Simon Tessier (Pixel Gasoline) updates. Remember him from the 35-sexiest websites pt. 1? yep, that's almost two years ago now :)

New Ezra. Big update at Jonathan Moore's portfolio.

Video: What a horrible time to be blind, indeed! Wait until he gets to the bit about the flickr compilations.

I Chat, therefore I Am. Is profound the right word?

The Portfolio is fresh.

Video: Bad Mixtaping leads to cruel and unusual punishment. Really made me laugh.

Pearls Before Breakfast

I'm living in the worst place on earth, apparently. The video in question. Man, we've got some wicked good P.R. here in Windsor.

How the world really shapes up

Seriously, the guy must've been waiting his whole life for this.

Video: Web 2.0: The Machine is Us/ing Us

Asimov's What is intelligence, anyway?

The 35 Sexiest Designed Websites you've Forgotten, part 3
October 31, 2006: 3:53 PM





These titles are starting to get out of hand.

So the big day is nearly upon us - the respective reboots are both right around the corner, so I've decided to refresh your memory with the sexiest designed websites you may have forgotten about.

I still refuse to discriminate between flash and standards based sites - if it wows me, it made it in. That being said: this time around, the standardists certainly have impressed me more. They make up a much larger portion of the 35 than in either of the previous two lists (The First, and The Second).

But still, if the site catches my eye, it's golden. So, without further ado, let me present to you the 35 Sexiest Designed Websites you've Forgotten, part 3. Or Oct. 2006 version (there's really not an easy title here. I've dug my own grave, I fear).

Verdure Thought (CSS). Excellent use of earthtones and green shades, and great contrast between elements. Classy use of lightbox, classy use of reflection.

AngencyNet Interactive (Flash). Very innovative setup, clean and sharp images, great use of video features.

Ronemedia (CSS). I'm absolutely blown away by the colours and the scrolling effect. Excellent contrast!

Satsu Design (CSS). The background pattern, the colour contrast, and the typography all help me feel right at home with this site. It's got a clean-grungy sort of feeling, if there was ever such a thing.

Deluxe Digital Media (CSS, a bit of Flash). Bluegreying the light fantastic. Excellent brand identification, the light blue hummingbird is the perfect paragraph lead-in. Careful use of flash adds to the site quite nicely.

M Studio (Flash). One of my very favourites of the bunch. Alex Motzenbecker has created a unique, highly usable flash menu system, and with all of its minimalism, I couldn't be happier. Did I mention his portfolio is top notch? Because, you know, his portfolio. it's top notch.

Dan Lindop (CSS). Green/grey contrasts usually hurt my eyes, but this is beautiful. Way to catch the user's attention with the word bubble up front, too.

Last Kiss (Flash). Great transitions and easter eggs within the photos and movies. It has a very loose feeling to it, too. I dig it.

John Mills (CSS). Whoo! Now that's how to get my attention. Big bold blues and greens and a nice backlit effect make this a solid choice.

Booreiland (CSS/Flash). At once rustic and modern, the image hover transitions are perfectly suited to this page. Even the click-bubbles keep me entertained. Clever.

Turbomilk (CSS). You'd expect as much from GUI designers, eh? The branding here is powerful, and the muted tones bring out the best of their work.

The Design Portfolio of Steve Leggat (CSS). Strong pastels and contrast shades, excellent typography, and may I just say: one of the finest portfolios of the bunch.

Keoshi (CSS). Great rollovers, great branding, great typography.

Javier Ferrer Vidal (Flash). I could say something, but it wouldn't do this site justice. Everything about it is as perfect as flash gets. Play around.

Mobio Networks (CSS). Slicker than grease! Of course, maybe I'm just a sucker for fading gradients. fadients, even.

Draft Media (CSS). Be honest: Before you clicked the link, you didn't think those colours would go together, either. But they do. So well.

Left Hand Brewing Company (Flash). Great transitions, nice fade effects, classy use of video and motion menus. I dig it.

Expanse CMS (CSS). Great CSS rollovers, excellent typography (look familiar? I referenced Expanse heavily when redesigning philrenaud.com). Great brand identification, and minimalistic web design.

