Braden Hamm
Braden Hamm’s portfolio is a wonderful reminder that typography is everything, layout hardly matters, and what are we even doing with our lives? Well, I’m mostly kidding, but the type design in this particular portfolio is generally fantastic. I’d also like to mention the general use of white space, it’s great. Platform: Static SiteLGND
LGND uses simple, yet stylish type, calm colors, and excellent contrast to make a corporate-friendly design that isn’t boring at all. It even feels a little “futuristic” without going full sci-fi, and that’s impressive on its own. I don’t know whether it’s because corporate design is legitimately better, or just that I’ve turned 30, but this sort of design is growing on me. Platform: WordPressSay
Say’s agency site keeps it simple, going for that sort of artsy, sans-serif minimalism, and I just like it. I like the minimalism, the understated way they use color, and I even like the way you can sort of “paint” on the home page. I don’t like the custom cursors nearly as much (especially when it’s hard to tell which part of your cursor does the actual clicking), but otherwise it’s a pleasant site to browse. Platform: Craft CMSDaniel Blom
Daniel Blom’s portfolio has everything a photography / filmography site needs! Pictures flying all around (only when you first load the site), a masonry layout, and more superminimalism (a word I just made up)! No but really, after a few concessions to the Flash designer in all of us, it’s a simple and straightforward experience for the most part. I do like that you can change the backgound color of the site while you browse, though. Platform: WordPressRevolve Studio
Revolve Studio’s site stands out because it was written in ASP.NET. You hardly expect to see that outside of a corporate site. It’s also a highly presentation-like site, with even a lot of the content being laid out as it might be in a PowerPoint. It also… doesn’t show any work. The site itself more or less is the portfolio piece, with loads of animation, careful attention to type, and even an example of what they can do with augmented reality design. There’s even audio, but only if you turn it on. And yet, it doesn’t feel crowded. That’s an achievement. Platform: Custom CMS (I think)Fabio Fantolino
Fabio Fantolino’s portfolio might literally be what happens when a grid-obsessed animator gets too into PowerPoint. But really, it’s a gorgeous site in its own way, smoothly animated, and I love that color scheme, simple as it is. Platform: Static SiteThibaud Allie
Thibaud Allies’ portfolio is one part print design, and 99 parts definitely designed by an art director. Everything from the giant text to the placement of the images is artsy as heck, but still fairly usable. Platform: Static SiteClickpivot
Clickpivot a one-page website with what is basically a buzzword for a name, and that works, I think. I mean, look at that layout, that type. This is the one-page website that every corporate website aspires to be. All hyperbole aside, it truly is a pretty site. Platform: Static SiteRansom
Ransom is artsy, asymmetrical, and almost post-minimalist in its aesthetic. It’s an approach we’ve seen before, but it wouldn’t be on this list unless it was laid out with love, and you can see the attention to detail in this design. Platform: WordPressConstance Burke
Constance Burke is a fashion designer, and her illustrations and sketches make up a large part of her site’s overall look and feel. Besides that, there’s a bit of a paper-dress-up-doll aesthetic going on, which both fits the industry she works in, and provides a unique feel to the site. Dress all of that up (pun intended) in a site layout and aesthetic that is well-designed, but intentionally understated, and you get a snazzy portfolio. Platform: Static SiteWild
Wild makes use of grid-focused design, some rather slick animation, and a touch of background video here and there to spice things up. The overall result is sleek, professional, and a pleasure to browse. Platform: Custom CMSHochburg
Hochburg’s portfolio mostly sticks to a dark, type-focused aesthetic for most of its normal pages, and switches off to a bright and image-heavy design for the actual portfolio pieces. Light or dark, though, it looks good. Also, they have their own merch shop, which is kind of a power move for any design studio. Platform: Contao CMSWest Studio
West Studio’s portfolio site is all about the imagery, and can you blame them? Their concept art isn’t just their product, it’s astoundingly beautiful. If their work wasn’t great, no amount of smooth, dark layouts and bold typefaces would make much difference… though they have that too. The way they integrated their art into the design takes the site to a whole new level, though. Platform: Custom CMSThis Works
