Even the most unique blog designs usually follow, at least in part, some sort of predefined or established style. And there are plenty of design styles to choose from if you’re looking for inspiration. Whatever your personal style, there are design patterns out there that can be adapted to suit your own aesthetic ideal and the needs of your site. And often working within a predefined pattern can enhance your creativity by helping you focus.
Below we’ve rounded up eleven common design patterns seen throughout blog designs on the web. But just because they’re commonly seen doesn’t mean they aren’t unique and filled with plenty of individuality and creativity. Figuring out how to make your own unique mark on a widely-recognized style can prove to be a creative challenge for nearly any designer. Read on for inspiration and ideas for your next design projects.
1. Hand Drawn: A Relaxed Yet Artistic Style
Hand drawn blogs are all over the place. Some of these designs are very doodle-esque, while others are more like fine art. They can lend a more relaxed feeling to a blog’s design, as well as a healthy dose of creativity. One of the best parts of this style is that it’s so customizable. The illustrations used can really reflect the style of the owners or writers.
More on hand drawn design:
2. Grunge: Not Just Dirty
Grunge style has been around on the web for a few years now, and it’s still going strong. A couple of big trends in grunge design include minimalist grunge, where the theme is very minimal with the exception of the grunge elements, and more refined grunge that isn’t as messy as early incarnations. Again, this is a style that has tons of room for creativity and individual expression.
More: 100 Greatest Abstract and Grunge Fonts (Free)
3. Minimalist: Where Less is Definitely More
Minimalist designs can be some of the hardest to pull off well, despite their simplicity. When less is more, every single element becomes vitally important. Some of the hallmarks of miminalist design are lots of white space (or negative space), simple typography and few images.
More: 100+ Clean, Simple and Minimalist Website Designs
4. Grid and Magazine-Style: Bringing Order to Chaos
Grid and magazine-type themes have also been around for a few years now. They’re excellent when you have a very information-heavy site (like many blogs) and add a sense of order and structure to a design. But they also leave plenty of room for creativity, as is illustrated in some of the designs below.
5. Collage: Unique, Personalized Mashups
Collage styles are as varied as the blogs they style. Basically, these are designs that take a number of elements (often photographs or realistic illustrations) and combine them to form a background that might resemble a bulletin board or messy desk. It’s a unique style that allows for a lot of individual expression through what’s included in the collage.
6. Gallery: For the More Visually-Inclined
Gallery blogs aren’t limited to just displaying images. Many blogs that focus mostly on text are using gallery layouts for their home pages, as a way to fit more information in a smaller space and leave things looking uniform and organized. Of course, there are plenty of sites out there using gallery layouts for what they were originally intended: photos, illustrations, and design work.
7. Beautiful Typography: More Than Just Pretty Lettering
Excellent typography can really set a blog apart from its competitors. Not only is it more aesthetically pleasing, good typography also makes your blog easier to read.
The Personal Disquiet of Mark Boulton
8. Awesome Textures and Patterns: Bringing Life to Otherwise Simple Designs
Unique combinations of textures and patterns can lead to a very creative and exceptionally beautiful theme. There are thousands of textures available out there, many free for personal or commercial use, so this style is largely accessible to all sorts of designers.
9. Bold Artwork: More Formal Artistic Appeal
Bold illustrations and graphics can make a big impact on blog visitors. Bright colors, original illustrations, and vector artwork are hallmarks of these blogs.
The World of Silas Toball – Duirwaigh Studios
10. Transparency: Adding Polish Without Weighing Things Down
Transparency can add an extra bit of polish to any blog design. When combined with a unique background, transparency creates a whole new level of elegance many blog designs lack. Some blogs use transparency throughout their designs, while others use it only in select locations to add a little extra flair.
11. 3-D Designs: Simplified Trompe l’Oeil
The designs featured here use 3-D elements: folded paper, letterpress effects, and similar design elements. This is a newer trend in blog design (especially the letterpress effect) that has only started emerging in the past couple of years. It’s a beautiful style, and can be combined with a lot of other unique design elements (it’s often seen in collage and grunge designs, for example).
Is there any other interesting blog design trend you’ve spotted recently?
More related articles
- Retro and Vintage Web Design
- Beautiful and Colorful Blog Designs
- Minimalist Website Designs
- Hand-Drawn Web Design
- 100 Nice and Beautiful Blog Designs
- Beautiful and Enticing Blog Designs
About Author – Cameron Chapman is a professional Web and graphic designer with over 7 years of experience. She writes for a number of blogs, including her own, Cameron Chapman On Writing. She’s also the author of Internet Famous: A Practical Guide to Becoming an Online Celebrity.
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Posted by hongkiat in Web 2.0 , at 01.04.10
Tags: 3d, collage, Design, gallery, grid, grunge, hand-drawn, magazine, minimalist, style, transparency, trend, typography |
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Comments
Hellofath January 4th, 2010
Awesome list! Thanks for bringing them all at once :)
ReplyFlash CMS January 4th, 2010
Thanks for this amazing showcase. Very inspiring and informative.
