50 Examples of Black in Web Design – Black is Beautiful!

April 28, 2010 - 32 Comments
Color,Design Style Series,Inspiration,Web Design

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A common misconception is that black is thought of as a color in the same way that red, blue, purple or even green are. In actual fact, black is the complete absence of all color and light, essentially making it the ultimate non-color. And as such, a certain element of caution needs to be taken when using black as the main color of your web design.

Black will absorb and dilute all colors that surround it, so your secondary color needs to be well chosen and though out. It works well with bright shades of reds, blues, and greens and can make luminous and vibrant colors really really stand out. As for the use of black with dark colors, that’s a no-no. It can work, but if the colors are similar they will merge together.

Black is not used as the main color very often in text content rich web sites. It can be used and is very popular by design related personal portfolios and photography sites, as you will see below. It allows the artwork to take center stage and be the primary focus of the viewer.

Of course, the use of black within web design is not only limited to personal portfolios or design agencies, it is used across the full spectrum of all web design styles, as you will see from the beautiful web designs below. Black really is beautiful!.

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20 Comments › Leave yours

Thomas Craig Consulting
28 Apr, 2010
Nice collection, currently working on a black themed site for a client. Will take some inspiration for the collection. Thanks.
Reply
Pete
28 Apr, 2010
I like this one to. Clean, black and simple. http://www.sizedesign.co.uk/
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Mads
28 Apr, 2010
Lovely! Black as background is really nice to look at.. more chilling for your eyes than a bright white one :)
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Carlos Carvalho
28 Apr, 2010
Very good resource for inspiration. Thanks for sharing
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Flash Moto CMS
28 Apr, 2010
Thanks for the awesome roundup. Black or dark color scheme is especially good for galleries of art or photography, as black makes other colors stand out and contrasts well with the bright colors.
Reply
Cook
28 Apr, 2010
awesome stuff….grt backgrounds
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Jaina
28 Apr, 2010
I love encorporating black as the major colour in designs – i find it more challenging than having a simple white background as it’s easy to let things get too dark and gothic. Great examples here :)
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Cornell Campbell
28 Apr, 2010
Thanks for the mention!
Reply
ed
28 Apr, 2010
This is a good one, too:
http://www.ecoloblue.com/
Reply
Pam
28 Apr, 2010
We based ours on a black background, and have maintained it this way for a few years now. We have been considering changing it up into a light background, but every time we get torn on what would be better ^_^. Great collection, and once again I’m torn over light or keeping black. LOL
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Bruno Camargos
28 Apr, 2010
Black fills everything!!!
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Rachel
28 Apr, 2010
AMAZING!! Very creative..these are very impressive Designs…
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sbuster
28 Apr, 2010
Hey paul I miss this http://www.hoztdesigns.co.cc
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Linh
28 Apr, 2010
nice round up of black
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Digital Pizza
28 Apr, 2010
Wow! Most of them are simple and neat!
Thanks for sharing!
Digital Pizza latest post: http://www.digital-pza.com/blog/inspiration/showcase-of-iron-man-artworks/
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Thomas Davis
29 Apr, 2010
Nice one, thanks for the mention!
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Torsten
29 Apr, 2010
Great collection and good resources for inspiration.
Thanks for your work.
Reply
iLLeT
29 Apr, 2010
I just got done looking at PSDFan on black websites. This is a new site, and I haven’t seen on any gallery sites yet, except on 960.gs http://www.gantry-framework.org/ it’s made for Joomla
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CssDsgn
2 May, 2010
http://www.cssdsgn.com is black too, but maybe not beautiful :)
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Bestspsdtohtml
3 May, 2010
http://www.bestpsdtohtml.com/30-attractive-dark-websites/
Reply