This Works uses skewed elements and splashes of high contrast to spruce up a design that would otherwise be borderline brutalist. And hey, anyone who can make monospaced body text work is fine by me. Platform: Static SiteShamim Shafiee
I love almost everything about Shamim Shafiee’s portfolio: the colors, the layout, the type, it’s all good. But what truly makes this whole thing stand out, is that cut-out picture of the man himself, standing proud and tall on the home page (and the “Who Am I?” screen, incidentally). I mean, he just looks so determined, so confident. He’s the designer for you, and he’s just waiting for you to figure that out, I’ve been a designer for over a decade, and I wouldn’t dare put myself on my site like that. This sort of thing might normally looks cheesy and sooo ‘90s, it’s working here. It’s all about the attitude. Platform: WordPressGiacomo Mottin
Giacomo Mottin’s portfolio kind of mixes some presentation-style design at the outset, with some classic fancy minimalism. It’s dark, it’s sleek, and it looks as fashionable as you’d expect from, well… Italy. Platform: Static SiteWesley Van ‘T Hart
And somehow this portfolio looks even more minimalist than the other sites that I’ve already called “superminimalist”. Oh well. In any case, the type is gorgeous, and the almost excessive use of empty space gives the whole design a feeling of elegance. Platform: Static SiteHaus
Haus is all about them graphics. It’s not often I go on about how much I love a site’s graphics—and the rest of the site is pretty solid, I’m going to shout-out their typography in particular—but Haus is doing things I’ve never seen before. Take the home page, to start with: it looks like they have a constantly shifting amorphous 3D object floating around, and it’s textured with a constantly-shifting set of kaleidoscope patterns. It’s downright hypnotic, which may not be great for usability, but I can’t take my eyes off it. Platform: Custom CMSAimee Sy
Aimee Sy’s portfolio embraces pastels, a print-inspired layout, and… iframes with zoomed-out websites in them? I can’t recall if it’s the first time I’ve ever seen that approach, but it’s certainly striking either way. The sites are semi-usable and browseable (another word I just made up according to my spellcheck). Overall, while this portfolio is mostly built from familiar elements, the final product feels quite distinct. Platform: Cargo, BackdropFeed
Feed delivers another simple, minimalist site that does what it says on the tin. As their name suggests, they do seem to prefer a style of layout that looks a bit like a “feed”, and they make liberal use of lazy-loading to create an effect that looks like infinite scrolling (but actually isn’t). It’s a great way to sort of lead people further in to the design and available content. Platform: Craft CMSWDD Staff
WDD staff are proud to be able to bring you this daily blog about web design and development. If there's something you think we should be talking about let us know @DesignerDepot.
Read Next
15 Best New Fonts, July 2024
Welcome to our monthly roundup of the best fonts we’ve found online in the last four weeks. This month, there are fewer…
By Ben Moss
20 Best New Websites, July 2024
Welcome to July’s round up of websites to inspire you. This month’s collection ranges from the most stripped-back…
Top 7 WordPress Plugins for 2024: Enhance Your Site's Performance
WordPress is a hands-down favorite of website designers and developers. Renowned for its flexibility and ease of use,…
By WDD Staff
Exciting New Tools for Designers, July 2024
Welcome to this July’s collection of tools, gathered from around the web over the past month. We hope you’ll find…
3 Essential Design Trends, July 2024
Add some summer sizzle to your design projects with trendy website elements. Learn what's trending and how to use these…
15 Best New Fonts, June 2024
Welcome to our roundup of the best new fonts we’ve found online in the last month. This month, there are notably fewer…
By Ben Moss
20 Best New Websites, June 2024
Arranging content in an easily accessible way is the backbone of any user-friendly website. A good website will present…
Exciting New Tools for Designers, June 2024
In this month’s roundup of the best tools for web designers and developers, we’ll explore a range of new and noteworthy…
3 Essential Design Trends, June 2024
Summer is off to a fun start with some highly dramatic website design trends showing up in projects. Let's dive in!
15 Best New Fonts, May 2024
In this month’s edition, there are lots of historically-inspired typefaces, more of the growing trend for French…
By Ben Moss
How to Reduce The Carbon Footprint of Your Website
On average, a web page produces 4.61 grams of CO2 for every page view; for whole sites, that amounts to hundreds of KG…
By Simon Sterne
20 Best New Websites, May 2024
Welcome to May’s compilation of the best sites on the web. This month we’re focused on color for younger humans,…