Web design inspiration is always helpful as looking at the creative creations others have done can kickstart your own creativity. There are obviously different approaches you can take and what fits your needs best typically depends on the content and concept, the business or organization the web site represents. One option is using a photo as a key element in your design. It is certainly not every photo that will work, but generally if you find one that support the concept well the result can be really great.
Using photos as a dominating part of the web design itself is typically seen in flash websites but also CSS based web sites exist. While large photos can be great for setting the scene and generating the right atmosphere it can be a problem to load times. Designers need to take care that the details in the images are not making it too heavy when it comes to download size. Using jQury to load only visible photos may help. Also it is a good idea to look for prebuild solutions like e.g. WordPress photography themes. The best of those themes are typically well optimized and implemented by expert developers. You should have a look at this article for more inspiration.
In this article, I show you some really stunning examples of using photos as a design element and central piece in web design. The article was just updated and I added more full screen website examples.
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krojacevaskola
Ben Thomson Photography
Faith Fashion
Josh Hemsley
grodd
gil.mx
2ammedia
FOX Classics
dibiconference
culinaria
alexantuna
eurostock
Mike Condrick
iq2mountainfestival
Aneta Langerova
UBBT
Beatriz Carosini
Alley Pfannekuchen
Australia Day
marina yachting
stripes-design
the ship and the sea
![image[11]](http://cdn.tripwiremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/image1110.png "image[11]")
kawa.lviv.ua
Brand Republic
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
nice collection, thank for that man
Cool! Actually, won’t full photo backgrounds take too long to load and cause usability issues? They are really nice, though.
@Kent, you are right. Images should be low detail and well compressed. With regards to usability I agree it is not the main focus in this type of design.
Thanks for featuring 2am Media in your list – if you like full screen images you should also check out our other site http://2amdesign.co.uk
@Preston, your welcome. Wow your other site looks awesome!
Some great ones. Mines cleaner.
http://driftwoodhouse.com
thanks for the tip!
1. thanks for the amazing listing of sites.
2. i would like to add this site in your list as it uses some unquie kind of effect when it opens and has full images
Your picture is used by stealth on the website in Japan.
thanks man its amazing …… loool
Simply stunning designs.
It’s great to see you’ve included some homegrown talent in your list – you’ve included a company who are very local to me!
I think my favorite was “the ship and the sea.” Very easy on the eyes.. If I chose a 2nd, it’d probably be the layout at “gil.mx,” the clarity of the photo is amazing.
Great list of cool websites.
It seems that many of the sites in your list have background images covered with some kind of dotted pattern layer.what do you think is the purpose for doing that kind of effect?
Apparently that adds some good influence on each image.
I took on one of your suggestions and went on Spoon Graphics. It was a really well designed blog with a whole range of stuff from tutorial style information through to inspirational examples of great graphic design work. Loved it thanks
I’m glad you found the article useful
Best regards, Sofie
Very good collection and gave me also a good inspiration. Thank you for sharing!
Kim
Thanks for the share. I needed some examples to show a client and this was extremely helpful.
Keep up the good work
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