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There are two ways you can go when designing a 404 page for your website – you could go the sensible route and make it usable and try to help the reader find exactly what they were looking for or, you could design a 404 page that not only defines the character of the web site or the designer, but also makes it a pleasure and surprise. Its amazing the effect a sprinkle of humor and some creativity can have on someone and it will certainly make your site that little bit more memorable.

Below, we have a collection of sites with original, creative and generally humorous 404 pages. You may notice that some do not meet even the most basic usability guidelines, but who cares, they make us smile! Hope you enjoy them.

This article has been written by Richie Thimmaiah.

Previous parts of the Top 50 Web Design Styles Series

50 Examples of Large Photography Backgrounds within Web Design »
50 Examples of Creative 404 – Page Not Found Pages »
A Showcase of 50 Amazing Personal Blog Web Designs »
50 Creative Examples of Illustrations in Web Design »
50 Professional Web Design Agency Web Sites »
50 Bright and Vibrant Web Designs – Color Inspiration »
50 Impressive Magazine and Newspaper Styled Web Designs »
50 Inspirational and Fresh Minimally Designed Web Sites »
50 Creative and Inspirational Personal Portfolio Websites »
50 Inspiring Web Application and Service Web Site Designs »
50 Examples of Effective Uses of Typography Within Web Design »
50 Beautifully Crafted Corporate Ecommerce Web Designs »
50 Creative Examples of Vintage and Retro in Web Design »

50 Creative 404 Pages

South Park Studios

South Park Studio

Dilbert Website

Dilbert Website

Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment

Future of Web Design London

Future of Web Design London

Popscreen

Popscreen

GDZLLA SMASH PAGE (NOT FOUND)

GDZLLA SMASH PAGE

Carsonified 404

Carsonified

Chris Jennings 404

Chris Jennings

Twurn

Twurn

Houston, we have a problem! Abduzeedo

Abduzeedo

Henrik Hedegaard – WOOPSIE DAISY! Something went wrong!!!

Henrik Hedegaard

Wufoo Page Not Found

Wufoo

Jamie Huskisson 404

Jamie Huskisson

Tele2 404

Tele2

TattooSales.com – Page Not Found

TattooSales

What the Dickens…?

What the Dickens...

Suspended Animations

Suspended Animations

Oops! You bwoke it

Oops! You bwoke it

YouCastr – Woops!

YouCastr

Acro Media Inc – Dude, we can't find that page!

Acro Media Inc

< scythe.net 404 Error >

scythe.net

Content Not Found : The New Yorker

The New Yorker

Frye/Wiles 404 – Whoops

Frye/Wiles

Pattern Tap 404

Pattern Tap

Limp Fish – file not found

Limp Fish

TinSanity 404

TinSanity 404

LILEKS – uh oh

LILEKS

Page Not Found – d20srd.org

d20srd.org

dawdle.com

dawdle

Blue Daniel 404 File Not Found

Blue Daniel

CSS Tricks – Nothing found for Thispagedoesntexist

CSS Tricks

arbitraryconstant – 404 (missing)

arbitraryconstant

Shelfworthy

Shelfworthy

Laughing Squid – Page not found

Laughing Squid

VintFalken.com

VintFalken

Springload: Error 404

Springload

Error Finding Page

50 Creative 404 Pages

Expansion Broadcast – Page not found

Expansion Broadcast

Bits of Magic – PAGE FAULT ERROR #404

Bits of Magic

Error – GeekSquad

GeekSquad

moock.org >> operation failure >> code 404

moock

Open Adventure – 404!

Open Adventure

Site Sketch 101

Site Sketch 101

Bi Bakar mısınız? Sayfayı Bulunamadı!

50 Creative 404 Pages

404 – Casino Lemonade

Casino Lemonade

404 › rbardini.com

rbardini.com

404: Lost in the aether

50 Creative 404 Pages

ZEITWENDE

50 Creative 404 Pages

webtressdesign.com – OOPS Wrong Turn

50 Creative 404 Pages

The Web Motel – ERROR!

