24 Great Niche Galleries
Posted in GalleriesMar 16, 08 | 10:08 am
Mubashar Iqbal
CSS galleries can be a great source of inspiration, but if you’re looking for something in particular they can be a bit of a nightmare. They can also be a little repetitive, you’ll often find the same design repeated on many of the galleries.
Since niche galleries have a tighter focus it allows them to be more detailed when adding sites to the gallery, and although they don’t update as often the quality usually makes up for it. Given their focus the same design is a lot less likely to be featured on more than one of the niche galleries.
This is not to say the general galleries are going away, they provide a steady steam of inspiration, but when you’re looking for something in particular niche is nicer.
Below you’ll find a list of niche galleries, that focus on things from color schemes, to layout, and specific content types.
Color Schemes
Light On Dark
http://www.lightondark.com
Light on Dark is a showcase of well designed & coded web sites with light text on a dark background.
Online since January 2006, with approximately 1,000 items of inspiration.
CSS Nature
http://www.cssnature.org
CSS NATURE is a showcase of well designed css and xhtml nature based website designs.
Online since July 2007, with approximately 200 items of inspiration.
Layout
Design By Grid
http://www.designbygrid.com
Design By Grid is a resource to promote websites designed with grids, and the tools and techniques used to make websites with grids. You’ll find a gallery of great grid based designed, as well as links to tutorials and invaluable tools for anyone designing with grids.
Online since May 2007, with approximately 100 items of inspiration.
The Horizontal Way
http://www.thehorizontalway.com/
Most websites display their content vertically, making the user scroll down the page. In some rare cases however the website can be laid out horizontally making users scroll to the right instead, The Horizontal Way is showcase for just these sites. You won’t see to many of these sites, but if you do ever need to design a site that scrolls horizontally, this is the place to go for inspiration.
Online since November 2006, with approximately 40 items of inspiration.
No Resolution
http://www.cssliquid.com
There has long been a discussion on whether websites should be fixed in width or adjust to the size of the users browser. All arguments aside, see some great examples of fluid and elastic designs at No Resolution (formally called CSS Liquid). You’ll also find some resources and tutorials to help you make you next design fluid, or you can use some of the open source templates.
Online since November 2005, with approximately 300 items of inspiration.
Content
I Heart Blogs
http://www.iheartblogs.com
I Heart Blogs is a showcase of well designed and well written blogs.
Online since February 2008, with approximately 40 items of inspiration.
eduStyle
http://www.edustyle.net
eduStyle is a web design gallery dedicated to higher education websites and powered by higher education web design professionals.
Online since January 2007, with approximately 700 items of inspiration.
Carted Up
http://www.cartedup.com
Carted Up is a showcase of online stores, beautifully designed, and easy to operate.
Online since October 2007, with approximately 50 items of inspiration.
Feed My App
http://www.feedmyapp.com
A showcase of web based applications.
Online since June 2007, with approximately 2,500 items of inspiration.
Size
Full Single
http://www.fullsingle.com
Sometimes all you need is one page to convey our message, Full Single is a showcase of full websites that fit in a single page.
Online since January 2007, with approximately 200 items of inspiration.
One Page Folios
http://www.onepagefolios.com
Collection of one page portfolio by designers and developers.
Online since April 2006, with approximately 850 items of inspiration.
Geographic
CSS Design Yorkshire
http://www.css-design-yorkshire.com
Although not exclusively dedicated to the region, this gallery showcases web sites created by css web designers in the Yorkshire region of England.
Online since October 2006, with approximately 2,000 items of inspiration.
Oriental Gallery
http://oriental-gallery.com
For those designing for an oriental audience it may be helpful to view websites designed by oriental designers. Differentiated not just by language Oriental designers have different culture and experience than western designers.
Online since 2007, with approximately 60 items of inspiration.
Content Management Systems
WP Cube
http://wpcube.com
A showcase of the best designed Wordpress sites.
Online since December 2007, with approximately 300 items of inspiration.
We Love WP
http://www.welovewp.com
Those Wordpress users really like their CMS, another showcase of Wordpress powered sites.
Online since June 2007, with approximately 350 items of inspiration.
We Love TXP
http://www.welovetxp.com
Not be left out users of TextPattern showcase their best sites.
Online since July 2007, with approximately 450 items of inspiration.
LoopPress
http://www.looppress.com
Had to sneak in one more Wordpress showcase.
Online since November 2007, with approximately 400 items of inspiration.
