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Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006

2006 was the year of Web 2.0 design and pretty much that type of design got old real quick. Below I have listed the Top 7 Freshest Designs in my mind that I have come across this year and although these kind of lists can easily be argued, I try to provide you with enough reasoning behind my decisions.

  • Cuban Council

    Why choose a site that wasn’t even designed in 2006 as a fresh design for 2006? In a year where we saw a return of the one-page layout, I still find that Cuban Council’s timeless design outdoes all-newcomers in not only providing a rewarding experience, but also a helpful one. Everything you need to know about them is on one page and it doesn’t seem too long or overbearing on the user. Instead the site draws you in even deeper and you begin to wish that there was more to it, not because you need to see more, but because you want to see more.

  • Suicide Girls

    Another site done by the guys over at Cuban Council and to me is the best community-designed site around. Mike and I were going over the site yesterday and its amazing the attention to detail the design has received. Every section of the site is designed with a purpose and if the naked pictures of women and great community weren’t enough to draw you in, then the design should finish the job.

    Be sure to checkout my previous article on SG, The Genius of Suicide Girls.

  • N.Design Studio

    Taking just a glance at the layout you can see there is nothing special about it. A simple two-column layout which has become the defacto layout of all sites since blogs hit it big. What you get though when going through the site is to see the work of a true artist. There are talented designers and then there are talented artists and rarely are we subjected to both on one site at once. I can only hope we see a bit more imaginations going wild on the web in ‘07 with regards to illustrations.

  • The Morning News

    Not a design that will garner many design awards, but that does not take away from the fact that it deserves some attention. The Morning News design lets you know one thing as a reader and that is the site is all about content. The design enhances the experience and stays out of the way and this is very refreshing in a period where people associate successful content sites with the amount of ad space they are selling.

  • UX Magazine

    Like The Morning News, UX Magazine is focused on just giving you content. The homepage design is a brilliant use of a grid system along with a flexible-width layout. The layout adjusts depending on the size your browser window without taking away anything from the homepage. Although this type of system puts a stranglehold on how you must present your content and what type of content can fit within the site, I still think it is a brilliant use of different design elements.

  • Veerle

    I almost started off this sentence with “one of the best female designers around”, but quickly realized that is my male mind kicking in and not giving Veerle her due respect. She is one of the best designers on the web and her site is one of the top five design blogs on the web in my opinion. Nothing beats great content and a great design and no other site in my mind epitomizes this relationship more than her’s.

  • Shaun Inman

    Never one to shy away from experimentation, Inman gives us what we most want from a blog…the content. In a perfect world there are no ads, but we don’t live in that kind of world yet for the time being we can escape to the land of make believe when visiting Inman’s site. A mix of links and articles the flow is never broken and you will never have a problem reading what is on the page.

Here’s to 2007 and a whole new batch of fresh designs.

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Published by Scrivs on December 20, 2006 in Design • Did you like it? Subscribe! Or Submit it to Blogosphere News!

78 people says things!

  1. Hard to argue with any of those choices. Well done, Scrivs.

    By Jeff Croft on December 20, 2006 4:21 am

  2. oh come on, cuban council is 2005.
    I think we’re all sick to death of hearing about Veerle its not even that good its pretty fucking generic also grid wise and typographically its rather poor,

    7 freshest turds of 2006 more like

    can’t stand the fact that CSS/development nerds think they can actually talk about design

    By Trevor on December 20, 2006 6:21 am

  3. […] read more | digg story Filed under: Uncategorized   |   Tags: . […]

    By Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 at innerangst.net on December 20, 2006 9:39 am

  4. Outstanding list, if you only wanted to collect 7. Why 7? Why not 10?

    In any case, you left off JeffCroft.com, especially the latest de-magicked version.

    By chris on December 20, 2006 10:19 am

  5. That Shaun Inman is one of the ugliest I’ve seen

    By Interesting List on December 20, 2006 10:27 am

  6. I like especially the first and this one : http://veerle.duoh.com/

    Good choice.

    By Michaël on December 20, 2006 10:34 am

  7. I like the pink one! Suicide Girls, not because its pink. The layout and placement looks good.

    By Dewilde on December 20, 2006 10:34 am

  8. I like all except N.Design Studio background choice.

    By Tim on December 20, 2006 10:36 am

  9. I completely agree with N. Design Studio being there… One of the best designs i’ve seen in a long time.

    While been good designs, i’m not too sure about the others been rated freshest designs of 2006.

