As you can probably tell from this website (at least in it’s current state), I am a big fan of websites with a dark colour palette. That’s what this post is all about (if you thought it was about dark as in evil, sorry about that). Working through some of my favorite CSS and Website galleries, I have compiled this collection of 25 awesome website designs, which all incorporate darker colours to some degree.

Of course, all of the sites are very different from each other, but there are a few elements that you will find repeated in many of them. First, many of the sites incorporate interesting and unique lighting effects, in a wide variety of colours. These range from evanescent swirls, to broad glows, to actual lamps shinning beams of light. I think that the darker background of these sites really lend themselves to these kinds of lighting effects, which would be either lost or much less effective on lighter backdrops.

You may also notice that many of these sites make use of texture, and in many cases, grungy texture. Again, this is probably due to the dark colours, which really lend themselves well to being textured. It adds a lot of visual interest to the design. In some cases you will also see texture combined with light, to great effect!

Anyhow, I really hope you enjoy these, and that they get your creative juices flowing!

Cleo Annex Salon

XP Codec Pack

Sub Assembly Services

Arun Pattnaik Portfolio & Blog

Miloš Zeković

Robin James Yu

Kaiser Interactive Creative Studio

Two 24 Studios

JWD Designs

Duplo Motion Graphics

Spiced Jack No 94

Matt Brett

Twenty3Design

OKB Estudio Interactivo

Sugar Rhyme

Design Newz

GreenLite

Dsignz Media

Artist & Designer Jeff Finley

GoMedia

Visual Carnival

Mike Precious

new(me)dia

Ignite New Media

61 Pixels - Online Porfolio of Todd Adams

So there you have them – all 25 designs. You’ll notice that I refrained from adding my own site to this list, even though it’s dark and uses a similar lighting effect to some of these sites. I figure you’re already here right? Also, many of these sites belong to creative agencies and freelancers, which means that some of them could change at any moment (since many designers love to mix it up). All these these designs are current as of the date of posting, though!

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed these! Which are your favorites? Are you as drawn to dark designs as I am? If so, what do you think the allure is? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

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