50 Creative 404 Pages

404 Best Practice Resources

404 Best Practices from CSS-Tricks
Tips for Creating an Informative 404 Error Page
Pimp Your 404: Presentation and Functionality from Perishable Press
How To Customise Your 404 Page from Sitepoint
Turning 404 not found random visitors to blog readers from Tech Snacks
404 Page Management Your Grandma Can Use
404s and WordPress Server Load from alexking.org
The Perfect 404 from A List Apart
5 Tips to Make Your 404 Page More Usable from UX Booth
Why You Should Keep an Eye on Your 404 Stats
How to Find and Fix 404 Errors
A Better 404 – Redux from urbanmainframe.com

About the Author

RichworksThis post has been written by Richie Thimmaiah. You can visit his personal design blog RichWorks, which is brimming with Photoshop tutorials, daily inspirations and all round great resources. You can also follow him on Twitter here: @richbugger

You might also like…

A Showcase of 50 Amazing Personal Blog Web Designs »
50 Creative Examples of Illustrations in Web Design »
50 Professional Web Design Agency Web Sites »
50 Bright and Vibrant Web Designs – Color Inspiration »
50 Impressive Magazine and Newspaper Styled Web Designs »
50 Inspirational and Fresh Minimally Designed Web Sites »
50 Creative and Inspirational Personal Portfolio Websites »
50 Inspiring Web Application and Service Web Site Designs »
50 Examples of Effective Uses of Typography Within Web Design »
50 Beautifully Crafted Corporate Ecommerce Web Designs »
50 Creative Examples of Vintage and Retro in Web Design »


46 Comments Leave yours

  1. Melody
    10 Mar, 2010

    hahaha I love the south park one!

    Reply

  2. Federica Sibella
    10 Mar, 2010

    Awesome collection! Some of them are really humorous.
    Maybe you’ll like this one too:

    http://www.albergogiardinetto.it/error404.html

    Reply

  3. Adam Lunn
    10 Mar, 2010

    Ah, what you think of our 404 page?

    http://www.whitenoisestudios.com/nafing

    Reply

  4. Xtraboy Photography
    10 Mar, 2010

    Nice collection. I really love some of this ideas! My 404 Error page is here: http://xtraboy.com

    It was included in lists on other sites.

    Reply

  5. Xtence
    10 Mar, 2010

    Nice list, the one from apartmenthomeliving (error finding page) is really stiff upper lip, like it, British humour, i like it !

    Reply

  6. Nijikokun
    11 Mar, 2010

    Nice. I’ve seen the mario one a few times. Mine is creepy i’ve been told. http://nijikokun.com/404/

    Reply

  7. Vic
    11 Mar, 2010

    You have forgot this one !
    http://www.talawa.fr/404

    Reply

  8. Deepak kaletha
    11 Mar, 2010

    nice 404 error page

    Reply

  9. Leisha
    11 Mar, 2010

    These are great! I love the grim reaper surrounded by cute kitties on scythe.net.

    Reply

  10. Lava360
    11 Mar, 2010

    i will not mind it at all if your site gave me theses kind of 404 error pages. love to see them :)

    Reply

  11. Noel
    11 Mar, 2010

    These are great made me chuckle!!

    Given me some good ideas.

    Reply

  12. Carloswes
    11 Mar, 2010

    Our 404 error page:

    http://biko2.com/404.html

    :D

    Reply

  13. Ramesh
    11 Mar, 2010

    I like Whoops

    Reply

  14. Ajay
    11 Mar, 2010

    Awesome 404 page not found collection! Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  15. Dalibor Vasiljevic
    11 Mar, 2010

    Hey, please check out our: http://www.rainfall.ro/404/

    Thanks and keep up the good work :)

    Reply

  16. Sunny
    11 Mar, 2010

    check out this one as well…
    http://www.broadbandmix.co.uk/404 I like the iconography in this website…

    Reply

  17. Phil Barnhart
    11 Mar, 2010

    I always liked this photographer’s baby-photo 404 page: http://momentsfromtheheart.com/smashing

