Since it exploded onto the web design scene around the mid-2000s, calling it innovative nowadays may be a stretch. But despite how far we’ve come – flat website design still rules!
Rather than bathing in drop shadows, embossing, 3D effects, textures, and gradients, web design companies that opt for this trend specialize in clean layouts, sharp typography, and solid colors. With clear and simple UI and lightning-fast loading pages, flat web design is here to stay.
Here are the best flat website designs to inspire creative minds and anyone willing to witness the full strength of streamlined simplicity.
Table of Contents
- Signature Creative
- MOCS: Makers of Culture by Brave Factor
- Illustrators by Gravity Warsaw
- Pot and Pan by Side•sea
- Esenzzia by WAKA
- Creative Brand Design
- Talent Garden by Happy Brain
- Edifian Digital
- de Staat van Creatie
- Municipal by Rareview
- Future of Office by Wunder Werkz
- Mu Architecture by Be Dandy
- Living Corporate by Workshop Built
1. Signature Creative
Standout Features:
- Interact
- Subtle animation
- Subdued color palette
Signature Creative is an LA-based digital product and design agency that partners with world-renowned brands and startups to launch or re-imagine their products and/or services.
As design experts with miles behind them, Signature completely embraced the so-called flat aesthetics when creating their own website.
The simple 2D, minimalistic interface ensures a smooth user journey. Although your typical flat web design deliberately shuns the flashy animation, Signature opted for a subtle animated text and infused every bit of content with pseudo-interactive effects to boost engagement.
The color choice is also interesting. Rather than relying on a bold and contrasting palette, the website banked on slightly subdued, almost pastel hues so that every visual element, stylish typography, or impressive portfolio examples effortlessly stand out.
2. MOCS: Makers of Culture by Brave Factor
Standout Features:
- Sticky, simple and clean Menu navigation
- Content-heavy design
- Ample negative space
MOCS: Makers of Culture is a turnkey video agency, that serves up tasty bite-size social videos for thought leaders to engage fans and grow their brands.
To clearly showcase their services the agency reached out to Brave Factor which took up creating their new website. With the aim of helping prospective clients make a more informed decision on purchasing MOCS’ custom-tailored video marketing services, the website opts for the so-called “show, don’t tell” method.
The plain white canvas redefines the meaning of negative space. Filled to the brim with various elements including case studies and multiple, strategically placed CTAs, every piece of content breathes freely, wowing visitors while also offering a window opening to MOCS’ extensive portfolio.
The phone on the homepage reminds users of the website’s mobile-first mission since the company is focused on producing quality video content for social media platforms that are predominately enjoyed on the fly.
The lack of color in the minimalistic layout makes the on-brand accents stand out even more. They are both beautifully designed and representative of the company.
3. Illustrators by Gravity Warsaw
Standout Features:
- Animation
- Artistic design
- Contrasting colors
Illustrators are an international studio gathering its namesake professionals across the globe. Gravity Warsaw, the Polish agency responsible for creating their website, pulled from their appellation to attract visitors to the Illustrators’ portfolio.
The resulting website is a demonstration of simplicity and creativity. Illustrations are a unique form of visual expression. Besides conveying information, setting a tone, and adding beauty to the website, they also affect emotions.
Rather than showing (off) magnificent, completed illustrations, the website opts for specific aesthetics that represent the start of the creative process, inviting users to contribute by interacting.
It stands out with sophisticated, delicate animations, doodles, various shapes, and interactive elements, that combined with messaging and its stylish serif typography convey a clear, easily understandable message right from the start.
The lack of color and dark letters on light background add up to the overall minimalistic look, while the moving background gives a dynamic feel to Illustrators’ website.
4. Pot and Pan by Side•sea
Standout Features:
- Playful animation and iconography
- Sticky Menu bar
- Age verification pre-page
With the sale of recreational marijuana now legal in Maine (US), Pot + Pan, the business that specializes in cannabis-infused edibles, faces increased demand and a fresh new market of consumers.
To meet this momentum, Pot + Pan decided to cook up a fresh online experience, a website that would help them scale the business. The chef de cuisine Side•sea, is a Portland-based digital agency with an expansive menu of beautiful, compelling, and conversion-centric websites under its belt.
Starting from the already-established brand packaging and high-quality visuals Sidesea had all the ingredients to bake a website steaming creativity left and right.
The first thing that captures the attention upon landing is the website’s playful animation. Bubbling pots (pun intended), combined with bright imagery and a pleasant color scheme strike a nice balance between whimsical and professional.
Every touch is carefully thought out. Even hovering over the brightly-colored CTAs makes them noticeably darker, as if the “dish’s” temperature is getting just right, inviting users to click on them.
Having the Pot and Pan’s goal in mind, it’s a breath of fresh air that they don’t rely on the obvious illustrations, usually associated with the brands catering to marijuana enthusiasts.