    By Donny Burnside on December 20, 2006 11:11 am

  10. […] Wisdump.com has listed out the top 7 freshest designs of year 2006. […]

    By Yowazzup: A Directory of Happening Things » Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 on December 20, 2006 11:16 am

  11. I came across Veerle’s blog while googling for a certain photoshop hack, and I was instantly electrified. Great to know that her design has stirred others as much as it did to me. Her design makes me think, “How the F* can someone design to damn straight?”

    By Naser on December 20, 2006 11:20 am

  12. […] digg.com pointed me in the direction of this post about the Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 (web design). Some of the designs are really pretty sexy: my personal favorites out of those listed are Cuban Council, Suicide Girls, and Veerle. […]

    By Applegeeks 3.0 on December 20, 2006 11:22 am

  13. A few of these are usability nightmares and most of them are putting style before function. BUT, they are still pretty. :-)

    By Source on December 20, 2006 11:34 am

  14. Good stuff. N.Design Studio was new to me, and a good find.

    By Ben McNelly on December 20, 2006 11:38 am

  15. I think all the designs are OK, but nothing to write about.

    By Adam on December 20, 2006 12:06 pm

  16. […] Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 […]

    By Austoon Daily » Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 on December 20, 2006 12:18 pm

  17. and how much did these sites pay you to be features? inclusion of suicide girls is the tell.

    By james on December 20, 2006 12:22 pm

  18. Where’s Cork’d? You suck, Scrivs.

    By Fred on December 20, 2006 12:26 pm

  19. Excellent choices, although I don’t think 7 is enough spots for the number of well designed sites coming out in 2006. I was surprised to see nytimes.com missing from your list though.

    By Jon Buda on December 20, 2006 12:27 pm

  20. Nice sites, although I always believe in function before form.

    By Andrew on December 20, 2006 12:33 pm

  21. […] 2006 was the year of Web 2.0 design and pretty much that type of design got old real quick. Here is an overview of the top 7 freshest designs in 2006.read more | digg story […]

    By 煎蛋 » Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 on December 20, 2006 12:33 pm

  22. I think you have made some really nice choices for 2006, however I always have been a firm beliver that simple designs win out in the end, and I find many of these designs although fabolous looking, are too busy, and will date themselves faster then more timeless designs.

    Good choices though

    By Chris on December 20, 2006 1:25 pm

  23. He’s a bit harsh, but I’m going to have to agree with Trevor on this one. Veerle always seems to make these lists, yet hardly “epitomizes” great content and design — the writing (though not necessarily the subject matter) is awful, the supplemental content is 99% self-indulgent drivel (even for a blog), the masthead looks ripped from a Limited Too/Wet Seal ad circa 1998, and the amount of wasted and/or misappropriated space is ridiculous.

    By Eric on December 20, 2006 1:25 pm

  24. […] » Link […]

    By A FINE Development Blog » Blog Archive » Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006? on December 20, 2006 1:31 pm

  25. I like how they squeeze a lot of info in a small space and yet keep it organized…a complicated task at that.

    What I’m looking for though, is less is more…have less content initially on the page to focus the user’s attention. Then, either through a set time period or hovering with the mouse, have different content fade in. Apple does this with their iTunes software, but just the ads portion. I have seen site that scroll, but those are annoying.

    What I’m looking for is simplicity in design…but how do you do this with a lot of content to present?

    By Victor on December 20, 2006 1:55 pm

  26. These are all pretty good, but when I first saw the design of UX Magazine some months back, I thought they were trying to do ‘an Onion’. I thought they were trying to be satirical by being a ‘user experience’/usability publication that has links to its stories scattered in small type in tiny boxes all over a page. I mean.. it looks good, but who threw out the usability?

    By Peter Cooper on December 20, 2006 1:58 pm

  27. I found this very interesting, I rather like website design, though I barely even dabble in it. I have to say that the first choice, the Cuban one peeked my interest, I just found the site creative in it’s choices of decor, as well as the interesting way they choose to display their content.

    Several of the layouts I found surprisingly cluttered, although somehow, they managed to keep straight lines (which is always appealing to me). I think that for a front page, some of them might have had a bit too much content, and I only say that because I’ve visited sites before where someone has told you about one specific thing and you’re left staring and searching the page for what feels like too long just to find that specific link.

    All in all, I found these choices interesting, and found something I enjoyed about each of them based on a visual sense.

    Becca ~

    By BeccaLynn on December 20, 2006 2:27 pm

  28. These designs do tend to move away from the standard Web 2.0 but I don’t completely agree with all choices. NDesign is a straight hit but if you include Veerle’s blog you should mention Subversion (www.subversion.com), early release of Avalonstar (www.avalonstar.com) and Jeff Croft (www.jeffcroft.com). I also favor Cameron Moll (www.cameronmoll.com) and to see his touch check out his portfolio page.