    Reply

  18. Robert
    11 Mar, 2010

    I like this one: http://www.netprofit.de/404.html

    Reply

  19. Nick Burd
    11 Mar, 2010

    This was a great post. I should get to designing a 404Page for my site. :D

    Reply

  20. 11EN1
    11 Mar, 2010

    Check out our 404
    http://www.11en1.nl/jhdfjsdk

    Reply

  21. Mike Chanter
    11 Mar, 2010

    You missed this one:
    http://www.redbilby.com.au/test

    Reply

  22. TimHolmesDesign
    12 Mar, 2010

    Love it…

    It is always something I have wanted to make really creative and stand out, but then again, I don’t want to have a 404 or any other error page in the first place :o)

    Nice list, some great examples…

    Reply

  23. House Music
    12 Mar, 2010

    Hey!
    Please check my 404 page – http://dj-case.com/404

    Reply

  24. Niubi
    12 Mar, 2010

    These are all fantastic! I’ve been looking for original ones myself since I first saw the DubLi page, but these have just blown me away!

    Reply

  25. BBL
    12 Mar, 2010

    nice collection

    Reply

  26. Rajesh
    12 Mar, 2010

    Haha! Southpark is cool!!

    Reply

  27. Emory Stagmer
    12 Mar, 2010

    I’m pretty proud of mine :)

    http://www.untiedmusic.com/notfound.html

    Emory Stagmer
    Executive Producer, UnTied Music

    Reply

  28. Kaushik
    13 Mar, 2010

    I think the most creative 404 ever is still this

    http://tech.bluesmoon.info/2010/02/missing-kids-on-your-404-page.html

    Reply

  29. yusi
    13 Mar, 2010

    southpark is adorable :)) i love those guys.

    Reply

  30. Karen Butler
    16 Mar, 2010

    Great list!
    BTW. This is a brilliant 404:
    http://www.silverpistol.com/404

    Reply

  31. $1500 Payday
    17 Mar, 2010

    This will certainly make me think about the 404s on our sites. Something I ALWAYS, ALWAYS forget about (bad I know).

    Reply

  32. Alan
    24 Mar, 2010

    great article…..

    Reply

  33. DB
    24 Mar, 2010

    Nice collection – some great ideas to send to our webguy to create ours!

    Great post!

    Reply

  34. Jennifer Wilke
    25 Mar, 2010

    Great collection!
    My 404 error page:
    http://www.webgraphicdesigner.me/404.html

    :)

    Reply

  35. camisetas
    30 Mar, 2010

    Nice! another 404, our error page :)

    http://www.camisetas.info/404.php

    Reply

  36. Glenn Murray
    30 Mar, 2010

    Some classics there. Here’s one that takes 404s a step further: http://www.silverpistol.com/error404

    Reply

  37. iPad Interfaces
    4 Apr, 2010

    this is really great collection! good job, thanks!

    Reply

  38. Mike
    7 Apr, 2010

    Some really good 404 pages in this Article. Here’s my 404 page. http://www.micropressdesign.com/404

    Reply

  39. Bruno Dulcetti
    9 Apr, 2010

    Papo de Bar 404 page is very cool

    http://www.papodebar.com/404.php

    Reply

  40. Lucy
    29 Apr, 2010

    Great list. My favourite has to be What the Dickens…?

    We went down the elephant in an eggshell route for ours: http://www.ursusmedia.co.uk/404

    Reply

  41. Sean Sr.
    6 May, 2010

    Just added one of our own here:

    Doh! 404 ERROR PAGE

    Reply

  42. These are very creative but I won’t spend too much time and energy to make these because I don’t intend to get my website buggy to display these 404 pages.

    Reply

  43. Bogdan Lazar
    29 Jun, 2010

    Great resource! I really liked the Open Adventure one. I think 404 error pages should do more than say the page doesn’t exit. It may very well be your fault this happened, so why not to apologize to the user with a creative page.

    Good stuff!

    Here’s mine:

    404 Error Page – Cry Baby.

    Notice the little joke generator at the bottom of the page. Just something to make you smile even if you lost your way on the site. :)

    Reply

  44. VfB
    17 Aug, 2010

    Moss by IT Crowd work for online parfumery
    http://www.parfemy-elnino.cz/404.html

    Reply

  45. MSE
    1 Sep, 2010

    Hello!
    Your site is very cool.

    our web site 404
    http://www.unit-mse.co.jp/xxx

    Reply