Moveable Love
http://www.moveablelove.com
This is a place to show off interesting and beautiful sites built with Moveable Type.
Online since February 2008, with approximately 10 items of inspiration.
Web Development Frameworks
Drupal Sites
http://www.drupalsites.net/
A directory that lists websites powered by the open-source content management system Drupal.
Online since November 2005, with approximately 2,000 items of inspiration.
Happy Codr
http://happycodr.com
A showcase of websites built using the Ruby on Rails web development framework.
Online since November 2006, with approximately 700 items of inspiration.
Other
LogoPond
http://www.logopond.com
User submitted gallery of logos, with a hand selected collection of the best logos.
Online since July 2006, with approximately 20,000 items of inspiration.
IllyPads
http://www.illypads.com
A showcase of the best user submitted illustrations.
Online since March 2008, with approximately 100 items of inspiration.
CSS Princess
http://cssprincess.com
Website designed by Female designers are showcased at CSS Princess.
Online since July 2006, with approximately 200 items of inspiration.
Launching Soon Pages
http://launchsoon.com/gallery.php
A new gallery that showcases placeholder pages, for websites that have not launched yet.
Online since February 2008, with approximately 10 items of inspiration.
Business Cards
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dailypoetics/sets/72057594104389710/
A collection of inspiring business card designs.
Online since April 2006, with approximately 700 items of inspiration.
Colour Lovers
http://www.colourlovers.com
COLOURlovers gives the people who use color - whether for ad campaigns, product design, or in architectural specification - a place to check out a world of color, compare color palettes, submit news and comments, and read color related articles and interviews.
Online since December, 2004, with approximately 1,000,000 items of inspiration.
Elements of Design
http://www.smileycat.com/design_elements/
Elements of Design is a different type of web design showcase focusing on specific aspects of web design. It is brought to you by the Smiley Cat Web Design Blog.
Approximately 600 items of inspiration.
Typesites
http://www.typesites.com
Typesites is a weekly showcase of websites with interesting typographic design.
Online since January 2008, approximately 7 items of inspiration.
CSS Drive Menu Designs
http://www.cssdrive.com/index.php/menudesigns/
A gallery of website menus.
Approximately 75 items of inspiration.
I’m sure there are a number of deserving niche galleries that I’ve missed, leave a comment and I’ll keep the list updated.
Gallery inspiration counts as at March 2008.
inspiring commentary
March 16th, 2008 at 12:20 pm» Niche Galleries Webcreatives
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March 16th, 2008 at 5:46 pmJacob Cass
You should also check out http://www.designflavr.com - it is great design and illustration! All quality stuff.
March 16th, 2008 at 11:02 pmbVs
Super list, will always be in my bookmarks.
March 16th, 2008 at 11:07 pmMubashar Iqbal
@Jacob: DesignFlavr seems like a great place for inspiration, but doesn’t appear to have a niche topic to warrant inclusion to the list.
@bVs: Thanks!
March 17th, 2008 at 8:45 amAwesomoto » Blog Archive » Great Niche Gallery Sites
[…] 24 Great Niche Gallery Sites […]
March 17th, 2008 at 10:10 amTelevision Spy
What about CSS Zen Garden?
March 17th, 2008 at 10:29 amMubashar Iqbal
@Television Spy: I thought long and hard about adding CSS Zen Garden, one the original Galleries, but whilst very inspiring I didn’t see a niche that it served. It demonstrates the power of CSS very well, but in doing so it is a general design gallery.
March 17th, 2008 at 11:41 amAdam
Good list, but you forgot http://www.csshive.com
March 17th, 2008 at 12:33 pmDave
Hi Mabashar, thanks for the great list of resources. While this site is more generic, it’s good for creating images to use inside css: http://www.smashupgraphics.com. Hope you find it useful!
March 17th, 2008 at 1:03 pm24 Great Niche Galleries | Most Inspired Blog
[…] rest of the story is right over here Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and […]
March 17th, 2008 at 1:36 pmMubashar Iqbal
@Adam: I didn’t forget CSSHive, its just not a niche gallery!
@Dave: That is a nice resource, but as you said not a niche gallery.
March 17th, 2008 at 2:00 pmChristian Watson
Great list. I’d like to mention my ‘Elements of Design’ gallery (http://www.smileycat.com/design_elements/) which showcases specific design elements. It’s definitely very niche!
March 17th, 2008 at 2:05 pmMubashar Iqbal
@Christian: Very nice, I’ll add that to the list tonight.
