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30 Fresh and Inspiring WordPress Designs

I’ve been using WordPress as a blogging platform for years now, and I can fully understand why it has become as popular as it has. What I especially love is that unlike other blogging platforms, many of the bloggers working with WordPress seem to truly care about design.

Some of the top designers in the world use WordPress for their sites, and the creativity in the WordPress community is astonishing. Today we bring you 30 fresh and inspiring examples of great design within WordPress websites. You can see how some websites stick to the blogging conventions and layouts that WordPress started out with, whilst others use WordPress as a CMS, creating unconventional and unique works of digital art for their website.

1. BEEW

A very clean site, with an awesome content scroller area. The clean, fairly minimal design is combined with a super bold color-scheme, adding a lot of energy to the modern design.

2. Dreams Media

Dreams Media uses a very light and clean color-scheme. The cloud background creates a sense of being above the heavens, which fits perfectly with the abstract company name.

3. Alexandre Rudalov

Alexandre Rudalov makes excellent use of textures, by creating a unique wood-texutre background. The subtle splashes of bright color and sketchy elements make this clean design stand out, but adding superb touches of creativity.

4. Sheena Oosten

A really colorful, professional effort from Sheena Oosten. The white typography really pops against the bold purple background, and the subtle lighting effects give this design a lot of depth.

5. Jasson Perea

Jasson Perea is another colorful web design. The header is almost like one big piece of art, as the stunning 3d typography combines with a bright photo-montage to really show off the artists talents. The basic two column design is simple, yet accentuated by very careful padding and lettering.

6. Attitude Design

Attitude Design has gone for a very traditional look. The rustic picture frame provides a perfect area for a content slider, and the textured background added to this old-time effect.

7. Mobile Development Experts

This is one of my favorite header areas! The bright yellow background and great product shots is really eye catching, and the weaving rainbow like vector shape ties everything together beautifully.

8. Soccer Classroom

Soccer Classroom is great example of lots of content being presented in a clear way. The double menu is made clearer by the tabbed navigation, and the cohesive colors of the site tie everything together nicely.

9. Marketing Professional

Marketing Professional is a really eye catching blog. The main colors of blue, pink and yellow are integrated artfully, creating splashes of brightness across the page. The large attractive headline and expert typography helps achieve a professional, polished design.

10. Calobee Doodles

This is a really fun and creative design. The cute illustrations and doodle-like typography fit perfectly with the company name, and create an interactive-feeling world for the visitor to explore.

11. Outlinez

Outlinez is a great example of more and more WordPress sites breaking the mould these days. It doesn’t feel like a traditional blog at all, and instead uses WordPress as a CMS platform, shaping a unique, creative looking website.

12. Jeniffer Dake

Jennifer Dake is a WordPress site not afraid to capitalize on the details of design. I love all the complex textures, patterns and brush marks going on in this design. She has a great eye for subtlety and it really pays off in this design!

13. Signum Works

Signum Works cuts a great medium between clean design and complex integration of textures. The users eye is naturally drawn down the page from the clean logo and heading area, to the colorful footer design. The bold call to action button adds further direction in terms of usability.

14. Creative Mug

I love the background design of Creative Mug, it combines elements of a blueprint type grid with the contents of a designers desk (coffee, macbook pro, ipod etc…). It’s a perfect way for creatives to feel right at home whilst browsing the site.

15. Made by Creature

Made by Creature has a very interactive feel to it, with a constantly shifting featured content area. The creative, bold logo is really eye catching, and the association of color draws the user’s eye down to the welcome area.

16. Ink Mutt Interactive

Ink Mutt Interactive has a really engaging dual-tone color-scheme. The typographic choices and illustration give the site a very comic-book like image, which fits perfectly with the fun, creative nature of the business.

17. Cafundo Studio

Cafundo is one of the most creative looking websites I’ve seen for a while. It breaks conventional layout structures, instead opting for an awesome looking grid structure. However, rather than feeling rigid, it feels more like a presentation of talent and inspiration. The fluid background design helps break up the grid, adding texture, depth and detail to the page.

18. CoffeeTopia

CoffeeTopia is a fairly simple design, but has many beautiful subtle elements. The glow effect behind the logo really draws the users attention, and the subtle background design adds depth. The design’s colors really compliment each other, and foreground the great product shots.

19. Jquery for Designers

I love the grungy nature of this design. The torn edges and textured background design are really creative, and the content hierarchy is very clear to follow. The eye is initially drawn to the large headline, and then moves down the page, following the trail of headers and paragraphs.

20. NDzynes

NDzynes shows great integration of a lighting effect into their header. The stunning lighting is the center piece of this design, enhanced by cool metallic lettering and a creative menu design.

21. Shloka Pics

I love the sky/cloud like effect in the header of this website. The clear navigation and well-padded welcome area make this site really easy to navigate, and the fresh, clean design is pleasing on the eye.

22. Appleton Estate

I love the product placement in this design. It doesn’t seem like a traditional WordPress site, but is incredibly clean and modern. The product photo is eye catching, and positioned perfectly amid a sleek gray background.

23. Knoxify

I love the header of Knoxify. The 3 column speech bubble design is really eye catching, and fits well with the abstract background design. A very unique layout!

24. Kid Koala

Kid Koala has captured the night theme really well in this interesting design. The sketchy illustration and moving header aspects provide a great design piece. The light blue and yellow text really pops against a dark background.

25. Simon Foster Design

The blog of Simon Foster is minimalism at it’s best. Duo-tone, with bold illustrations and great typography. What could easily have been a boring two column layout is a bold design statement, that evokes the conventions of poster design.

26. Division

Division is another great minimal design. The basic two column design is enhanced by an awesome attention to detail. The designer has integrated great content presentation method, positioning large thumbnails next to a kind of content tab area in the ‘IN BRIEF’ area of the site. The large logo headline is immediately eye catching, and has a lot of impact.

27. Living Design

Living Design is simply stunning. The header is one of the most creative pieces of web design I’ve ever come across. The complex montage of illustrations, photo manipulation and typography works perfectly. Usually I would complain about content being pushed beneath the fold, but in this case the header more than makes up for it!

28. Joel Myles

Joel Myles has opted for a really trippy design, and it’s certainly unique! The colorful header is really eye catching, and helps differentiate this artist from his competition.

29. RHETTCANIPE

RHETTCANIPE is a beautiful website. I love the watercolor effect used in the background, and it fits perfectly with the album cover design. The colors are soothing, and the content is clear and straightforward to navigate.

30. Nanyate

This is one of my favorite WordPress designs. The layout is fairly basic, but the beautiful textured background design is so calming and engaging. The splashes of bold red really stand out. Quite simply it’s a pleasure to browse.

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