COBA (CSS). Big letters! Big backdrops! Big menu! Big contrast! Big... everything. Looks like something you'd expect out of a print design, transplanted perfectly to the web.

Mein Brandenburg (CSS). Grey-blue shades just aren't getting old anytime soon. Excellent use of both header and footer.

Jonathan Yuen (Flash). Blows me away every time. Great transitions, great rollovers, nonobtrusive soundtrack. One of the best of this bunch.

C-Ville (Flash, CSS). This site should make the list twice: one for the Flash site, one for the CSS version. Rarely does a site concentrate so much on both as C-Ville has. And did they get the sunshine's voice from Zombocom or is it just me?

Dimitry's Blog (CSS). Menu rollover is spot-on. Clever colour scheme, nice gradients.

Chromazone (Flash). Great shades, a hybrid macro-type site. Clever menu system, unobtrusive background music. Cute little transitions, too.

Twisted Melon (CSS). So shiney! And, great use of menu colours. And, the growing-plant thing is really clever, I find.

DPI Vision (CSS). Everything I like about minimalistic design. Has a messy/grungy feel to it, too, which is all the better. Dig the scribbled mouseovers!

Viaduct (Flash). Great stuff! The products page is brilliant, and makes me fall in love with horizontal scrolling (which, in general, should be loathed by all). Clever greyscales, good use of navigation.

Hydra Studio (CSS). Nice greyscales with a good pink contrast shade, nice mouseovers, excellent use of two-tone design.

Ed Merritt (CSS). Very nice menu setup, excellent translucent brand, great typography. I can't find enough nice things to say about it - this site is gorgeous.

SelfTitled.ca (Flash). Wow! Hands down one of the most unique navigation systems I've ever come across. Great information architecture, great use of screen size.

Live on the Coke Side of Life (Flash). Great colours, great transitions, great unobtrusive intro.

Kindness and Humility (Flash). Really great navigation system, good use of greyscale contrast. Minimalistic flash at its best.

PUK (CSS, Flash). Ah, the sunburst. Fun layout, cute hover effects.

Nuwen (CSS). Funky colour scheme, great contrasts. The footer makes me very, very envious.

jp33 (CSS). Excellent use of branding, great content division, great use of bright colours. Can't get enough of the artwork, either.

So, that's that, I suppose! Another six months gone. 23 of the 35 ended up being primarily CSS based, as opposed to 20 last time, and 9 (!) the first time around.

Still, the list is purely subjective - there are bound to be entries you didn't like, and certain to be some that I've overlooked. Can you think of any sites I may have overlooked?

Hope you've enjoyed the 35-sexiest: next edition at the end of April, 2007.

(Digg this post)

Thanks for the comments: Sean, Romi, Jonathan Snook, Christopher, Candice, Andrew, Don.

« Previous Post | Next Post »

Nice list, I like you're non-discriminatory approach to flash. Some flash site's just work.
Tim (url)
On Oct. 31st at 4:34PM

Nice list, though you might want to stop by bestwebgallery.com for a more complete list. There's some great ones I think you missed!
Terry (url)
On Oct. 31st at 4:42PM

Nice list, you have a great skill for finding the sites we really *did* forget about. You missed on though:

http://philrenaud.com

It has a really slick design and it's pleasing to read. Consider adding it to your list!
Montoya (url)
On Oct. 31st at 4:56PM

Aw geez, thanks Christian!
Phil Renaud (url)
On Oct. 31st at 5:47PM

err
thanks everyone else, too. Don't mean to imply that you're any less important, honest :)
Phil Renaud (url)
On Oct. 31st at 5:47PM

This surprised me. Thank's so much for the mention ;)

Dimitry
Dimitry (url)
On Oct. 31st at 6:29PM

What a nice surprise after a long day. Thank you for listing nuwen. All listed sites are indeed incredible. :)
rikkye (url)
On Nov. 1st at 12:09AM

Excellent list there, Phil. A pile of inspiration for me.

