The Next 35 Sexiest Designed Websites You've Forgotten
April 28, 2006: 10:02 PM

You knew it was going to happen.

Last time the CSS Reboot came to town, in November, I had included both this site (philrenaud.com) and Mixtaping.com (which is entered, coincidentally, again), and had a major problem finding inspiration in the days before the big launch date. It seemed logical, though - everybody was waiting until all eyes were on the reboot to really launch their designs to the world.

Still, I'm a procrastinator, and it doesn't do me much good to have something of a new-design draught at all the gallery sites. So, just as last time, I've decided to refresh your memory: I refuse to discriminate here, either: I'm willing to be wowed by CSS and XHTML with some AJAX and whatnot thrown in, and I'm just as willing to be wowed by a great Flash-based interface. If it catches my eye, It's golden.

When I first wrote the 35-sexiest list back in October last year, it went right to Digg's frontpage. Twice more since then, it was frontpaged. I'm always happy to bring inspiration to designers, especially the rebooters. In any case, Here are my 35 picks for sexiest designed websites, website type in brackets, and a brief explanation of why you should love it, too.

Apples to Oranges (CSS). Ten points for colour, ten points for grid, and a hundred billion points for having their design priorities in order.

Xenao Web Studio (Flash). Transitions, non-obtrusive soundtrack, very appealing gritty look.

Carlos Marcelo Photography (Flash). The navigation, while less than totally intuitive, is nevertheless intriguing.

Danny Halarewich (CSS). Perfect on every account to which perfection may be a grade. Seriously, this guy has got CSS design right down to the money.

Kohn Pederson Fox Architects (Flash). Best grid system use you're likely to see this century.

Tennessee Vacation (CSS). Lively but subdued colours, and somehow the grunge technique comes off looking like a very clean site overall. Very impressive.

Breaker Design (CSS). I'm sympathetic toward the black/white contrast and bright colours, but there's more to it at breaker design than just that: the iconography, the text grid, everything all makes it feel like a very well rounded site design.

Ars Thanea (Flash). Emulating Photoshop for the win!

Parque Creative (Flash). Great flash grid design, green and grey usually don't mix well but they sure do here. I just hope Tycho is okay with his music being used!

Mercedes A to S (Flash). Want to get people to keep using your site? Appeal to the web users' sense of childhood curiosity. I love it.

Bio-Bak (Flash). I am a BIG (forgive the pun) fan of the macro-trend in flash design, and this is a perfect example of why.

alwaysBETA (CSS). I can't put my finger on it, but something has me loving the colour/diagonal scheme.

Swoo.ca (Flash). My pop-up blocker going off makes me almost not want to include this, but once you get inside - wow. Colour-play, interactive elements are spot-on perfect.

2005 TCU Graphic Design Exhibition (Flash). Great interaction, nice to put some faces on the work.

Principles of Freedom (CSS). Want to pass your test on the US Constitution? Just fall in love with this site design.

Vertua Studios (CSS). Can you say minimalist? Very nice work. Whitespace never looked so fine.

Solarclima (CSS). Not sure what it's saying, but by god, it just feels like summertime.

Playgrounds Festival (Flash). Not unlike bio-bak above, this macro-flash site has me drooling.

MISHOX (CSS). Dark shades + bright colours + diagonals = a happy Phil.

Dave Werner's Portfolio (Flash). Probably the best thing you're going to see here today. If I try to say anything about how wonderful this site is, it just won't do it as much justice as you actually going there. Now.

Asemota (CSS). Fonts, dark shades, heavy contrast, great portfolio work.

Calm Digital (CSS). Just enough flash to catch the eye, and great overall theme.

Mark Bixby (CSS). The blue/burgundy combo is just not seen often enough. In fact, I want the background as my living room's wallpaper.

Creaktif (Flash). Great transitions, fun navigation, colours, portfolio work, everything's in the bank. Very nice.

Cubamoon (Flash). Plus a whole lot of points for being just beautiful and stunning (really, the design on its own is fantastic). However, minus a few points for doing something in Flash that could, though with some slight changes, be done in CSS/xHTML/Ajax.

The Traveling Guys (CSS). This combination of colours is not supposed to work, but it does. Ohhh, it does. Great photography, and overall mission, for that matter, too.

Dnevnik Eklektika (CSS). The colours! The contrast! It makes me so happy.

Hybridworks (Flash). I can say lots of things about how excellent this site is, but all I really need to say is this: I visit this site every week, without fail, just to remind myself how great flash can be when used properly.

Animadversio (CSS). High contrast, bright colours. Even the animated gif favicon is a nice touch.

Guilago (CSS/Flash). Minimally thin design usually really bothers me, but here it's pulled off really well. The cartoony feel of things is great, too!

Zoka Coffee (CSS). Has that vintage look that everybody tends to love, down to a tee.

Couloir photography (CSS and Ajax). Look ma, no flash!

First Great Western (CSS). Great use of transparencies, bright colours, high saturation, and an overall nice vibe.

Contre Coups (CSS). It's simple, and it's effective for getting the point accross: the design here is top notch.

Sonja Mueller Photagraphy (Flash). Everything down to the minute details is completely brilliant, from the background noise to the intuition of the navigation systems. Great work!

So, that's that. The chief complaint about the last list is that there wasn't enough CSS, and it was loaded with flash (26 flash to 9 css). To that: I'm not picking and choosing. I cast my net wide, and whatever catches my eye makes the list. That said, however, maybe both the designs in the past few months and my own personal tastes have evolved: 20 of the 35 are CSS-based now. No matter where your preference lies, I really hope you enjoyed the list. Is there anything that I really shouldn't have missed?

Thanks for the comments: Pete, Sean, Fil, Casey.