Design, UI, UX, Inspiration, Website Examples
80+ Colorful Websites That Bring Joy and Inspiration
We showcase a variety of colorful design trends and offer tips on how to incorporate them into your website
Are you bored of browsing the same monochromatic websites all over? Check out these vibrant and colorful websites to inspire your next web design project! We’ve hand-picked 80+ websites and sorted them into various colorful categories. You’ll find clean, professional, colorful websites, trendy holographic designs, soothing pastel colors, retro wave vibes, eye-catching colorful gradients, and even some cartoony and trippy websites.
We’ll explore how these websites use color and different design styles to create a unique user experience. Get ready to be blown away by the power of color and let’s dive into our gallery of colorful websites!
Clean Style Colorful Websites
Clean colorful websites are a great example of how bold color choices can still look professional and polished. They use combine colors bravely, often in high contrast, but still manage to maintain a clean and uncluttered design.
The key to achieving a successful clean colorful website is to focus on simplicity and balance. We can see the following examples use white space effectively, which allows the colors to pop without overwhelming the user. Additionally, the typography and graphics are carefully selected and placed to complement the color scheme and enhance the overall design.
Clean websites enriched with vivid colors are ideal for companies that want to convey a modern, creative, and professional image without being boring.
Tips for Balancing Colorful Design with a Professional Look:
- When you use vibrant colors, keep your color palette limited.
- Balance your vivid colors with neutrals to create contrast.
- Utilize white space effectively to make the design look clean and uncluttered
- Consider typography and graphics carefully to ensure they complement the color scheme and enhance readability
Examples of Clean and Colorful Websites:
Now let’s see how creators from around the world put the best practices into action to create professional and minimal websites with eye-catching colors.
OKRE is a clean website with a simple block grid layout that uses colorful shapes and animated images in the background to create dynamism. The abundance of white space in the middle diagonal gives the website a symmetrical and minimal look.
These two examples come straight from the creative agency Wear Paloma and the official website for the latest Awwwards Conference. Both designs manage to keep things clean with a simple block color for the background and user-friendly UI fonts and still enrich the design with vivid colors and colorful images.
Diana Lu‘s personal design portfolio has a similar thing going on with a neutral background that allows the colors to pop and gives focus on the hand-drawn self-portrait animation.
The website promoting the SWAG app mimics the colorful in-app UI elements such as the interactive section cards that change colors. Divine Agency, on the other hand, combines a pastel soft gradient background with minimal text and interactive design elements to create elegance.
Next, we have a lime-fresh color scheme by the creative agency ZAK with a pastel-colored project images gallery, in a card grid layout over a clean white background. FuzzBall has a similar approach keeping the layout clean with white background and soft-colored content cards.
Tapioca DAO is a website that promotes an app with the same name with colorful typography over a clean dark background. To go a step further, the website uses kinetic oversized typography to capture attention with moving text. Of course, a similar effect can be also achieved with transitions on scroll, hover effects, and other creative ways to give life to typography.
Neon Websites
Neon websites are a great way to add a futuristic and edgy vibe to your web design. These websites typically use dark backgrounds and bright neon colors to recreate the look of neon lights at night.
Neon colors are still trendy and going strong, making them ideal for websites that promote services related to digital technologies, such as gaming, software development, or digital marketing. When you design a neon website, don’t be afraid to use animations and transitions to enhance the overall futuristic feel of the website. Go all in with the Tron and Blade Runner vibe.
Tips for Designing a Neon Style Website:
- Use a dark background to create a contrast with the neon colors.
- Keep the design simple and uncluttered, with a focus on the content. The neon elements are perfect for drawing attention to particular pieces of content.
- Use animations and transitions to enhance the futuristic feel of the website.
- Play with typography and graphics to complement the overall design. Since neon colors have a futuristic vibe, complement them with modern and futuristic fonts.
- Use neon colors for accents mostly, as they can be overwhelming and distracting.
Examples of Colorful Neon Glow Websites:
Time for some high-tech websites that use dark mode and neon glow to create that Sci-Fi look everyone loves.
SweatPaws is a Dog Health Quiz concept created by Kristina Volchek. The design sports realistic pet dog avatars with futuristic accessories, neon glow frames, beautiful glowing gradients, and, of course, futuristic fonts. Everything about this design speaks to taking care of your space dogs.
