2020 has been one of the vital memorable years in our historical past. Few of us have been alive lengthy sufficient to expertise a extra turbulent time. However all year long, we noticed design reply to difficult occasions with positivity, shade, and a need to raise these folks and initiatives working to make the world higher.
As we head into 2021, there’s no denying that 2020 has modified our outlook on life and marked a significant turning level in internet design tendencies.
Right here’s a group of the web sites we beloved essentially the most this yr. Get pleasure from!
Seems to be Like You Want Iceland
On Looks Like You Need Iceland, you might be invited to report a scream, which is able to then be broadcast into the Icelandic wilderness. It’s meant as a type of remedy. The thought is that you’ll sooner or later go to Iceland in individual. Which may nonetheless be a way off for many of us, however we may definitely use an excellent therapeutic scream.
Black Lives Matter
Throughout 2020 there have been main protests world wide in assist of Black Lives Matter. The movement’s website is a central hub for information, assets, and civil rights info in 38 nations.
2º Earth
2ºC Earth takes the person to five places worldwide and reveals what is going to occur there if world temperatures rise by 2ºc. Sound is used rather well right here to create an immersive expertise, together with some lovely images.
Github
Together with some new options introduced earlier this month, GitHub has a glossy new homepage. It has a clear really feel, with some good scrolling animation and sparing however efficient use of illustration.
I Weigh Neighborhood
Political and social initiatives had been massive in 2020, and non-profit activism initiative I Weigh Community is the brainchild of actress Jameela Jamil. It’s dedicated to radical inclusivity, communicated with daring, expressive graphics.
UNREAL
Again in January, we clicked round UNREAL’s site for hours, having fun with the sharp transitions. The Swiss company produced a splendidly chaotic love letter to internet animation.
Delassus
Delassus grows fruit, from citrus to avocados. The Moroccan firm employs a cornucopia of 3D design to make its web site daring, enjoyable, and sensible.
Lynn Fisher
We beloved every part about Lynn Fisher’s site again in May. The homepage illustration was superior. It was a humorous strategy to RWD that we actually appreciated. The positioning has since modified, with tons extra to discover.
Minervo
The Minervo site feels distinctly Latin, with the recent pinks and sun-blasted desaturation feeling suitably South American. We love the cropping on the customized typeface.
Babord
Norwegians have an virtually mystical reference to the ocean, which is clear within the web site for Babord, a Norwegian seafood provider. We beloved the model font too.
Calexo
Calexo makes THC-infused drinks, and again in April, we beloved the colour and positivity of the location. The animated hamburger menu was a success too.
Moooi
Moooi’s site layers illustration with a maximal impact that makes you’re feeling such as you’re chasing a white rabbit. There are tons of nice UI particulars right here, particularly the bar that reveals the product movies.
Blind Barber Anniversary
The Blind Barber celebrates 10 years of success with this microsite. A deconstructed grid and a completely black and white design, however with shade photographs, create vitality and a way of pleasure.
Zand Harirchi Architects
Zand Harirchi is an structure agency based mostly in Tehran, Iran. Its web site options refined references to structure, just like the pleasant thumbnails paying homage to small home windows.
WFN
The WFN (Ladies’s Funding Community) is a world alliance supporting girls’s foundations and gender justice funders. The delicate shade palette and clear sort are each assured and female.
Nathan Taylor
We beloved exploring Nathan Taylor’s playful site all the best way again in January. The completely different lighting modes had been a agency favourite.
Käthe Kollwitz Memorial
A tribute to the life and work of Käthe Kollwitz, an Expressionist printmaker. There’s a catalog of her work, introduced alongside massive sort and splashy shade transitions.
Emotive Feels
Emotive Feels is a design manifesto from the Emotive Model company that illustrates an A–Z of potential model feelings with easy animations that we likened to a Blue Observe launch.
A. N Different
A.N Other’s site for fragrance highlights high quality elements, supplies, simplicity, craftsmanship, and the setting; within the course of, it cleverly invokes a way of luxurious.
Playtype
Danish sort foundry Playtype’s site matches its identify completely. The playful web site with shiny blocks of shade and the occasional animation reveals off some fairly good typefaces.
Feijoo Montenegro
All-text websites are all the time a thrill, and again in June, we had been handled to this straightforward one-pager by Feijoo. Particulars just like the numerals being changed by phrases are pleasant.
Wavering Stripes
Though this site’s subject material is harrowing, it’s introduced in a really lovely, considerate method.
The Oyster & Fish Home
Refined typography, the wave textures, the nostalgic really feel of the images, and even the cookie discover’s on-brand styling all present consideration to element, which supplies this site its attraction.
Who Cares
Discover and ‘{photograph}’ the endangered species to study them in this delightfully illustrated game.
