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

April 28, 2010 - 38 CommentsWritten by Paul Andrew

Categories → Color,Design Style Series,Inspiration,Web Design,Web Inspiration

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!.

More from 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 »

About the Author: Paul Andrew (833 Articles)

Paul Andrew is the editor and founder of Speckyboy Design Magazine. You can follow Speckyboy on Twitter, on Facebook, on Digg or you can subscribe via RSS.

Comments and Reactions

http://www.thomascraigconsulting.com Thomas Craig Consulting
Nice collection, currently working on a black themed site for a client. Will take some inspiration for the collection. Thanks.
Pete
I like this one to. Clean, black and simple. http://www.sizedesign.co.uk/
Pingback: 50 Examples of Black in Web Design – Black is Beautiful! | 10 popular
Pingback: 50 Examples of Black in Web Design – Black is Beautiful! | TopRoundups
Pingback: 50 Examples of Black in Web Design – Black is Beautiful! | Spun
http://www.cpdesign.no Mads
Lovely! Black as background is really nice to look at.. more chilling for your eyes than a bright white one :)
http://inspiracion.com.br Carlos Carvalho
Very good resource for inspiration. Thanks for sharing
http://www.flashmoto.com Flash Moto CMS
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.
http://www.ozoneeleven.com/ Cook
awesome stuff….grt backgrounds
http://jainamistry.com Jaina
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 :)
Pingback: Quick Links for April 27th | Best Design Blog Ever
Pingback: 50 Examples of Black in Web Design – Black is Beautiful! | Lively Design Tuts
http://www.flickrdesign.com Cornell Campbell
Thanks for the mention!
ed
This is a good one, too:
http://www.ecoloblue.com/
http://www.ryvondesigns.com Pam
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
Pingback: 50 Examples of Black in Web Design – Black is Beautiful! | The New Drop
http://www.multiwebdigital.com.br Bruno Camargos
Black fills everything!!!
http://rachel.learnless.info/ Rachel
AMAZING!! Very creative..these are very impressive Designs…
http://www.sbuster.co.cc sbuster
Hey paul I miss this http://www.hoztdesigns.co.cc
http://www.lpcreative.net Linh
nice round up of black
Pingback: links for 2010-04-28 « Mandarine
http://www.digital-pza.com/blog/ Digital Pizza
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/
http://thomasedavis.co.uk Thomas Davis
Nice one, thanks for the mention!
Pingback: 50 Examples of Black in Web Design – Black is Beautiful! | Blog.:.CGSutra
http://netzwahn.net Torsten
Great collection and good resources for inspiration.
Thanks for your work.
iLLeT
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
Pingback: Essential Selection – Twitter Design Links of the Week No.14 « Web Design Mash
http://www.cssdsgn.com CssDsgn
http://www.cssdsgn.com is black too, but maybe not beautiful :)
http://www.bestpsdtohtml.com Bestspsdtohtml
http://www.bestpsdtohtml.com/30-attractive-dark-websites/
Pingback: Inspiración: Diseño web blanco y negro | Alojate.com Tu Proveedor de Web Hosting, Dominios, VPS, Servidores Dedicados, Factura Electrónica y Marketing para Buscadores en México
Pingback: Internet Briefing Blog / Wochenendsurf-Tour
http://www.krisolin.com Kris Olin
I just love black! It is propably the most usable colour for just about any desing. (The other one is white, of course). All these websites are simply stunning! Thanks for the article! I will re-tweet it further.
Kris Olin
http://twitter.com/KrisOlin
http://www.vincent-capitaine.com Vincent
These sites have very good design
Pingback: 黒を基調としたWebサイトを集めた「50 Examples of Black in Web Design – Black is Beautiful!」 - BlackFlag – Web Development Technical
Arthannemtv
You should add to this list : http://www.blurmedia.ro , very nice , fluid to 1280px-width design.
Pingback: 50 Examples of Black in Web Design – Black is Beautiful! | Design Woop | The Web Design and Development Blog
littleguy
Cool list, thank you!
Fel Sum
Awesome Web Designs! Black is one of my favorite theme colors.

Personal Portfolios

Design Agencies and Companies

Ecommerce and Shopping

Blogs

Music and Movies Sites

…and all the rest…

More from the Top 50 Web Design Styles Series

About the Author: Paul Andrew (833 Articles)

Comments and Reactions

Partners

Worthy Links

Pages

Subscribe & Follow

Sponsors