Here we have two different approaches to using neon colors. The first one, Rainforest Music Festival by Darya Akulenka, has a frosted glass effect to blur the background instead of using a glow effect for the neon colors. The result gives a dark somber rainforest vibe rather than a futuristic feel. Retroverse by Kris Anfalova also uses neons in a different way, by creating a neon holographic-like gradient for the background with a scratched texture. This alongside the condensed serif font gives the design a retro-futuristic feel.
In this example, Galaxy by Tubik UX uses neon gradients in realistic animated 3D shapes in the background and in the hero title.
This design concept by Imam Fajar for MieBank also doesn’t use neon colors in the typical futuristic way of combining dark backgrounds with neon glow elements. Instead, it does it in reverse where the entire content is black against a neon background. The other concept by Lev Modeon is of a Futuristic City with realistic neon isometric buildings.
And the last neon websites come from Iric Midel‘s RouteServer landing page concept and Adin Yanuar‘s Neon – Game Community Hero section with isometric 3D illustrations and neon glow shapes against a dark gradient background.
Holographic Websites
The holographic trend has evolved from glass morphism, with websites using holographic backgrounds and elements to give a futuristic, 3D effect. These holographic elements are often animated to make the hologram even more realistic.
Holograms are unique in that they manage to look both colorful and clean, with a mesmerizing pearly glow effect that makes any website look absolutely awesome.
Tips for Designing a Holographic Website:
- Use a holographic background sparingly to avoid overwhelming the design.
- Choose a color scheme that complements the holographic elements, such as iridescent or metallic colors.
- Use clean lines and minimalist design to keep the holographic elements in focus.
- Play with typography to enhance the futuristic feel of the design.
- Use animation and interactivity to make the holographic elements more engaging.
- Make sure the website is optimized for performance, as the use of animations and graphics can slow down loading times.
Examples of Holographic Websites:
And now, let’s see these tips put into practice in the following mesmerizing holographic examples.
Best Served Bold is an excellent portfolio website that serves as a great example of holographic design. The hero section has a beautiful holographic background that makes the text stand out and manages to make it more engaging with an interactive overlayed element that inverts the colors of any part of the screen behind it.
NFT-related projects almost religiously use futuristic design concepts for their websites. In this case, NFT Marketplace by REDNECK Media and Rekit NFT by Mayad Ahmed both combine holographic effects with neon colors.
Unlike the previous two examples, DIOR Media by Julius Branding uses only light and soft colors to create luxurious visuals.
Premium Substrate for Reptiles by Olga Nikolaeva also uses softer and lighter shades for the holographic effect and makes the design more dynamic by animating the snake. The second example, Job board for Web 3.0 by Mikołaj Gałęziowski, is very similar to the one of Rekit we saw earlier, but in light mode.
HolaHolo by Fauzi Akmal uses holographic effect subtly in the typography and logo.
Next, we have NFT Space by Blacklead Studio with animated holographic 3D elements and a subtle colorful gradient background; and Mural by Gleb Kuznetsov with holographic hero slider.
Evil Martians by Alena Kirdina is an awesome design concept with clean minimalistic layout that contrast perfectly with an animated holographic background.
And last, Webflow in 2022 uses the holographic effect to freshen up the overall neo-brutalist style of its homepage; while this portfolio website concept by Egle V. only uses it for background for some of the sections.
Pastel Color Websites
Pastel color websites have become really popular in recent years because they have a soothing and calming effect. They’re great for conveying emotions like happiness, hope, and peace in a gentle and subtle way.
To create pastel colors, you add white to primary and secondary colors, which gives them a pale and muted look. People often describe pastel colors as milky, washed-out, and gentle because they’re not very intense. You’ll often see shades of peach, lavender, mint, baby blue, pink, and lavender used in pastel color websites, and they create a serene and welcoming vibe.
Tips on how to design a pastel color website:
- Choose a limited color palette: Select a few pastel colors that complement each other and use them consistently throughout the website.
- Add pops of brighter colors: To add visual interest and prevent the design from being too dull, consider adding pops of brighter colors in buttons, links, or other interactive elements.
- Use pastel colors for illustrations and graphics: Pastel colors work particularly well for illustrations and graphics and can help to create a cohesive look throughout the website.