Curbed
When Curbed got here beneath the umbrella of New York journal earlier this yr, it bought a makeover. Neon highlights and a distorted grid give an edge to the basic journal structure.
Yolélé
The carousel of fonio (it’s a West African grain) merchandise on Yolélé’s landing page is an efficient instance of horizontal scrolling that works properly. There are some nice web page transitions too.
Pantheone Audio
Pantheone Audio’s site employs elegant scrolling to allow seamless navigation of an especially luxurious web site, underpinned by a posh grid.
Aelfie
Shiny shade, an irregular grid, illustrations, and a show sort that feels virtually hand-drawn completely captures the aesthetic of this NY-based home furnishing brand.
Highcourt
This web site for personal membership leisure membership Highcourt makes use of refined background shade modifications and easy line illustrations to create a way of calm. Black and white are softened to darkish blue and ivory, and delicate animation provides curiosity.
Kate Jackling
Kate Jackling’s site takes a step again and permits the content material to bask within the glow of consideration, inserting her images at heart stage.
Treaty
Whereas there may be much less hustle and bustle exterior than we had been used to pre-pandemic, we may definitely all use some calm. Treaty’s site for CBD oils displays that calm with a mixture of video, whitespace, and botanical drawings.
Ukrainian Railroad Women
Ukrainian Railroad Ladies is a guide of images of girls, and a few males, who work on the Ukrainian railways. The positioning is fundamental, even brutalist, however it has attraction, and the photographer’s fascination along with his topic comes by.
Yr & Day
Year & Day is an ecommerce web site that sells tableware, from glassware to ceramics. The colourful assortment is designed to enhance several types of meals, and the location’s shade scheme displays that completely.
Juan Mora
Juan Mora’s ‘under construction’ holding page has most likely been crafted with extra care than many full-blown websites. This showcase cleverly manages to show its topic’s expertise with out exhibiting a single piece of labor.
Lucciano’s
Lucciano’s homepage hero video alone could have your mouth watering for a few of their gelato. A lot of the attraction of meals is visible, and the images right here doesn’t disappoint. Round textual content bins in ice cream colours complement the product pictures properly.
Bored Options
Again in April, we had been already a bit of weary of lockdown — if solely we’d identified how lengthy it might final! The superb shade blobbing of bored.solutions was the perfect distraction.
Grand Matter
Grand Matter is an artist company representing illustrators. There’s a wealth of expertise on present right here and a broad sufficient vary of types to maintain the online attention-grabbing for an excellent whereas.
Dunderville
This web site for Dunderville movement design studio encompasses a paper fold element, which provides tactility to the digital. Some very good sort and vector animations showcase a powerful portfolio.
Album Colours of the Yr
Album Colors has taken the covers from 150 albums launched this yr and organized them by dominant shade. The hex code for every shade is offered if you wish to copy it.
Mammut Expedition Baikal
Mammut makes use of beautiful images and a robust narrative to current its Eiger Excessive outside clothes. Eager for the nice outdoor will both be alleviated or exacerbated by this one.
808303
808303.studio is a digital Roland TR-808 drum machine and TB 303 bass synthesizer. You’ll be able to program, report, and share your very personal 80s techno masterpiece.
Bliss
Humor could be arduous to get proper, particularly if you need to be taken severely on the identical time. Here, it really works, and the result’s a memorable web site, oozing with confidence.
Jazz Keys
Kind your message into Jazz Keys, and also you’ll hear it in sound. You’ll be able to ship the message to anybody and allow them to hear your phrases — the online lives for side-projects like this.
Érika Moreira
The fabulous, easy web site for Sao Paulo-based Érika Moreira has some superior massive sort and inventive case research. It’s a superb instance of a non-visual portfolio.
G.F Smith
Earlier this year, the location for main paper provider G.F Smith bought a redesign. It’s a less complicated design than the earlier web site and retains the visible deal with the merchandise and the colours.
Abbotsford Convent
Abbotsford Convent is a artistic arts venue in Melbourne, Australia, based mostly in a former convent. The UI for its web site blends architectural varieties to acknowledge the constructing’s heritage.
Waka Waka
Waka Waka designs and builds wood furnishings. The mid-century typography and the noise textures transport the location to the final century’s radical graphic design. There’s some intelligent disruption to the standard thumbnail strategy.
Cone
Websites promoting apps all the time appear to need to field the design right into a unexpectedly de-branded mock-up. Cone takes a daringly refreshing strategy by depicting a extra expansive cell expertise.
Journey Out
Amsterdam’s Ride Out bike retailer teases the content material with an intriguingly masked video. Plus, we love the wheel-inspired spinning hyperlinks.
Puddle Sound
This site is a mannequin of minimalism. Stunning images and little or no textual content, there may be nothing to distract from the product on show.