    These pages are a nice pickout but I’ll be rude and say they’re pretty much subjective. Still nice examples though.

    By Armin Beširović on December 20, 2006 3:33 pm

  29. […] read more | digg story Posted in Uncategorized. […]

    By Forchilli’s Wordpress Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 « on December 20, 2006 3:58 pm

  30. […] Everybody likes lists and end of year reviews - Wisdump.com show their top 7 freshest designs of 2006 « Rounded corner and gradient generator   […]

    By The Web Design Blog on December 20, 2006 4:59 pm

  31. Hey Trevor, why don’t you give us a few examples of your groundbreaking work and show us all how it’s done.

    By Parker on December 20, 2006 5:17 pm

  32. I won’t get into others, but Shaun Inman is definitely a great addition to this list. He’s always at the forefront of what’s happening, so the title ‘fresh design’ matches his stuff greatly.

    By franticindustries on December 20, 2006 5:49 pm

  33. I don’t think any of these design are particularly fresh or original. They are nice and clean, but they are by no means the best of the year. Seems more like an ad for cuban council rather than a true representation of whats been happening in the design community this year

    By skelta on December 20, 2006 6:29 pm

  34. […] 2006 was the year of Web 2.0 design and pretty much that type of design got old real quick. Below I have listed the Top 7 Freshest Designs in my mind that I have come across this year and although these kind of lists can easily be argued, I try to provide you with enough reasoning behind my decisions.   […]

    By Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 « My Blog on December 20, 2006 7:18 pm

  35. These sites pretty well suck in my opinion.

    By David Krug on December 20, 2006 7:21 pm

  36. […] read more | digg story […]

    By Jef Harris » Blog Archive » Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 on December 20, 2006 7:32 pm

  37. […] Ein weitere Versuch von gestern sind die Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006. Sicherlich nicht der letzte Beitrag dieser Art. Welche Vorbilder oder herausragenden Beispiele könnte man noch nennen? Popularity: unranked […]

    By Top Design 2006 | Dr. Web Weblog on December 20, 2006 8:26 pm

  38. […] story No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTMLallowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> […]

    By Cartoons Fans Lounge on December 20, 2006 11:01 pm

  39. […] 其他的看这里:http://wisdump.com/design/top-7-freshest-designs-of-2006/ […]

    By DONKEYBLOG » Blog Archive » 7个最设计新颖的网站 on December 21, 2006 3:24 am

  40. I havn’t checked them all out to see if there is any special tricks, but from the thumbnails shown…

    Congrats, they made pretty boxes. I know designing for a for the web (especially for Content Management System) encourages that sort of designing, but of those represented there doesn’t seem to be much effort into breaking out of it.

    By Transbot9 on December 21, 2006 6:05 am

  41. […] Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 » Wisdump uma lista dos 7 sites mais “legais” de 2006 (tags: 2006 design cool site webdesign) […]

    By links for 2006-12-21 | blog.ftofani.com on December 21, 2006 7:21 am

  42. […] Web - Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 Recomendações Article printed from RetortaBlog: http://retorta.net/wordpress URL to article: http://retorta.net/wordpress/index.php/2006/12/21/web-top-7-freshest-designs-of-2006/ Tags […]

    By RetortaBlog » Web - Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 on December 21, 2006 7:59 am

  43. […] Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 […]

    By YaMTaR » Blog Archive » 2006 yılının CSS tabanlı en güzel 7 sitesi on December 21, 2006 10:20 am

  44. […] Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 » Wisdump uma lista dos 7 sites mais “legais” de 2006 (tags: 2006 design cool site webdesign) […]

    By pristina.org | everything design » links for 2006-12-21 on December 21, 2006 10:27 am

  45. […] how about a bunch of links before the holidays hit: Check out these creations all made form a single A4 piece of paper, just look, its amazing! The works of Matthew Woodson are just as spectacular. Both CSSVault and ColourLovers have received beautiful redesigns. ANTI magazine has released it’s second issue. How about 2 best of 2006 website reviews? There’s the 50 beautiful CSS designs of 2006 and the 7 freshest web designs of 2006. Lastly, PhotographyCorner is holding a photo contest with a top prize of 14,000, anyone can enter! […]

    By links before the holidays. at Daily.Phirebrush on December 21, 2006 12:58 pm

  46. Well even though the designs here are good I wouldn’t categorize them as great nevermind the standout designs of an entire year. Maybe I’m a design snob but here are my picks:

    http://www.youworkforthem.com
    http://www.eneone.com/
    http://www.djdieselboy.com/
    http://www.bionic-systems.com/

    Remember kids….web 2.blows. Just because publishing is now easier doesn’t mean it should be assembled in the same boring grids with shiny 3D Photoshop effects.