March 17th, 2008 at 3:03 pmAli
http://www.designflavr.com is also pretty good
March 17th, 2008 at 3:54 pmWeb Design Liverpool
Great list, thanks for the heads up. will be a definiive bookmark.
March 17th, 2008 at 5:53 pmdavid
Great list mubs thanks for the includes
March 17th, 2008 at 6:05 pmpurrl.net |** urls that purr **|
This is one of the web’s most interesting stories on Mon 17th Mar 2008…
These are the web’s most talked about URLs on Mon 17th Mar 2008. The current winner is …..
March 17th, 2008 at 6:10 pmPete
http://www.typesites.com is a great niche showcase for typographic designs.
March 17th, 2008 at 6:16 pmFuzzLinks.com » 24 Great Niche Web Design Galleries
[…] CSS galleries can be a great source of inspiration, but if you’re looking for something in particular they can be a bit of a nightmare. Since niche galleries have a tighter focus it allows them to be more detailed. Below you’ll find a list of niche galleries, that focus on things from color schemes, to layout, and specific content types.http://www.mostinspired.com/blog/2008/03/16/niche-galleries/ […]
March 17th, 2008 at 6:18 pmJerm
http://movablelove.com/ for movable type sites
March 17th, 2008 at 6:30 pmRyan
What about Inspiration Folder(www.inspirationfolder.com)…it’s a very large gallery and I guess the niche would be the ability to save(store) the designs you like to look at later.
March 17th, 2008 at 6:33 pmNature
http://www.cssnature.org/
CSS Nature is a nature based CSS website Design Gallery.
March 17th, 2008 at 6:56 pm24 galerías CSS especializadas | Uberbloggerz
[…] | 24 Great Niche Galleries « Mario Bros de la vida […]
March 17th, 2008 at 7:01 pmSam Wilson
You gotta include http://www.typesites.com (focus on typography)
Great list, also like the design here.
March 17th, 2008 at 7:51 pmBrent Johnson
http://www.cssuberclean.com only showcases very clean sites.
March 17th, 2008 at 8:05 pmJames Hamilton
I Heart Blogs is one you did right? design and coded by you. That shouldnt be in the list as its just a site of yours that your trying to get traffic and clicks to.
March 17th, 2008 at 8:45 pm24 Great Niche Galleries | Most Inspired Blog
[…] See the List Uncategorized […]
March 17th, 2008 at 8:59 pm24 Great Niche Web Design Galleries « Rachw4w’s Weblog
[…] read more | digg story […]
March 17th, 2008 at 9:18 pmCCNA Exploration
Thanks a lot for compiling this list Mubashar!
March 17th, 2008 at 10:38 pmGreg
http://www.cssdrive.com/index.php/menudesigns/ is great for various menu designs.
March 17th, 2008 at 11:25 pmMubashar Iqbal
@James: So just because I built the site means its not a niche gallery? So people should never link to work they have done from a blog post?
March 18th, 2008 at 2:32 ammathamlin.com » Blog Archive » links for 2008-03-18
[…] 24 Great Niche Galleries | Most Inspired Blog (tags: webdesign css) Posted under Daily Links […]
March 18th, 2008 at 4:05 am24 Great Niche Galleries | Most Inspired Blog
[…] 24 Great Niche Galleries | Most Inspired Blog CSS galleries can be a great source of inspiration, but if you’re looking for something in particular they can be a bit of a nightmare. They can also be a little repetitive, you’ll often find the same design repeated on many of the galleries. […]
March 18th, 2008 at 8:27 amdavid
@James that is such a ill reasoned and ill thought out statement, there are about 4 of his sites in this list if you were paying attention, you know why? Because he specializes in creating niche galleries, he didn’t ask for this post to get the attention it got, it just did because people like the content. If you are going to make statements like that please inform yourself first please.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:18 amCSSArtillery
http://www.cssartillery.com of course
March 18th, 2008 at 10:22 am links for 2008-03-18 by Leesy’s Lounge
[…] 24 Great Niche Galleries | Most Inspired Blog CSS galleries can be a great source of inspiration but if you’re looking for something in particular they can be a bit of a nightmare. Below you’ll find a list of niche galleries that focus on things from color schemes to layout and specific content t (tags: webdesign css design inspiration gallery showcase) […]
March 18th, 2008 at 11:13 amMohsen
You should add http://www.bigowners.com too.
March 18th, 2008 at 3:21 pmmukkamu
http://www.cssmoon.com is very nice..
