The 10 most sexy, best designed Wordpress blogs
The design of a blog is arguably as important as the content - a distinctive look can help set you apart from the crowd much easier than your content could (initially at least). If your blog has a distinctive appearance then people will remember it - simple!
There's more to design than just aesthetics though; it's all about usability and purpose. Some designs are great for monetisation, others are great for cross-promotion of content... So here are 10 of the sexiest designed blogs done under Wordpress (just because that's a massively popular blogging engine). These are great targets to aim for!
Carfreaks (not in Wordpress, I was told it was. Sexy though)
This design has very little real estate on the page, just a little area showcasing the latest content and navigation. What makes this site powerful is the beautiful image that dominates the screen:
What makes this website beautiful is the clarity, the minimalistic design... You could happily change that master image to any car and it would look amazing. Visit carfreaks.net
Web Designer Wall
This is one of my favourite website designs in the world, ever. I may be a web developer so I get to appreciate how complicated a build like this is, but I think anyone could appreciate the beauty that is this website:
The retro theme works really well with transparencies adding to the feel. Everything about this design feels like it was done custom, which in turn makes it feel special. It's good, clean markup too which makes it even better. It takes a talented designer to come up with this. Visit webdesignerwall.com
Jsbox
This website may be on one of the slowest servers known to man and the content may not make a fat lot of sense... In fact it's just a massive image with some content over to one side... But it works really well together!
It's not overly practical because of the lack of page space and the mammoth time it takes to load, but it is pretty and that's something I'm going to hand to JSbox. Visit jsbox.net
PRBlogger
I really like this design for a few reasons. It makes good use of space; plugging latest content, recent comments, recent photos, recent albums and quick links all on one homepage. It also looks great:
I really like the use of grunge design because not only is it hard to pull off well but it stops you from meeting vast regions of solid colour. I guess I like PRBlogger because it looks unlike anything else I've read whilst maintaining good usability/readability. Visit prblogger.com
Ifelse
I like this because of it's simplistic design and lack of images. It shows that you don't need massive pictures of mountains to make an attractive site. Ifelse is nice and uncluttered example of blog design:
It may be overly grey but look at the real estate on offer. You've got a main post down the middle, nav to the left, about on the top right and promotion stuff on the right. It may not be the most "rock star" design in the world but I think it's one of the most efficient. Visit ifelse.co.uk
Stop Design
This is another very ordinary-yet-beautiful blog. The header and blue-tones make it relaxing with some nice typography too. This is another uncluttered approach to web design that doesn't need an expensive designer, just an eye for clarity:
Easy to use, neutral tones and it's easy on the eye. You could do far worse than using this as an aspirational design. Visit stopdesign.com
Matt Brett
This is a great example of grunge design, mising charcoal/black with hot pink works really well. Grunge doesn't work well on many sites but it does work here:
In addition to the sexy design look at the real estate on offer: latest content, previous entries, recent comments, status, portfolio... Everything the author wants you to see straight off. A really good distinctive design. Visit mattbrett.com
Veerle's blog
Designers always have the sexiest blogs and this is no different. It utilises a combination of retro and web2.0 styles to create a distinctive appearance. One of the best things about this design is the use of typography:
There's a nice mix of light and dark colours to balance the mix between blog and promotion. The middle column is nicely monetised while the right hand side acts as a showcase/portfolio for both the author and featured artists. This is a really nice approach. Visit veerle's blog
Jek2k
Yet another web developer/designer's blog. This uses the charcoal/hot-pink combo that works so well, while also implementing a large lead-image to capture the reader's imagination. I really nice design with some great positioning:
About text, latest content, recent posts and porfolio all readily accessible. Navigation is nice and clean - I also really like the sensible use of Javascript to slide more navigation items into view if you're "feeling lost". Visit jek2k.com
eMonetized
I like this because it's a design that tackles the problem genre of "making money online". Most blog designs that are monetised are beyond invasive and feel less like blogs than they do adverts. eMonetized does have advertising but not at the expense of content and that's a difficult aspect to design.
It's not the most handsome blog in the world but it's not bad and (as I said) it's dealing with a difficult subject matter. I like the featured posts/recent entries implementation at the top of the page to help the reader find useful content. It's brave that the RSS logo is green rather than the traditional orange... Visit eMonetized.com
There you have it, 10 of the sexiest designed blogs under Wordpress. They're all excellent for different reasons; whether it be the awesome development that went into WebDesignerWall or the simplicity of CarFreaks. I hope a couple of these have given you some inspiration.
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