This week’s Friday Focus is all about light on dark designs that use subtle, even elegant textures.

Designs of the Week

Love the stitching effect with the mixed textures. The placement of the color switcher is a little awkward but the rest of the details are great, see the “exclusive” ribbon and the thumbnail frames.

I like the subtlety of the left-aligned layout, it’s not apparent until you browse the inner pages but the result looks good. Of course, textures are a great way to break the strict look of a strong grid design.

I like how the logo blends in with the background to also give it texture. Love the frame and hover details.

Nice hover effects and the mix of the icons with the sketchy, chalk-like touches.

The slideshow illustrations have a distinct look but all match. I think it would be even better if you could see those characters on the rest of the site.

I find it interesting how the slogan is on the left, almost like a secondary logo. Love the design of the lightboxed slideshows everywhere. The design does not miss any opportunity to add techie details.

This design makes quite the impact, but I have to wonder if they should’ve put up the agency description higher. I like the hover effects on the images and the infographics in the Skills page.

The quality of the slideshow illustrations combined with the vertical switching effect just feels really fresh. (It certainly makes more sense than horizontal sliders that have that weird part where they disappear into nowhere.) The fine borders and shadows you’ll enjoy most in the Blog section.

Social Media Weekly

User Experience – The Coming Zombie Apocalypse: Small, cheap devices will disrupt our old-school UX assumptions
“This problem is simple, but pernicious: designers think of new technologies in terms of yesterday’s tasks, failing to clearly see the real potential of the new technologies.”

Design – Free Web Design Toolkit
25 beautiful and interesting photographs; 27 background images, textures and patterns; One icon set for your site nav