And yes, I do like the fact that you've included flash and css based sites. It's good to see people 'playing nice'.
Andrew Faulkner (url)
On Nov. 1st at 1:28AM

Which font do you use in your sidebar?
shit happens (url)
On Nov. 1st at 2:23AM

Phil your new design looks awesome! You always do something original, totally refreshing.
beth (url)
On Nov. 1st at 5:47AM

Nice list! Thanks heaps for including me. I feel spesh being included alongside such awesome work.
Steve (url)
On Nov. 1st at 4:42PM

How about something visually cool & simple that is also novel & useful?
http://www.instantbull.com is a good example of what I mean by using a cool gradient blue that serves well for their classy financial offering
Simple Sam (url)
On Nov. 1st at 8:34PM

I'm honored to be mentioned on the list as well...thanks Phil!
jp33 (url)
On Nov. 1st at 8:51PM

Now I know why your site was down for my viewing pleasure earlier in the day (or at least my assumption as to why), massive diggage.

Anywho, nice list. I'm just curious as to how you found each of these? Simply look around and tag what you liked?
Chris (url)
On Nov. 1st at 8:58PM

Thanks for stopping by, everybody!

@ shit happens: the xhtml text is Trebuchet MS, and the pngs are a variation on Bauhaus Light.

@ Chris: Over the course of the six months since the last 35-sexiest list, I've kept a bookmarks folder where I throw in stuff that wows me. The original list was around 80 sites, and these are the 35 sexiest.
Phil Renaud (url)
On Nov. 1st at 10:25PM

I recently found a very interesting website:
http://alreadylinked.com/
There you can purchase ad space for your Blog etc.
jack (url)
On Nov. 1st at 11:10PM

Excellent! thanks Phil!
Mike (url)
On Nov. 2nd at 12:28AM

Thank you for mentioning my site in your list! Cool collection by the way...
sonora (url)
On Nov. 2nd at 5:28AM

Thank you for support my work mein-brandenburg.com while mentioning my site in this list! I really appreciate this.
diwiesign (url)
On Nov. 2nd at 8:36AM

FYI -- the sites that claim to be xhtml/css actually use Flash for content.
Brad (url)
On Nov. 2nd at 1:43PM

Honored to be in this list. Thanks for the feature, Phil!
keoshi (url)
On Nov. 2nd at 1:55PM

May I suggest my favorite site: <a href="http://www.ndesign-studio.com">www.ndesign-studio.com</a>
Jen (url)
On Nov. 2nd at 2:18PM

quote:"highly usable flash menu system" for M Studio

I find it to be of the 'mystery meat' variety....
ReTodd (url)
On Nov. 2nd at 5:05PM

Thanks for the nice things about my website ;)
Gilk (url)
On Nov. 3rd at 3:11AM

Thanks for the mention Phil. Much appreciated. Looks like I'm in some good company there.
DanL (url)
On Nov. 3rd at 4:39AM


Hola. Visita: http://www.anhedonia0.blogspot.com/ (cuentos eroticos & bizarros en blog)
marcelo (url)
On Nov. 3rd at 6:44AM

Isn't http://www.designrific.com in the list :D
Mostafa Mourad (url)
On Nov. 3rd at 4:00PM

I'm sorry but I really think most of the CSS sites listed above are at best average, at worst embarassingly cliched and naive. That said Steve Leggat and Booreiland deserve their places and some of the Flash sites are excellent.
Michael (url)
On Nov. 4th at 1:44AM

Excellent list! A pile of inspiration for me :)
funny movies (url)
On Nov. 4th at 5:01AM

I think you missed http://blackcoil.com - no Flash or over the top stuff, but really clean and elegant design!
Kent (url)
On Nov. 4th at 7:25AM

Thanks!
Bill (url)
On Nov. 6th at 7:25AM

Hi,

Thanks for having listed my design portfolio VerdureThought.

