This week, we’re taking a look at sites that feature a strong, candid introduction about themselves and their sites. How well do you think they work?

Designs of the Week

Want your site to be as good-looking and inspirational as these? Start by choosing a well-designed theme from ThemeForest.

Mikael Norling

The background color changes from green to blue over a long interval, and the headings follow that change. Hovering on the linked icons makes that background dim, which is another simple but effective touch. The rest of the one-page site is the portfolio on an all-white background.

Andy Patrick

Minus points for all the text on the page using all caps, but for all the sites that are into this vintage look these days, this one does a good job at it as everything blends so well. There’s also a nice little detail about a plane flying down from the map in the header all the way to one in the footer.

Abstract Human

The logo’s a quirky animated mustache guy, and its pixel effect carries over to the bar graph in the Portfolio page—makes me want to a few more elements to have that look.

AJ Marksberry

Good idea to use your signature as your logo, and in this case there’s a hook on the letter “j” to indicate the designer’s interest in fishing. The same theme carries on in the rest of the site: the background, the process, the footer.

Timothee Roussilhe

Hexagons, predominant use of yellow on a dark background, keyboard navigation, and a nice timeline on the About page overlaid on a map. All in all a nice modern look.

Social Media Weekly

Create unique, extraordinary websites with Squarespace. No experience necessary!

Design – Flowchart: how to retinafy your website
“With Retina screens all around us, it’s time to take the plunge and retinafy your website or webapp. Here’s the process I use (for both mobile and desktop) in the form of a flowchart for some more sanity in all of this.”

Responsive Web Design – ProcessCards
“ProcessCards are a way for experienced and novice web designers alike to jump face-first into the world of responsive design.”

E-Commerce – Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About E-Commerce…but Didn’t Realize You Should Ask
“I’d like to go through the essential issues that make good e-commerce possible. It’s going to take some time, though, so find comfortable spot and let’s get started, or feel free to hop around the topics as you see fit.”

Programming – Get Rid of That Code Smell
“Here’s a list of most common code smells that we’ve identified and removed.”