5. Esenzzia by WAKA
Standout Features:
- Live shopping notifications
- Sticky Menu bar
- Minimal use of photographs
Esenzzia is a perfume brand that set out to make affordable yet quality colognes. With a vast catalog of low-cost perfumes ranging from classic fragrances for women to the most intense men’s aftershaves, Esenzzia is the best online go-to store.
Besides custom-made scents, Esenzzia relies on a meticulous recreation of your favorite perfume brands. Their website, on the other hand, courtesy of WAKA, can’t be imitated, as it emanates fresh and endless potential.
“In fashion and perfume industry it is “necessary” to have something more than image. You need to have personality, offer something different and most importantly – find your own voice.
To do this, we carried out a brand and copy concept work on which to build all the graphic design processes: packaging, labeling, web, product...”
As the name suggests, Esenzzia’s website consists of eye-pleasing essentials. The website’s modular layout is akin to a painting-by-numbers coloring book, ready to be imbued by customers' own vision. Stripped of the traditional industry conventions, it emphasizes quality without misleading visitors, be it the quality of the product, or the user journey.
It is typography-heavy, black and white, clear, clean, and straight to the point, with two types of navigation for new and recurring customers! Essentially, the website is the manifestation of the brand’s values:
"Everyone is in a hurry and at Esenzzia we are not going to waste your time. At Esenzzia, you rule! And if you are the one who pays, it’s only logical that you choose how to do it."
6. Creative Brand Design
Standout Features:
- Interactive background animation
- Innovative Menu
- Recognizable color scheme
Creative Brand Design is an award-winning, London-based, web design agency, specializing in bespoke website design & development.
As the agency puts it:
"We’ve made it our mission to cultivate interactive digital experiences that excite and inspire."
This interactivity, aided by the sleek simplicity is what defines their own website. Effective use of color provides a peek into the agency’s personality. The palette, similar to the one used by Instagram, represents enthusiasm and energy and just like the popular social media platform’s primary users, it proudly demonstrates the brand’s attributes and attitude.
Every bit of information users are seeking is presented in a visually stimulating yet organized way, which tells visitors this agency knows what it’s doing.
The copy and interactive nature of the site communicates a customer-centric approach. As you scroll, you’re able to do more than just navigate the page. You’re interacting with it, which provides the feeling of participation and even collaboration. Clicking on the Menu icon minimizes the page you’re on, once again exhibiting that the journey is more important than a singular destination.
Once interacted with, the flowing animated pattern on the homepage shows users that they're part of something bigger, once they invest themselves in the brand.
7. Talent Garden by Happy Brain
Standout Features:
- Intro video reel
- Motivational on-brand colors and typography
- Both visuals and copy highlight the brand’s USP
Talent Garden is Europe’s largest network of coworking and training spaces dedicated to digital innovation present in 8 countries. Founded in Italy, the company’s mission is to create vibrant, globally-connected campuses that empower tech communities.
In order to support this network, cast their webbing online. The company’s website, designed by Happy Brain, commands attention where it truly matters, right from the get-go.
Immediately, it communicates the company’s unique value proposition, leaving no doubt in the minds of the visitors. The intro video reel is not there just for show. While engaging enough to delay them scrolling down, it reflects Talent Garden’s values and more importantly - it points to a comprehensive menu.
The main, user-oriented menu navigation sits at the top of the website and stays on the screen as the users start scrolling.
Ample negative space drives attention to the key elements and conversion points. This allows content, especially Talent Garden’s impressive partner list, to be more legible and lets anyone landing familiarize with the place (just like the first visit to the coworking space should go), while simultaneously keeping the interest up and incentivizing action.
The choice of color is also intentional. Color psychology tells us that orange can foster encouragement, motivation, and drive. It signifies shelter. Talent Garden’s website is a stunning display of flexible minimalism, colors, simple navigation, and fast UX.
8. Edifian Digital
Standout Features:
- Dark more-inspired look
- Typography-heavy
- Clear content hierarchy
Edifian Digital is a creative digital agency based in Auckland, NZ. They offer a wide array of services including web design & development, branding, SEO, digital marketing and more.
Unlike their peers, Edifian doesn’t try to wow visitors undeservedly with color splashes and fancy 3D renders to convey creative prowess. Rather, the agency flips the script, standing out with sophisticated, minimalist design, clean typography, and subtle animated touches to enhance UX.
The simple, black background with no images is different. It works because it’s not what visitors expect. Edifian, however, relies on user expectations.
As you scroll down, it feels as if the agency is reading your mind, addressing every question before it comes up: What they do, how they do it, and what they did so far?
Then finally, they deliver the visuals, which almost jump off the page.
9. de Staat van Creatie
Standout Features:
- Horizontal/vertical scroll combination
- Modular grid design
- Innovative Menu
De Staat van Creatie or “State of Creation” is a Dutch creative agency with a focus on web design.