- Pay attention to typography: Choose a font that complements the pastel color palette and is easy to read. Avoid using light-colored text on a light background or dark-colored text on a dark background, as this can make the text difficult to read.
Examples of Websites with Pastel Colors:
You can use pastel colors to evoke feelings of relaxation and serenity but also to make users crave something sweet. In the following examples, pastel colors manage to get the job done.
Let’s start with a neo-brutalist landing page for an analytics tool by Tomasz Osowski. Unlike most websites sporting such a style, this one opted for soft pastel colors instead of neons.
Pastel colors look great on this Saas website design by Akib Tanjil that uses white and lavender for primary colors and rose for accent. The other example, a landing page concept for plant-based products by Sourav Aich, does a similar thing in soft green combined with other pastel hues for accent colors.
DiME is a packaging solutions product portfolio with an animated background that changes different pastel hues every time you hover on any of the products.
The beautiful and feminine lavender suits this women’s gym landing page by Faris Muhtadi. In the second example, we have a beauty and skincare landing page design by Sanya Mall that uses teal and blue pastel hues to convey cleanliness and health.
Here we have a music landing page hero concept by Ania Cywińska that combines complementary colors such as pastel blue and orange, creating a huge contrast between the background, typography, and photo.
This design for a ceramic store by Svitlana Salii uses pastel colors in the very product photography and compliments it with pastel rose background shapes. In the second example, Haus Holiday uses 3D interactive background elements in pastel colors and a pastel yellow background to make the text stand out.
And now, for the tasty part…
Pastel colors are also ideal if you want to use custom 3D clay-style illustrations, just like in this hero concept by Yağmur Karabulut.
Bellini Canella has this tasty brand peach color incorporated in the hero section, product design, and everywhere else on their website. And last, we have the Halo Top fruit products eCommerce website that manages to make users hungry with this delicious mouth-watering combination of pastel colors.
Websites with Colorful Gradients
Gradients are created by smoothly blending two or more colors together, creating a seamless transition between them. This design element can create a sense of movement and energy, and they are often utilized to emphasize specific elements on a website.
Additionally, gradients can evoke a range of emotions and moods, from serene and tranquil to lively and energetic. Some trendy gradient color combinations include blue to purple, pink to orange, and green to yellow. When used strategically, gradients can add a dynamic and visually captivating aspect to a website’s design.
Tips for designing a website with colorful gradients:
- Keep it subtle: Gradients can be overwhelming if they’re too bold, so it’s important to use them subtly. Consider using a light gradient that blends into the background, rather than a bold gradient that dominates the design.
- Use gradients to highlight important elements: Gradients can draw attention to specific elements on a website, such as buttons or calls to action. Use them strategically to guide users to important information.
- Consider the mood you want to create: Different colors and gradients can evoke different emotions, so think about the mood you want to create on your website. For example, blues and greens can create a calming effect, while oranges and reds can create a sense of energy.
- Experiment with different angles and directions: Gradients don’t have to be linear or horizontal. You can experiment with different angles and directions to create unique and interesting effects.
- Be mindful of accessibility: While gradients can add a lot of visual interest to a website, it’s important to ensure that they’re accessible to all users. Consider using high-contrast colors and providing alternative text for users with visual impairments.
Examples of Websites with Colorful Gradients.
With no further ado, let’s enjoy a couple of modern websites with beautiful colorful gradients.
Apolix NFT website with animated colorful gradient background.
A photo studio website by Achraf Elkaami and NFT marketplace website by Oyolloo where almost every visual element has a colorful gradient.
Cookies eCommerce website hero by Alicja Gancarz has an awesome irregular gradient background with complementary colors.
Holiday Spheres is a website for creating custom spheres. It has an animated gradient background of dark analogous colors.
CRM web page design concept by Sudhan Gowtham and a management App Website concept by Anastasiia Lozytska both sport analogous colorful gradients as backgrounds.
Colorful Websites with Lines and Borders
Using visible lines and borders on a website is a practical way to differentiate sections and help visitors navigate through the content. Grid lines provide a sense of order and hierarchy, making it easy for visitors to understand the structure of the website. The trend has evolved from traditional grid lines to more freestyle content borders, adding to the website’s visual appeal and enhancing the user experience.
Tips for designing a colorful website with visible lines and borders:
- Use consistent spacing: Keep an even amount of space between each section of content and the borders. This will help create a sense of order and balance throughout the site.