ReplyAlready dugg this story :)
WPsmash.com January 4th, 2010
Nice list! very inspiring! thank you very much.
ReplyTschai January 4th, 2010
Great round-up…especially the gallery-themes.
Hope my gallery-site http://fan-tas-tic.com will be beta-ish this year to be featured in the next round-up
Reply;)
Nicolas TAFFOREAU January 4th, 2010
Nice selection thank you. You can add my blog :p
ReplyStanley January 4th, 2010
Nice collection! Thanks!
ReplyDashTube1 January 4th, 2010
Some very inspiring blog templates, real real nice!
ReplyAzterik Media January 5th, 2010
Great list. Very nice to see such a shift towards folks putting some thought into into their blog design instead of it just being an afterthought to the overall website development.
ReplyArcnerva January 5th, 2010
Awesome list, great design inspiration while we work on the blog.
ReplyThanks :)
Josh January 5th, 2010
Very nice. A lot of sites I hadn’t seen before. Thanks!
ReplyGennice January 5th, 2010
Wow, you did a lot of work finding all of these…
They are great inspiration also.
Thanks!
ReplyJenna Molby January 5th, 2010
Great collection, thanks for sharing!
ReplyPaul Griffin January 5th, 2010
Love these designs, makes me think I need to update my blog.
ReplyCool Valley January 5th, 2010
Cool collection! We visit some of the blog everyday!
ReplyThanks for sharing too!
Chris M Day January 5th, 2010
Thanks for adding my site! Keep up the great work :D
ReplyElcodigodebarras January 5th, 2010
Just a Simply delicious compilation, very INSPIRATIVE; all of them give a new name of a blog style concept…
ReplyMichael Krapf January 5th, 2010
Very nice roundup!
ReplyNagobonar January 5th, 2010
very inspiring. You have a huge list of wonderful things. Now got so many ideas to implement and dont know which one is the first step and what the next jumping stone
ReplyMarie-Pier Joubert January 5th, 2010
Nice work! I have a strong interest in web design although I’m not in this field. Since a few months now I don’t have enough time to see what’s going on, the trends, the design blog, etc. I’m happy that you have gathered all of these “chef d’oeuvres” in one place!
Now I will make time to check my favourites one by one! Thanks!
ReplyLee | Money4Invest January 5th, 2010
Cool compilation of awesome original web design layout. Are all these Wordpress platform?
ReplyJustin Nash January 5th, 2010
Great list. Thanks for including my design (USE 19 Clothing).
ReplyThere are some excellent designs here. I’m inspired!
yoshz January 5th, 2010
Nice collection.. I love them all design
ReplySoft Skills January 5th, 2010
All stunning design, can we download the theme?
ReplyAshely Adams : Online Printing January 5th, 2010
A very good round-up. Loved your attention to details and of course, the copious examples. Although it’s difficult to limit popular blog styles to these 11, it’s a nice start to begin to analyze and understand blog design trends.
Reply3ds max January 5th, 2010
Crazy 3ds max
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h1brd January 5th, 2010
a good way to give some more ‘underground’ blogs some exposure! nice :)
Replyadhiaryawan January 5th, 2010
Nice design, Ilike Guillermo Esteves design… simple and minimalist…
ReplySteve Martin January 5th, 2010
Nice Collection.. And really inspiring… I liked Think design and Badass Ideas a lot….Great work… Thanks :)
Replymor January 5th, 2010
Beautiful Design
ReplySMiGL January 5th, 2010
Great design. Good collection. Thanks
ReplyInside the Webb January 5th, 2010
Great post dude! These are some really inspiring blogs, I look forward to future posts as well
ReplyKristi Colvin January 5th, 2010
Thanks so much for including my personal blog here (kriscolvin.com). There are some seriously stunning designs here – I want to check out pretty much every single site you’ve listed! Great job curating these – I will be inspired for months. It doesn’t hurt that a lot of these appeal to my personal sense of style – you have great taste! :-)
ReplyLauhakari [mikko] January 5th, 2010
one long, but very nice list….
each time I span the mouse wheel and thought -damn-here-comes-the-comments-, I got happy as more website’s kept appearing =)
bookmark -check!
ReplyPetrus January 5th, 2010
Amazing post with beautiful examples. Very good for inspiration.Thanks for sharing !
ReplyMarina January 5th, 2010
Thanks for sharing. I myself perfer the minimalist look, but sometimes it’s tough to pull off and the design can look pretty empty.
ReplyInspiring Pixel January 6th, 2010
Just to let you know the site Edition uses Bueno from Woo themes with colors B&W. Otherwise a great and well thought collection. :)
Replybee January 6th, 2010
nice design and so popolar…
ReplyBim January 6th, 2010
A superb inspiring collection! Cheers :)
ReplySE7EN January 6th, 2010
Excellent compilation with awesome examples. It’s inspired me a lot :D
Replyanjie moin January 6th, 2010
Fabulous list and soooo informative…thanks!