Their name, color palette, and heraldry-inspired logo literally transform the website into a nation of its own, a place where creativity originates. Its anthem being the steady march to a user-friendly and intuitive digital world.
Operating from the confines of an old prison in Leeuwarden, they spread the word of their mission/services globally with an innovative, albeit clean website. It grabs attention immediately, even without the unusual combination of horizontal/vertical scrolling. Subtle parallax effects and a sticky menu and logo banner makes that journey worth repeating over and over.
This effect creates a dynamic browsing experience and calls for further website exploration.
Adding to the unusual scrolling are various color-coded modular blocks of content that make every single click meaningful (Just look at that cursor icon, you gotta take that bad boy for a ride!).
Clicking on the hamburger icon expands into a full-screen menu in such a way that it feels like a natural extension of the original page. In other words, it fits like a glove!
10. Municipal by Rareview
Standout Features:
- Horizontal/vertical scroll combination
- Modular grid design
- Innovative Menu
MUNICIPAL is a utility clothing brand created by some super cool folks from Callaway Golf and famous actor Mark Wahlberg.
Designing their eCommerce store, the Rareview team had an idea to base the website off the concept of the brand – all-day urban style: meaning you can wear the clothes to exercise, work or hit a town in the evening. By our accounts, they also drew inspiration from Marky Mark’s Good Vibrations, thus switching colors as the users scroll down, choosing the most inspiring vibe.
Starting from the hero image showcasing the new seasonal product, the impressive color-shifting represents different clothing styles. Its responsive design makes the mobile user journey even more momentous.
Large, bold text paired with graffiti-like scribbles, flat design, and sleek animation scream out of this digital shelf, demanding purchase.
But remember, just like the website, this clothing line personifies but also requires authenticity, so, if you want and are worthy to become the next community “street hero”, you’re welcome to join the “cool kidz on the block”. The website’s doors are open and what a memorable entrance, if we dare say.
11. Future of Office by Wunder Werkz
Standout Features:
- Single-page layout
- Great use of colors
- Engaging interactive elements
When dour 2020 first came to the scene, one of the first questions was: “What will the office of the future look like?” The TAXI campus in Denver, CO seems to have found a definitive answer.
Commissioned by Zeppelin Development, ideators behind this innovative coworking space, Wunder Werkz, custom-made a single-page website, delivering a simple solution via an even simpler user journey.
The website showcases a new, unique workplace experience through a masterfully implemented UI. The site prioritizes clean and direct typographic hierarchy, color blocking, interaction, and direct motion to guide the viewer through the TAXI community’s offerings on their campus.
Although being “attractive” is one of the defining aspects of flat web design, “visually spectacular” is a much rarer attribute, as it doesn’t rely on theatricality, but efficiency. The Future of Office website, however, is a visual analog of “killing with kindness”, as the designers behind it managed to create an incredibly engaging mosaic out of simplistic, almost one-note elements.
Another notable quality of the website is its brevity. It delivers everything prospective tenants may be looking for while keeping the copy to an absolute minimum and communicating its values exclusively through compelling graphics and scroll-powered interactive elements.
12. Mu Architecture by Be Dandy
Standout Features:
- Imposing logo display over images
- Portfolio showcased in a grid-style layout
- Content blocks with seamless transitions
Brought to life by three creative minds, Maïra, Ludovic, and Grégoire, Mu Architecture started designing institutions and housing buildings in 2009. Since then, they have been invited to various events and awarded by prestigious organizations.
To solidify their online presence, they partnered with Be Dandy, a design and branding agency based in Paris. This collaboration resulted in a sleek yet information-thick website design.
The website opens to alternating images in a full-screen view with an imposing brand logo overlay. This image display is a great way to lure in visitors (first-time users, especially) and mesmerize them with the company’s work.
Scrolling down, visitors are in for a quick treat of a short but sweet copy. This section displays three different content blocks with colored backgrounds that discuss the brand’s vision. This bit adds anticipation for the viewers as they navigate through the page.
Taking the icing on the cake is the portfolio layout. The agency took advantage of the company’s high-resolution assets and displayed them grid-style, allowing the visitors to browse freely.
13. Living Corporate by Workshop Built
Standout Features:
- Celebration of colors
- Intricate layout
- Bold typography
Living Corporate is focused on one singular mission - amplifying underrepresented voices across industries. Through its expansive network of podcasts, live events, and educational articles the brand aims to provide underprivileged, people of color with a supportive and creative community to help them thrive in the corporate world.
Championing this mission is its paragon, a new website designed by Workshop Built.
Right upon landing visitors are met with the celebration of colors, in more ways than one and the website is not trying to be subtle about it. Far from it. In fact, they're both symbolic, mission-oriented, and beautiful.
The site thrives on meticulous visual hierarchy, clear layout, symmetry, and interaction - crucial traits of seamless UI and perfect UX.