- Be mindful of contrast: Use colors that contrast well with each other to make the lines and borders stand out. Avoid using colors that blend together or are difficult to distinguish from each other.
- Choose the right type of lines and borders: Consider the type of content you are presenting and choose lines and borders that complement it. For example, a more intricate border may work well for a photography website, while a simple line may be more appropriate for a news site.
- Use responsive design: Ensure that the lines and borders adjust to different screen sizes and resolutions for a seamless user experience across all devices.
Examples of Colorful Websites with Visible Borders:
Also known as neo-brutalist, these websites are all around the web. So, it was quite easy to find some amazing examples for inspiration.
Tony’s Chocolonely is a delicious website. Its fresh design combines visible lines, moving text, and chocolate.
Here we have a tasty ice cream landing page with pastel colors and visible borders by Hridoy Ahmed and the Manas WordPress theme by WPKoi.
Fully bordered design for an online course tab app by Nugraha Jati Utama.
API World landing page by Mohamad Azizi and a Therapy Pal podcast platform by Ronas IT | UI/UX Team with clean neo-brutalist design.
Living Corporate‘s website with minimalistic design and a visible grid.
Retro Wave Colorful Websites
Retro wave websites, inspired by the design trends of the 80s and 90s, imitate old operating systems and incorporate bright, bold colors, pixelated graphics, and neon lights. This type of design can be a powerful tool to evoke emotions and transport users to different times and places. It can also set a brand apart visually in unique ways.
However, nostalgia can be subjective, and what appeals to one user may not appeal to another. As a result, it can be challenging to successfully execute a retro design.
Tips on how to successfully design a retro wave website:
- Research and analyze the aesthetic elements of the 80s and 90s: The retro wave style draws heavily from the design elements of the past. Researching and analyzing those elements can give you a better idea of how to incorporate them into your website.
- Choose a color scheme that reflects the era: The 80s and 90s were characterized by bright neon colors and vibrant shades. Consider using these colors in your website design to give it an authentic retro feel.
- Use retro fonts: Retro wave design heavily features fonts that were popular in the 80s and 90s. Consider using fonts such as VCR OSD Mono, Neon 80s, and Press Start 2P.
- Incorporate retro graphics: Use graphics such as geometric shapes, pixel art, and neon lights to add a retro feel to your website.
- Make it interactive: The retro wave aesthetic often incorporates interactive elements such as glitchy animations, 8-bit sounds, and retro gaming graphics. Incorporating interactive elements can make your website more engaging.
Examples of Colorful Retro Websites:
These websites often include neon colors, visible lines and borders, and pastel colors. So, let’s enjoy some great examples.
80s style landing page concept by Olya. The neon grid over a dark background gives it a retro-futuristic look.
Here we have a neo-brutalist chocolate Branding by Zlata Savina. The grids and choice of typography give it a retro vibe. Future London Academy, on the other hand, uses pixel art to give the design some 8-bit edge.
A retro online fashion store landing page concept by Vanshika Pandey.
And last, two colorful neo-brutalist websites in retro style. A simple vintage record store concept by Solomia Kravets and a retro music streaming webpage concept by Pradeep Kumar.
Websites with Colorful Cartoons
Colorful cartoons are a versatile way to add an element of fun and interest to any website, whether it’s to showcase a product or service, or simply to liven up a serious topic.
To design a website with colorful cartoons, select a style that fits the brand’s personality and messaging. As usual, use colors strategically to create contrast and highlight important elements. With colorful cartoons, a website can become more engaging and create a long-lasting impression on users, leading to a memorable online experience.
Tips on how to design a website with colorful cartoons:
- Identify the purpose of using cartoons on your website and what message you want to convey to your audience.
- Choose a cartoon style that aligns with your brand’s personality and message, such as hand-drawn, flat design, or 3D.
- Use colors strategically to create contrast and draw attention to important elements, such as calls-to-action or key messages.
- Keep the cartoon designs simple and clean, avoiding clutter and visual overload.
- Consider the context and placement of the cartoons on the website, ensuring they enhance the user experience rather than detract from it.
- Ensure the cartoons are mobile-friendly and optimize their size and quality to minimize load times.
Examples of Cartoon Websites:
Nothing speaks fun better than some loony cartoons. Truth is, everybody loves cartoon websites for being a breath of fresh air amongst the overload of serious and professional corporate websites out there.
