30 Examples of Big Backgrounds in Web Design
A trend in web design that has been popular for a while, and still seems to be gaining momentum, is the use of big background images. It’s an easy and effective way to add lots of interest to a design and set the overall tone with one photo or illustration. However, doing this is a bold move and you run the risk of creating a web site that has too much going on. So it’s important to find a balance between the background and other elements of the design. To give you some inspiration, here are 30 examples of web sites that use this technique effectively.
Stephan Siegrist
Noah Stokes – Es Bueno
Grand Canyon Skywalk
Yes I am Precious
Because Studio
Sur La Piste – Carlos
Immersive Garden
Sayonara
Mavic
Derek Welsh
Airwalk
Piero Martinello
Studio Tilt
Giles Revell
BVD
Chicago L-Shirts
SabotagePKG
Mike Stocker Photography
Coal Headwear
Twelve Restaurant
Go To China
Festival Mundo
Paul Smith
Merus
Medis Bar
The Squad
Summer Love
Free Agent Depot
160over90
Turkish Cosmetics
Source:
Site Inspire
The Best Designs
CSS Mania
About the Author
I love communication, technology, web, design, movies, gastronomy and creativity. Web writer, portuguese/english translator and co founder of @refilmagem & @mentaway Twitter: @gismullr
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26 comments
Hedon
November 8, 2010Greaaat! thanks!
Sachin Gupta
November 8, 2010It’s awesome collection of backgrounds.
freelance logo
November 8, 2010nice inspirational examples! using big background images in web design is one of the best way for me to come up with something unique and interesting.
Jocke
November 8, 2010There’s also http://varmlandofscandinavia.com/
Kimchi
November 8, 2010The website examples are amazing. Thanks for the share. I think the biggest problem with such websites are in the SEO perspective because a lot of the examples above are flash websites that are very hard for search engines to crawl. If as a developer you are aware of this, and you manage to create a website that looks great and is search engine friendly – then you are destined for great fortunes with your project.
Mariusz
November 8, 2010…and http://mariuszciesla.com
Vincent Bons
November 8, 2010Perhaps you should have waited a little longer for ‘Free Agent Depot’ to be loaded when you took the screenshot… Its not really complete now. Besides that: a nice example list.
benedetta.s
November 8, 2010Really nice collection! Sayonara is my favorite. Thanks!
Web design Manchester
November 8, 2010Sky walk is amazing
DTX Studios
November 8, 2010Cool collection! Thanks for the share.
Boost Inspiration
November 8, 2010Nice roundup. Big backgrounds really look great in web design.
Sherif Mohsen
November 8, 2010Totally amazing !!!
Gareth
November 8, 2010Great article, though the free agent depot sample shot hasn’t fully loaded
It’s every developers worst nightmare to come across a design that has a large background, it makes optimisation really hard work, but the examples you have posted seem to cope really well and they work really well.
Awesome
Scott
November 8, 2010Mavic and Because Studio both look really striking. Fave has to be the first one, just for using the tight rope in the mountains picture. Great collection.
Cre8ive Commando
November 8, 2010Mmmmmm … I like big backgrounds …
Web Design Hull
November 9, 2010Some of these backgrounds look amazing, my favourites are Sayonara and The Squad.
Terry Dunn
November 9, 2010I think it can be tricky to get backgrounds to look right. But these examples are amazing. An inspiring collection.
Terry
Dave
November 9, 2010Love the first one with the guy on the tightrope between the mountains. Awesome!
Bryan
November 9, 2010Wow! I find these pages breath-taking. Been wanting to try making these kinds of interfaces but couldn’t find the right background.
Ratesman
November 9, 2010awesome collection of backgrounds
lynn
November 10, 2010Great selection. I’ve been wanting to design a template or two – this is just the inspiration I needed.
Chris
November 14, 2010nice collection – cheers heaps for putting together and sharing
Angelee
November 25, 2010For sure there are hundreds of designs out there with huge background, but thanks for sharing this collection. I’ve seen one from carsonified before but I can’t remember the link. It was really an awesome design and it should have been one of the sites mentioned above. Thumbs up for Studio Tilt!
Adam Hermsdorfer
November 26, 2010Love these large background sites. WordPress is making it pretty easy to customize the dashboard to make large background sites easy on the client.
Maxime De Greve
November 27, 2010Nice list! This Coal Headwear is beautiful! Nice colors, nice atmosphere!
Gina Galileo
November 8, 2011Super Awesome! Thank you for the post! Great settings for the user experience.