ReplyMario January 6th, 2010
Great post. Thanks for adding ocondesign to the mix.
Replyerlangga January 6th, 2010
nice selection 1 of it is my favorite
ReplyFOREVER-FAN-CELEBRITES-WAALLPAPERS January 6th, 2010
Thanks; it’s a nice collection
ReplyMike January 6th, 2010
Great list of styles! I’m not sure where my blog falls in. Kind of a mix between minimalistic/hand drawn I suppose…
ReplyTravel Blogs January 6th, 2010
Thanks; it’s a great collection
ReplyJeroen January 6th, 2010
Great, inspiring list!
Here’s another one for transparency: http://www.sentel.nl (one background, transparent blocks)
ReplyVicki - VictoriaAnn Design January 6th, 2010
I enjoyed reading this and viewing the selection of featured sites. Thanks for taking the time to put it all together.
Replymyadlan January 6th, 2010
wow. the best list of inspiration for 2010. can’t wait to create my new layout soon
ReplyEko Setiawan January 6th, 2010
Wow huge collection for inspiration…I’ve got ideas :)
ReplyThanks..
reese January 6th, 2010
Thank you for including Chris Guillebeau’s site (The Art of Non-Conformity) in this list. Both Chris and I appreciate you giving it props and more exposure. It is a very kind compliment of you to include it as a typographic example.
I also loved seeing some new, inspiring designs in here–what a thorough round up you did. Thanks again! :)
ReplyClark January 7th, 2010
Lots of examples of people exercising their design skills. Beautiful but I like Mark Boulton’s best as it’s the easiest to read.
Replymichael January 7th, 2010
Very nice roundup!
ReplyThanks for that!
Rozy January 7th, 2010
amazing site and blog
Replythanks
Carik January 8th, 2010
Indeed, each design takes on his blog. And the more freedom, originality – the better! Thank you for your selection.
ReplyMatt January 8th, 2010
These designs are great. Thank you for sharing them – great roundup :)
ReplyBen Stokes January 9th, 2010
Great designs, especially snow makes me happy.
Replyviettel adsl January 9th, 2010
Ya, all of this blog’s design is very creative, thanks for your colletion list
Replytelevisions lcd hdtv January 9th, 2010
I like your articles and views.
Replyaziq January 9th, 2010
great collection.Just love minimalist style.thanks
ReplyMatthew Achariam January 10th, 2010
Thanks for featuring me on this list. Great designs all around.
Replygrant tailor January 10th, 2010
really cool
Reply.
.
.
http://www.contestdesigns.com
design contests for cash pizes!!!
Alfons January 12th, 2010
Great list! Thanks
ReplyDigitalrecline January 12th, 2010
Great selection of designs. I really like the clean lines of this site also. Keep it up.
Digitalrecline
ReplyBen Stokes January 13th, 2010
Brilliant – thank you for sharing this
ReplyWebOlution January 13th, 2010
hi there, thanks for including kallianos website!
ReplyRaymond January 15th, 2010
perfect collection!
ReplyBEBEN January 16th, 2010
ugh!!! that’s all awesome list…
Replyfull inspiration…thanks ^_^
Williams January 17th, 2010
Great web 2.0 templates. Thanks for sharing. Really these templates are very useful for me.
ReplyJason Collin Photography January 18th, 2010
A really great and extensive compilation.
This has made me think I need a much fancier blog design!
ReplyCanton real estate January 19th, 2010
These are excellent. I need to use one of these for my Canton real estate and homes blog.
ReplySanal Teknik Servis January 20th, 2010
thanks for all…
ReplyNadiah Sulaiman January 20th, 2010
Hi Hongkiat, this is an amazing list! I love how you categorize the design styles with the descriptions. Very analytical observation! And thank you for including our site (Bitter-Coffee Studio) to this roundup too! :)
ReplyCanlı ve erotik şov,+18sohbet January 30th, 2010
nice smily
very good post man..
ReplySonya February 10th, 2010
Great post. Got ideas for my blog on inspirational women: www. girlcrushoftheday. blogspot .com
ReplySonya February 10th, 2010
Great post. Got excellent design ideas for my blog, girlcrushoftheday on blogspot
Replyasdf February 15th, 2010
Thank you for your great article. I also must say that your layout is a pleasure to view. Keep up the good work.
ReplyVector February 21st, 2010
To learn, and very grateful author!
ReplyWP Themes March 12th, 2010
Amiable brief and this fill someone in on helped me alot in my college assignement. Say thank you you for your information.
ReplyDwayne March 14th, 2010
Great designs. Now if I wanted to create something similar. Can I do it in photoshop? How were these designs created? What programs, etc.
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