March 18th, 2008 at 4:16 pmAle
http://www.urbantrash.net/cssgallery is also pretty good
March 18th, 2008 at 6:15 pmDan Shields
Thank you for such a great list. I have been complaining that the top galleries that I usually visit aren’t great for inspiration on actual client work because they all seem to be web firm sites.
Again thanks so much tons of great inspiration.
March 18th, 2008 at 6:27 pmlinks for 2008-03-18 « toonz
[…] 24 Great Niche Galleries | Most Inspired Blog (tags: gallery portfolio showcase inspiration) […]
March 18th, 2008 at 7:15 pmJay Gaulard Blog » Blog Archive » Books, Yahoo!, Solar and Web Design
[…] 24 Great Niche Web Design Galleries […]
March 18th, 2008 at 9:47 pmWhite Sands Digital » Blog Archive » 24 Great Niche Web Design Galleries
[…] read more | digg story Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
March 19th, 2008 at 3:30 amsomaninn.net - le weblogue » Blog Archive » links for 2008-03-19
[…] 24 Great Niche Galleries | Most Inspired Blog (tags: design gallery inspiration layout resources reference webdesign) […]
March 19th, 2008 at 4:45 amCssLeak
http://www.cssleak.com is an oriented colors and colors palette gallery.
March 19th, 2008 at 5:25 amlinks for 2008-03-19 « Bob’s Weblog
[…] 24 Great Niche Galleries A list of niche CSS galleries, that focus on things from color schemes, to layout, and specific content types. (tags: css webdesign) […]
March 19th, 2008 at 4:25 pmExplore Eco-Sites
Explore Eco Sites .com is a niche gallery for eco-friendly / “green” topic web sites. Would love for you to add it!
Thanks!
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:48 amEnlaces para leer y ver 72 « el50
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March 23rd, 2008 at 4:21 amWelcome to Paradise
This is an awesome list of websites. It was quite useful for me as a designer. Thanks a lot.
March 24th, 2008 at 12:04 am24 Great Niche Web Design Galleries | Simple Drops
[…] of niche galleries, that focus on things from color schemes, to layout, and specific content types.read more | digg story addthis_url = […]
March 25th, 2008 at 11:27 amGichingiri Kuria
check out http://www.cssplatform.com
showcase of beautiful Joomla based designs. Joomla 1.5 rocks!
March 26th, 2008 at 7:08 amShreemani
You’ve missed out one of the best css layout you can find on the web.
http://www.oswd.org
do check it out. its just awesome.
March 29th, 2008 at 4:26 amtech.twomadgeeks.com » 24 Great Niche Web Design Galleries
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[…] More at: http://www.mostinspired.com […]
April 1st, 2008 at 2:03 pm[Re]Encoded dot Com » Blog Archive » 42 Must-Bookmark Resources for Web Designers
[…] 24 Great Niche Galleries has screenshots with descriptions and links to various galleries that you might want to see for more web design inspiration. […]
April 1st, 2008 at 4:47 pmMagic Multi-Inspirational Sites of March | Malene Hald
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April 1st, 2008 at 10:04 pmC
One more: http://www.dezinspiration.com
April 2nd, 2008 at 1:48 pmTop CSS Web Design Sites | PaulSpoerry.com
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[…] 24 Great Niche Galleries […]
April 6th, 2008 at 9:40 amfluidByte : design, development, & randomness » Blog Archive » Niche Galleries
[…] http://www.mostinspired.com/blog/2008/03/16/niche-galleries […]
April 7th, 2008 at 1:39 amAZ Web Design Studio
Great Niche Galleries, these can always come in handy later on. I am currently designing a website for a client right now who is looking into doing dynamic content boxes for a “no resolution” appearance, some of liquid CSS sites have really helped focus my design. Thanks
April 9th, 2008 at 11:01 pm» Ecco diverse risorse per web designer, ispirazioni e molto altro - Blographik - Grafica, web Design e risorse per blogger
[…] 24 gallerie di nicchia: presenta screenshots con descrizioni e link a varie gallerie da osservare per ispirarsi. Nell’articolo troverai un elenco di gallerie di nicchia, che si concentrano su schemi di colore, layout etc.. […]
April 17th, 2008 at 2:55 pmXfep Podcast: Episode 11 - eXtra For Every Publisher
[…] Design Galleries […]
April 20th, 2008 at 7:08 amRobert
Good list, but you forgot http://www.urbantrash.net/cssgallery
May 5th, 2008 at 4:06 amwebsite design
Great list, thanks for the heads up. will be a definiive bookmark.