    Check out my site at http://www.respondcreate.com/

    By Jon on December 21, 2006 1:42 pm

  47. […] Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 (tags: WebDesign Notables) […]

    By All in a days work… on December 21, 2006 9:27 pm

  48. […] Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 » Wisdump 2006 was the year of Web 2.0 design and pretty much that type of design got old real quick. Below I have listed the Top 7 Freshest Designs in my mind that I have come across this year and although these kind of lists can easily be argued, I try to provide (tags: design CSS webdesign web2.0) […]

    By » Blog Archive » links for 2006-12-22 on December 21, 2006 11:17 pm

  49. […] Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 » Wisdump 2006 was the year of Web 2.0 design and pretty much that type of design got old real quick. Below I have listed the Top 7 Freshest Designs in my mind that I have come across this year and although these kind of lists can easily be argued, I try to provide (tags: 2006 art bestof blogs lists web design) […]

    By It’s All Happening · links for 2006-12-22 on December 21, 2006 11:20 pm

  50. […] Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 » Wisdump (tags: WebDesign) […]

    By links for 2006-12-21 -- 时光漫步 on December 22, 2006 12:46 am

  51. thanks for a waste of time. i’ve seen about 1000 better sites this year that could replace all seven of these crap choices esp. Shaun inman- i dunno who he is but thats one awful site.

    By tired of lists on December 22, 2006 1:35 am

  52. I don’t know why you did not chose this: http://www.stocktemple.com
    I think they have a much cleaner website that most of the ones you picked. Just my opinion,

    By Katie on December 22, 2006 4:42 am

  53. Thanks for selecting UX Magazine. Completely agree that every one of the 6 sites being on there — especially TMN which is a personal favourite of mine.

    On a side note, if you’re tired of lists, and don’t understand the concept of personal opinion (Scriv says “I have listed the Top 7 Freshest Designs _in my mind_”) — just don’t click the link.

    By Alex Schleifer on December 22, 2006 6:27 am

  54. […] Уже как-то проскакивала ссылка “50 Beautiful CSS-Based Web-Designs in 2006“, а вот еще один список интересных дизайнов. Теперь от Paul Scrivens - участника 9rules. […]

    By Number One Blogger» Blog Archive » Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 on December 22, 2006 6:58 am

  55. Hmm…the Cuban Council site IS indeed beautiful…but images as text…no man that’s really not good. That way anyone can design a beatiful site…a website is only a website if it uses the web as supposed to be; so text as text; live with the typographic boundaries…this is cheating.

    By Leo on December 22, 2006 11:05 am

  56. […] Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 […]

    By Enlaces para leer No. 7 « el50 on December 22, 2006 7:15 pm

  57. […] Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 […]

    By Shit Happens » Great Css Designs in 2006 on December 22, 2006 8:22 pm

  58. @Jon, sorry, your picks made me throw up in my mouth. A design snob? Not.

    By Chris on December 23, 2006 11:11 pm

  59. I guess your blog and your choice. Personally, the best of the lot i.m.o. was that UX-Magazine .. I like that type of layout. The rest seemed cluttered and not that fresh in my mind’s view because I get a headache with the information overload. You don’t need everything on one page. People should make navigation part of the design, not remove it. I don’t like the way designers think they should go and hope it doesn’t go there in 2007 - removing navigation and tossing everything else in the footer.

    By HART (1-800-HART) on December 25, 2006 1:59 pm

  60. […] Fine d’anno, tempo di liste e classifiche. Ecco quindi 50 beautiful css based web designs in 2006 su SmashingMagazine: davvero un’ottima selezione, anche se a memoria, alcuni dei siti presenti nella classifica non sono stati fatti nel 2006. Altra selezione notevole, anche se un po’ più piccolina, la Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006. […]

    By Mario’s Weblog » Ispirazioni di fine d’anno on December 27, 2006 9:24 am

  61. This list is just a recognition of the people with some influence on the internet in 2006. Mostly a mouth to mouth, designer to designer, blog favorite of the article writer.
    None of this sites are even close to be original, or trive in the excelence to be called freshest of 2006.
    They are just into the trends of the year and they have a backup of visitors.

