A year in the life of web design can be compared to architecture from the sixties to the architecture of the nineties. The difference is phenomenal. If you don’t keep up with web trends then it will most definetly reflect on your design, technologies evolve slower, making it easier to keep up to date, but styles make life harder.

One of the most prominent design styles to make it to the forefront of design is the ‘clean’ style and the use of whitespace. It has been talked about for a while now on many websites, it is now that we are seeing it being implemented properly throughtout the net.

Personally I like this style, designed well, it gives a site a classy and tidy layout. I know that if I stumble on to a site that that tries to offer far too much information, I am instantly turned off. The clutter and the color collages sometimes are too much. Maybe we should all rethink our design strategies, go back to basics that this style offers. Food for thought.

Anyway, below are my favourite 25 clean site designs of 2007. Maqina epitamizes everything that I feel is right in web design, simple, easy to navigate, offers all the info you would need in one page. Brilliant. Let me know what you think.

1. Maqina/ (www.maqina.ro/)

2. Fresh Creative (www.getfinch.com/)

3. Oranges (www.o.rang.es//)

4. Aiga NY (www.aigany.org/)

5. Mark Boulton (www.markboultondesign.com/)

6. Cottyn (www.cottyn.com/)

7. We Break Stuff (www.webreakstuff.com/)

8.Design View (www.andyrutledge.com/

9. Freesbe (www.freesbe.es/)

10. NERDVERK (www.nerdverk.com/)

and the also rans…

11. Gear Box Media(http://www.gearboxmedia.net/)

12. Velingo (http://www.velingo.com/

13. Huddle (http://www.huddle.net/)

14. Danny Blackman (http://www.dannyblackman.com/)

15. Leica (http://www.leica-camera.co.uk/home/)

16. Baseline (http://www.baselinedc.com/)

17. Verbalized (http://www.verbalized.net/)

18. Hot Meteor (http://www.hotmeteor.com/v6/)

19. Addis Creson (http://www.addiscreson.com/)

20. Grow Studio (http://www.growstudio.co.uk/)

21. Light Fin (http://www.lightfin.com/index.htm)

22. Rik Cat (http://www.rikcat.com/)

23. Humble Voice (http://www.humblevoice.com/)

20. Jon Tan (http://jontangerine.com//)

25. Speckyboy (http://www.speckyboy.com/) Maybe not!!!

In page layout, illustration and sculpture, white space is often referred to as negative space. It is that portion of a page left unmarked: the space between graphics, margins, gutters, space between columns, space between lines of type or figures and objects drawn or depicted. The term arises from graphic design practice, where printing processes generally use white paper.

White space should not be considered merely ‘blank’ space - it is an important element of design which enables the objects in it to exist at all, the balance between positive (or none-white) and the use of negative spaces is key to aesthetic composition.

When space is at a premium, such as some types of magazine, newspaper, and yellow pages advertising, white space is limited in order to get as much vital information on to the page as possible. A page crammed full of text or graphics with very little white space runs the risk of appearing busy, cluttered, and is typically difficult to read. Some designs compensate for this problem through the careful use of leading and typeface.

Judicious use of white space can give a page a classic, elegant, or rich appearance. For example, upscale brands often use ad layouts with little text and a lot of white space. Inexpert use of white space can make a page appear incomplete.

Wikipedia definition of Whitespace.

11 Comments so far

1. Onur Ozer on January 7, 2008 12:35 am

   Hello,

   Although I’m not a designer, I agree on your points about keeping the design “clean” and “simple”. Trying to convey too much information on a single page usually leads to not being able to accomplish much.

   My favorite on this list is #4, markboultondesign.com. I also think garrettdimon.com could be included in this list.

   Lastly, Seeing our website, nerdverk.com at #10 amongst other great examples of clean design is quite flattering.

   Thanks.

2. jolan on January 7, 2008 9:09 am

   I would have had (N.9) Freesbe at Number. Great List.

3. Fath on January 9, 2008 4:12 am

   Hey there. Very nice list… I love them :P

4. Emil Paun on January 10, 2008 4:53 am

   Thank you for the kind words :)

5. Web Design Manchester on January 28, 2008 6:18 am

   I’d love it if we could be included on your list at some point… please?

6. AmeyJah on March 6, 2008 6:12 am

   Really amazed to see such clean sites. Fresh Creative is really good. I wonder how do these experienced designers manage to design such clean sites??

7. Sebastian on July 18, 2008 2:05 am

   Wonderfull, in their simplicity every website is very amazing…
   I think clean design will last for years against complex structure that you have to update every change of the fashion :D

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