethanks for sharing. So mush
Flag as inappropriateThanks for this collection … it’s always good to see minimalist web design … keep it simple stu*id!
Flag as inappropriatebrilliant designs
Flag as inappropriategood Design Inspiration!
Flag as inappropriateMinimal and don’t they look better for it instead of being rammed with stuff. Ahh but unfortunately the client is always right lol
Flag as inappropriateVery nice designs, thank you so much! I particularly like Shaun Inman’s work with Mint.
Flag as inappropriateGreat post! Big fan of minimalism!
Flag as inappropriateThanks for including my Minimal theme
Flag as inappropriateI cannot believe this will work!
Flag as inappropriateHere’s a few minimal sites that I look at:
http://www.alexafalcone.com/
http://www.visuelle.co.uk/
http://www.thisisrealart.com/
Flag as inappropriateI am a fan of minimalist work, my consulting company used to be called “White Space Design.”
Great pieces of work!
Flag as inappropriateA good piece of inspiration in my mind now:)
Flag as inappropriateOh, almost forgot, top website by the way, much respect!!!!
Flag as inappropriateMatt.
Wow that is some beautiful work posted here, have had to bookmark for posterity! Matt.
Flag as inappropriateman the way you presented them is more nicer then their works :P
Flag as inappropriateHello!
Flag as inappropriateVery Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language ;)
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo
thanks a lot for such a smart and well done theme
Flag as inappropriateHow about this one … they’ve even abandoned any colors :)
MYKITA
Flag as inappropriateThese are really beautiful, thanks for the inspiriation.
Flag as inappropriateI like Mid-Mo Design’s minimalist wordpress theme. Infact I am using it in my blog with a few tweeks to allow for style switching.
Flag as inappropriateAhhh David,
I’m currently in the process of redoing my portfolio site and this post is like a god send. And thanks to all others who have posted links to other sites!
Good work as always xD
Flag as inappropriateI love minimal design. It’s amazing how you can create something this beautiful with this few elements.
Flag as inappropriateReally great list, thanks for sharing. I love minimalistic design.
Flag as inappropriateGreat list of websites. The only thing is that the photo treatment you did to the websites with that blur effect kind of got me dizzy.
Keep up the good work.
Flag as inappropriateI was just curious, how are you doing the lens-like effect for the websites? I mean in your screenshots with the fade.
Flag as inappropriateIt’s actually REALLY simply Ashraf. I’m going to post a quick tutorial sometime soon when I have a spare moment. It’s essentially just a lens blur and a bit of brushing if you want to experiment on your own :)
Flag as inappropriatenice themes. Sometimes simple is the better way to go. Very nice. thanks.
Flag as inappropriateLove the post – “more is less” as they say!
Flag as inappropriateI’ve tried my site to be minimalistic… after some of these designs I have plenty of ideas to think of. Thanks for inspiration.
Flag as inappropriateNice article and examples, i would like to add a theme for Joomla to the themes list:
http://www.joomlashow.it/template-joomla/free/axe-rescheek-joomla-minimale/
It’s defined minimal by the designers, also if is not as good as those one for wordpress.
Flag as inappropriateGreat round up, I really love minimalist design
Flag as inappropriateAwesome post, I really love minimalism as a trend and the sites you’re showcasing sure make me love it even more!
Flag as inappropriategreat post, as usual…
Flag as inappropriatefor my blog I’ve used and customized the Upstart Blogger theme.
check it out if: http://www.thesparetimetyper.com
Awsome collection, thank you for taking the time to put all of this together!
Flag as inappropriateThanks. Very inspiring. I’m a minimalist afficionado myself ;)
Flag as inappropriateThank you for putting this together. They are stunning…
Flag as inappropriateGood to see some German designs in there :-)
Flag as inappropriateThanks so much for mentioning my wp theme!
Flag as inappropriateIt’s a really great theme Cardeo! I think there were several on your blog that I thought were very nice :)
Flag as inappropriateLove the minimal list! great stuff.
Flag as inappropriateless IS more! :D thanks david
Flag as inappropriateI love it when people actually put together new lists like this. When I first saw the article I hoped that it wasn’t just another reprint – and you didn’t disappoint.
Flag as inappropriateVery inspiring! Thanks!!
Flag as inappropriateSubmit Css is also a pretty useful place to look for minimalistic web design!! Just an fyi!
Flag as inappropriateThanks for the heads up Steve :)
Flag as inappropriateGreat collection. MMinimalism rules :)
Flag as inappropriateAwesome job, David. Very nice collection – I love minimalist designs!
Keep up the great work!
Flag as inappropriate