Design inspiration for web creation: 50 sites worth saving in your browser's bookmarks

In the ever-evolving world of web design, staying ahead of the curve is crucial. To help you on your journey, we've compiled a list of 50 inspiring web design sites that are worth bookmarking. These sites range from award-winning showcases, experimental playgrounds, to studios setting the bar in the industry.

Award Sites & Showcases

Phantom.land: A unique platform that reimagines portfolio browsing, offering an immersive sphere and floating panels showcasing work.
Awwwards: A renowned site that showcases award-winning sites with cinematic storytelling, immersive interactions, and a constant reminder to up your game.
CSS Design Awards: Daily showcases from across the world, highlighting clever UI, UX, and front-end builds.
Landbook: A clean, browsable archive of landing pages, portfolios, and product sites.
Behance: A massive platform, sometimes overwhelming, but still gold for case studies.
Hoverstat.es: A site that curates experiments in typography, layouts, and interactivity.
Collect UI: UI inspiration by theme.
Godly: A site that curates daily picks of striking, creative websites across styles and sectors.
SiteInspire: A clean, categorized, and addictive site that allows filtering by style, industry, or platform.
The Useless Web: A site that showcases absurd, pointless, and often hilarious web designs.

Studios Setting the Bar

Locomotive: An agency that masters motion and micro-interactions, making every site they touch feel alive.
KOTA: An agency based in Clerkenwell London, specializing in Creative Web Design, Web Development, Branding, and Digital Marketing.
Obys: A Ukrainian studio with mind-bending typography and motion experiments.
27km: A creative content studio known for merging advertising and entertainment.
Stink Studios: An agency with sharp creative and a cinematic edge.
Active Theory: Creates immersive, cinematic experiences online.
Hello Monday: An agency that is playful, bold, and endlessly inventive.
Dogstudio: Blends art, tech, and storytelling into sites that feel more like installations than pages.

Experimental Playgrounds

Pitch: Turns presentation software into a visual playground.
Codrops: Not just a site that offers design examples, but tutorials and experiments one can actually build on.
Muzli by InVision: A firehose of inspiration across digital design.
See*Saw: A newer but strong gallery that highlights cutting-edge digital design with crisp categorisation.
Neverhack: A site with a minimalist design that features a neon-purple box that starts pulsing, creating a minimalist metaphor for security at work.
Dich (Webflow): A wild, interactive, and cyberpunk fashion-forward site.

Brands Doing It Right

Apple: Apple's product pages are masterclasses in restraint, motion, and storytelling.
Monzo: Proves that fintech doesn't have to feel grey and corporate.
Nike: Always pushes the boundaries of product storytelling online.
Patagonia: Has bold visuals with a strong brand narrative.
Airbnb: Seamless UX with strong, emotional visuals.
Zyon Helmets: A site with a clean, fluid design and a clever interactive 3D helmet that proves depth doesn't need complexity.
Glossier: A reminder that minimalist doesn't have to mean boring.
The Brand Identity: A go-to platform for visual identity and digital brand systems, with thoughtful case studies.
Design Made in Germany: A window into bold, often unconventional projects.
It's Nice That: One of the most respected design publications, curating work across art, digital, and branding.
The Goat Agency: Created a future-ready website, a project worth noting.
Igloo: Soothes with water ripples, calming scroll, mouse-driven fluidity, and floating AI lesson blocks.
Rocktree Capital: Combines finance with Blade Runner-style visuals, neon cityscapes, cinematic zoom transitions, and eerie soundscapes.
Blueyard: A mesmerizing site with spheres that pulsate with motion and color.
Aether1: A sleek, sensory, and interactive site with ripple effects, a levitating product zoom, 360° view, subtle audio, and a seamless scroll-based breakdown.

Platforms & Resources

Pttrns: Offers mobile patterns for days.
Mobbin: UI patterns from real apps, constantly updated.
Built for Mars: A plain-English UX glossary and resource hub with examples that demystify complex patterns.
Hoverstat.es: A site that curates experiments in typography, layouts, and interactivity.
Collect UI: UI inspiration by theme.
Niice: Offers moodboards and curated creative references.
The article's web design blog: Shares sites, strategies, and creative experiments that keep clients and the authors ahead of the curve.

Current Favourites

Gentle Rain: Offers a soothing user experience, with water ripples, calming scroll, and floating AI lesson blocks.
Sitesee: A minimalist gallery of clean, modern web design.
UPP: Crafted a cinematic web experience for a Hollywood powerhouse.
The article also mentions a project named The Goat Agency, where the agency created a future-ready website.

Remember, this list is by no means exhaustive, but it's a great starting point for designers, marketers, or brand owners looking for inspiration. Web design inspiration is a constantly evolving field, so maintaining a list of fresh sites, studios, and showcases can help keep up with the latest trends. Happy browsing!

Design inspiration for web creation: 50 sites worth saving in your browser's bookmarks