Mana Yerba Mate promotes drinks with colorful characters and beautiful colorful package design.
Ikea Family community page and Flying Papers keep it simple. A heading, a CTA, and animated cartoon characters. Simple, yet effective.
What do UI Buttons and the Good Eatn snacks store have in common? Cartoon emojis with funny faces.
Trippy Colorful Websites
Trippy use vibrant colors, patterns, and animations that create a psychedelic and surreal atmosphere. By distorting and melting design elements, web designers can create a truly unique and unforgettable experience for visitors. This trend sometimes includes aesthetic clutter composed of overlapped and/or interactive elements.
However, it’s important to use this trend wisely, as too much distortion and animation can make a website difficult to navigate and read. When done well, a trippy website can leave a lasting impression on users and set a brand apart from the competition.
Tips on how to design a trippy website:
- Use bold, vibrant colors that contrast with each other
- Incorporate repeating patterns and abstract shapes to create a psychedelic feel
- Experiment with animations and transitions that distort and melt elements on the page
- Consider using glitch effects to create a sense of unpredictability
- Use typography creatively, such as warping or distorting the letters to fit with the overall aesthetic
- Keep the design consistent throughout the website to maintain a cohesive experience
- Be mindful of accessibility and user experience, as too much distortion can make the website difficult to navigate for some users.
- Remember that trippy websites are niche and are suited for the general audience.
Examples of Trippy Websites:
Psychedelic design, aesthetic clutter, and lots of colors. These websites are definitely different and memorable.
Crumbskees by Kim Baschet combines vivid colors, melting effects, and cartoons to get users trippy.
Yuta Abe’s and Sputnik Design team’s portfolio websites both sport aesthetic clutter and anti-design to stand out.
Le Guess Who and Trippy Day by Edgar Manukiani are more subtle with the trippy design, only using animated color effects and surreal images.
Colorful Scrapbook-Style Websites
Colorful scrapbook-style websites provide a playful way to show content. This style typically includes a mix of different textures, patterns, and colors, creating a visually engaging experience that is reminiscent of a physical scrapbook.
This can be a great way to tell a story or showcase a product in a fun and interactive way. However, it’s important to balance the use of colorful elements with a clear and organized layout.
Tips for designing a scrapbook-style website:
- Incorporate various textures and patterns, such as lace or floral motifs, to create a tactile feel.
- Use plenty of white space and borders to create a clean and organized look, similar to a physical scrapbook.
- Experiment with different fonts to create a playful and whimsical feel.
- Add elements like hand-drawn illustrations, stickers, and Polaroid-style photos to give the website a personal touch.
- Use collage-style layouts to create a dynamic and visually interesting design.
- Incorporate interactive elements, such as clickable buttons or tabs, to create an engaging user experience.
- Consider incorporating multimedia elements, such as videos or music, to enhance the scrapbook-style feel.
Examples of Scrapbook-Style Websites:
In the last part of this mega inspiration gallery, we’ll focus on some creative designs with stickers, overlapping elements, and cutouts that make the websites look like physical scrapbooks.
Diko brand agency website welcomes users with an interactive overlayed sticker and a buzzing fly cursor.
We love the Israeli street cats landing page by Margarita Golubeva for its fun and abstract look. Cutout kittens, lots of hearts, and a beautiful sky, all give visitors a fuzzy warm feel. Next, we have The Hopi Farmers website for bio food. Although overall clean, it has some great-looking messy textures and cutout letters for the section titles.
This online ticket by Aishwarya Sinha looks like a physical ticket. All thanks to the sticker-looking elements and the grid notebook paper background.
And That’s a Wrap!
In conclusion, incorporating colors in web design can have a powerful impact on the user experience. Whether it’s using gradients, visible lines and borders, retro wave styles, colorful cartoons, or scrapbook styles, the use of color can set a brand apart and make a website more engaging and memorable. When designing a website with color, it’s important to consider the brand’s personality and message, as well as the target audience and their preferences.
By following the tips outlined in this article, web designers can create visually stunning websites that not only look great but also offer an enjoyable user experience.
Hey, if you’re into UI/UX design, don’t forget to check out our other articles on the topic. We’ve got everything from design trends and techniques to case studies and best practices. Keep exploring with us and stay in the loop on all the latest in the field!