Regards,

K . S . Karthick Murari

www.verdurethought.com
+freshness in every pixel+
K . S . Karthick Murari (url)
On Nov. 7th at 2:12AM

Great collection. Very inspirational work on some of those sites.
Shycon Design (url)
On Nov. 9th at 2:00PM

indeed some classics here, you may have to up date this list at the end of 2006 tho.. its been a busy year for cleverly designed and well thought out web sites and web applications.
jim callender (url)
On Nov. 28th at 7:08AM

I checked the first one, the Verdure site. Huge visual impact of class, but usability low due to poor type color and background: both shades of green. If type was in white it might work a lot better for readability and user interactions. Have to give this a D+. Sorry.
vaspers the grate (url)
On Nov. 28th at 7:26AM

well a remarkable collection with some (flash) sites that are actually pretty famous (for example selftitled.ca or vidal). but when i read 'sexy' websites i would think of sexy design not of technology or interactivity. and yes the named flash sites top all others in sex-appeal. keep it up!
jan (url)
On Dec. 1st at 11:32AM

COBA is nice. The rest is trendwhore shite IMO.
Zelda (url)
On Dec. 4th at 1:21PM

Honored to be in this list. Thanks for the feature Keep up the good work. Greetings from Poland
Max (url)
On Dec. 21st at 7:44PM

Thanks for creating your three sets of 'sexy websites.' I've clicked through it from top to bottom. I am in New York City and putting together a very cool music company, but I can't seem to find a creative web site designer to put together a great look/feel gui. I am getting very frustrated but surely there are several. Many of your 'sexy sites' are by designers outside the US. Can you (or readers) recommend some outstanding ones in the US, ideally in NYC? I would greatly appreciate your input. Much obliged!
Oriel Newman (url)
On Jan. 6th at 8:35PM

fadients.... YES i LOVE THAT WORD!
Anon (url)
On Jan. 10th at 10:23PM

Very nice! Cool sites.....
KK (url)
On Feb. 8th at 12:46AM

Nice list, I think http://theweborchard.com is a nice portfolio site.
Pete White (url)
On Feb. 12th at 9:17AM

http://neostream.com/ is a company site though its a graphic heavy flash site... its nice.... though it might take some time to load if you have a slow connection
qwerty (url)
On Mar. 21st at 9:46AM

worst popular music <a href= http://musicresource.org/genre-rock-latin/gnr491/ >bayou cajun music visitor</a> w w e b s i t e p a t w music w a k w h clan w sii wasisdas wav
download mp3 music player (url)
On Sep. 7th at 9:55PM

Great sites, I love the puk site! Color combos give me ideas.
Don Stevens (url)
On Sep. 11th at 11:49AM

nice site
download dvd movies (url)
On Sep. 14th at 7:56PM

allie full length sin blog music free dvd search myspace <a href=http://search.cnn.com/search?query=site%3Amusicresource.org&type=web&sortBy=relevance&intl=false&nt=null&currentPage=31>relativitity between an arbiter and algarithem music</a>
<a href=http://search.cnn.com/search?query=site%3Amusicresource.org&type=web&sortBy=relevance&intl=false&nt=null&currentPage=26>hinder music</a>
<a href=http://search.cnn.com/search?query=site%3Amusicresource.org&type=web&sortBy=relevance&intl=false&nt=null&currentPage=1>music teachers</a>
<a href=http://search.cnn.com/search?query=site%3Amusicresource.org&type=web&sortBy=relevance&intl=false&nt=null&currentPage=8>free gospel sheet music</a>
<a href=http://search.cnn.com/search?query=site%3Amusicresource.org&type=web&sortBy=relevance&intl=false&nt=null&currentPage=19>sheet music zeppelin</a>
nashville music clubs
download file mp3 (url)
On Sep. 21st at 3:56PM

To be honest, some of those weren't all that amazing. I guess that usability is just as important as graphics – and maybe, I've come in a little late here, but some of these were really not THAT impressive. Verdure though (the first one) was especially not impressive. It looks like they might be in the middle of an upgrade, though, or my IE7 version just simply doesn't work with what they've got going there – because I couldn't find anything of what you spoke about (green shades, great contrast between elements. Etc.)
gifts (url)
On Nov. 2nd at 6:50AM

Great list. I just wonder about the set of criteria that you used to complete your list. You see, there are few sites in your list that do not actually look good in terms of CSS and design and all.
portrait artist (url)
On Nov. 5th at 8:29PM

a graphic heavy flash site... its nice.... though it might take some time to load if you have a slow
Car Audio (url)
On Nov. 20th at 7:02PM





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