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Vintage Style Web designs for your Inspiration

Posted on February 16, 2010, in Inspiration

Trends come and go in web design. The Retro and Vintage theme is being seen more and more recently. Here we’ve picked some of our favorites for your inspiration, along with what we think makes them so great. Enjoy.

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1. Simon Collison

Colly.com is beautifully styled. Surprisingly, the text is set almost entirely in “Times New Roman”, a font that’s not been used much lately, and it definitely works well. Check out this journal post for more on the design.

2. Mutt Ink

Mutt Ink’s site reflects their incredible illustrations. What makes this design work particularly well, is how all the images fit perfectly with the vintage feel. Take note.

3. Cup Cake Carousel

Cupcake Carousel features great vintage patterns throughout, adding subtlety and class to the site.

4. 52 Weeks of UX

A great monotone blog, with fitting illustrations for each post. The uniform look, and strict grid based layout give the site a clean layout.

5. Twitter Chirp

A nice use of texture and hand drawn elements make Twitter Chirp different from most. Visit Twitter Chirp and scroll down to appreciate very cool artwork. P.s we dig the colours too.

6. Brooklyn Slate

A large photo sets the scene for Brooklyn Slate. Broken borders, serif fonts and sexy patterns gives a clean vintage look.

7. Birdie Birdie

Birdie Birdie is simple, yet contains small details such as drop shadows and patterns that really make a difference. We would like to see an up-scaled or full width version.

8. Jessica Hische

Jessica Hische has exquisite typography, and the swirls and illustrations really add something to the design, creating a sophisticated look.

9. Made in England

Made in England has an eye catching header which changes when you refresh the page, we like that. It has very subtle texture which we find very nice.

10. Mother Earth Brewing

The heavily textured background, along with great choice of serif fonts, and bold colour choices gives Mother Earth Brewing’s website a great earthy and retro feel.

11. Analog

Analog.coop is extremely minimal and strictly grid based. The single page layout is perfect, and doesn’t feel at all forced. There is great use of CSS3, and the site is also built in HTML5.

12. Hipstery

Colours on Hipstery are a bit mind blowing – but with good reason. Hipsterys website have incorporated very nice fonts, layout and the rest but what makes it interesting are the 3D effects.

13. Rifle Paper Co.

14. I Shot Him

I Shot Him is a design firm in San Francisco. Their site is… well… different, but we like it. To understand you need to head over to I Shot Him.

15. Deathcab for Cutie

Deathcab for Cutie’s website has an inspiring and unique layout. The site design and layout is definitely worth paying attention to when designing your next site.

16. Circus family

Circus Family is a very theatrical design. Black and white websites need to work harder to capture their audience due to not having the persuasive effects of colours. We were captured.

What you should consider when making a vintage design…

Textures

The best designs that we’ve seen all feature brilliant textures. Textures can add depth and interest to almost any design, but the most successful of these designs pull the effect off brilliantly with subtle and delicate textures.
Here’s where you can find some…

• 300+ Vintage Style Textures and Photoshop Brushes
• 30 Most Incredible Textures for Vintage Style Design
• 300+ Vintage Style Textures and Photoshop Brushes
• 80+ Beautiful Vintage Texture Packs

Grid-based layout

Many of the most effective designs here stick to a strict grid layout. Try getting extra inspiration from traditional printed design like old magazines and posters. When used properly, the grid layout can also help to make information easier to read.

Serif fonts

All of the sites listed here use traditional fonts like Georgia and Times New Roman for the body text. Tools like Typekit offer extra choice – there are some great alternatives to tired old Georgia.

Impeccable illustrations

Key to a successful and beautiful vintage design is no doubt images and illustrations, which fit the theme of the design. Take a look at the sites listed here carefully, and you’ll notice the care and attention that has been paid to the imagery.

Bold colours

Most vintage inspired designs tend to choose one or two bold colours and use them to draw attention to specific areas of the design. The majority of the sites listed here use shades of orange or red to offset lighter colours or monotone.
There are some great colour schemes at Colourlovers.