Website Designs We Love: October 2019

I ventured down the rabbit hole and lost several dreamy hours of my last few evenings drooling at October’s submissions on the amazing Awwwards website. Don’t judge how I get my kicks, please. These are a few that really stood out to me and our web design team. 

The Village Films 

Big, bold, beautifully copywritten typography. A stripped-back monochrome colour scheme which allow the user to focus on the sneak peeks of the video content. And then, my favourite part of the site, just look at how the menu opens.

Spot the slight ripple effect when you hover over the burger, and then a surprise as the menu swings open from the top right like a fan. The attention to detail continues with the CSS hover effect as you move your cursor over the menu items. Bravo chaps. 

Bitsens

The timeline that welcomes you to this design agency’s website as it loads is a nice detail which starts you on your journey to another world. Another monochrome website (or so you might think…) which combines horizontal and vertical scrolling to segment different sections of the site.

Check out the way that the project images change into colour and pop out of their space as you hover over them.

Then open the menu and your world turns purple. Bonus points if you can spot the secret details about their team members hidden on the site (hint, it’s in the menu). 

There is a potentially a little too much style over substance, and it takes a while to understand exactly what the company do, but I think the point is to make you wonder what the hell is going on. It’s certainly easy to see that they are insanely talented website designers who have curated a beautiful brand for themselves. 

ME+EM

I’m going to geek out on typography for a while and draw your attention to the stunning font used on the ME+EM site. Hello Canela, where have you been all my life?

This is a high-end fashion brand with sleek and classic clothing which has a sophisticated website to match. It’s simple, beautiful and elegant, and the design complements and highlights the products rather than distracts from them. It fulfils its main purpose (to sell clothes). I had to restrain myself from adding to basket.  

Boë Gin

Two of my favourite things combine; awesome website design & gin. The branding on the bottles, the product photography and the website pull together to curate a thoroughly enjoyable website experience. Made by layering images, javascript & parallax, you’re transported to the scene on the screen. Look out for the rolling blueberries, flying planes and the spritz of perfume as you travel through each variant of the gins they sell. I’m sold, get me a Peach and Hibiscus, stat. 

Web Design Trends 

Whilst I’ve been website perving there are a few trends that have stood out. 

Vertical Menus & Messages 

Displaying elements of a site vertically is a fresh and different approach to presenting navigation menus, scrolling messages, and calls to action. They stand out because they look so different, and, especially in the case of scrolling messages, attract attention because they require a bit more effort to read and require you to engage your brain.  

Check out this stunning example of a skinny vertical navigation menu from Home Société, where they use a centralised vertical menu which moves over to the left-hand side as you start to scroll, giving the user easy access to navigate around the site whilst keeping a clean and minimal aesthetic.  

Darkness is falling… 

White, minimalist designs have been so popular over the past few years, so seeing brands going with darker, mysterious themes is a big shift which makes them stand out from the crowd.  See the example below from Common Studio. 

Customised Cursors 

We are used to seeing customised cursors, but recently these have been taken to the next level. Have a gander at this example on Affixxius, and see how many different cursor changes you find. 

These designs got us pretty giddy. Did they do the same for you? Let us know your thoughts.