    Some people should stop visiting shits like cssmania, csselite, webcreme or other craps like that, which popped like mushrooms after a rain and retun to the 2005 list makers like thefwa, nwp, e-creative and many more that trully show creativity and freshness.

    Just another point to what a great designer sayed, that the design industry is going to Hell.

    All the best to the victims of marketing and “designers”

    By Treaks on December 27, 2006 4:04 pm

  62. Yeah come on, Urban Council isn’t just 2005, it’s a total ripoff of good ol k10k style too. Seems that Shaun Inman has discovered old Designers Republic stuff…
    It’s just a list of 7 ‘cutting edge’ sites out of thousands equally as good. Now here’s a list with 50 of them that match the above choices (was digged too):
    http://smashingmagazine.com/2006/12/19/50-beautiful-css-based-web-designs-in-2006

    By Andy on December 29, 2006 12:17 am

  63. […] Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006? […]

    By Easy Webbers » Speedlinking Week 1 (2007) on January 2, 2007 2:27 pm

  64. […] Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 » Wisdump Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 (tags: design webdesign 2006 site) […]

    By holdandmodify.com » Blog Archive » links for 2006-12-21 on January 3, 2007 7:12 pm

  65. […] The best CSS-based designs in 2006: 50 Beautiful CSS-Based Web-Designs in 2006 and Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 […]

    By Web-Sites of the Month: December 2006 | Smashing Magazine on January 6, 2007 10:35 am

  66. […] Altra selezione notevole, anche se un pò più piccolina, la Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006: http://wisdump.com/design/top-7-freshest-designs-of-2006 […]

    By Flashmotus » Blog Archive » WEB bilanci 2006 e predizioni 2007 on January 7, 2007 8:38 am

  67. […] Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006. SG is in there, and that makes me all warm inside… […]

    By Melbourne Pixel News » Blog Archive » Fresh Number 7 on January 22, 2007 2:54 am

  68. […] Wisdump 2006 yılına damgasını vuran en taze ve yenilikçi 7 site tasarımını kullanıcıları ile paylaÅŸmış. Sıkılan, boÄŸulan, bunalan tasarımcılara ÅŸifa niyetine! hasanyalcin Web Tasarım […]

    By Hasan Yalcin » Blog Archive » 2006′nın en tazeleri on February 11, 2007 6:43 am

  69. […] Wisdump - Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 […]

    By thepaperbull.com » today’s post is sponsored by the number 7 on April 26, 2007 6:20 am

  70. You know what I find fascinating? That none of the people who’ve slammed the sites chosen for poor design have linked to their site…

    Methinks the Green-Eyed Monster may have reared it’s ugly head in some of the comments?

    ;)

    By Paul Enderson on April 26, 2007 3:15 pm

  71. The Morning News looks best.

    By Alexey Novikov on May 8, 2007 4:19 pm

  72. N. design studios design is amazing, all their work is aswell.

    By Brandon on May 28, 2007 6:56 am

  73. The Morning News is the best in usability. I think others are hard for user to use.

    By egorych on September 3, 2007 12:27 pm

  74. […] bien celui de “The Morning News” : simple et […]

    By Design par Revue des TIC à ODIT France on October 10, 2007 1:30 am

  75. […] 2006 yılına damgasını vuran en taze ve yenilikçi 7 site tasarımını kullanıcıları ile paylaşmış. Sıkılan, boğulan, bunalan tasarımcılara şifa […]

    By 2006′nın en tazeleri | Rasim Coşkun | Web Tasarım | Web Design on October 23, 2007 2:28 am

  76. […] read more | digg story […]

    By World Design O! » Blog Archive » Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 on October 30, 2007 6:06 am

  77. […] 7 Plantillas seleccionadas en Wisdump […]

    By » Los mejores temas, plantillas o diseños de blogs para descargar gratis » intercambia.net trucos para ahorrar, cosas gratis, trueques, consumo y salud on February 28, 2008 10:12 am

  78. This list is just a recognition of the people with some influence on the internet in 2006. Mostly a mouth to mouth, designer to designer, blog favorite of the article writer.
    None of this sites are even close to be original, or trive in the excelence to be called freshest of 2006.
    They are just into the trends of the year and they have a backup of visitors.

    Some people should stop visiting shits like cssmania, csselite, webcreme or other craps like that, which popped like mushrooms after a rain and retun to the 2005 list makers like thefwa, nwp, e-creative and many more that trully show creativity and freshness.

    Just another point to what a great designer sayed, that the design industry is going to Hell.

    All the best to the victims of marketing and “designers”

    By website design on May 5, 2008 8:07 am

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