Elliott C. Back: In Aere Aedificare

Top 10 Best Designed Blogs

Posted in Blogging, How to Blog, Computers & Technology, Graphics, Web 2.0, Interface, Top 10 by Elliott Back on April 16th, 2006.

When you’re looking for the next leader in web 2.0 blog design, Hicks starts to look a little too plain, Santa Maria wicked-worn out, and Zeldman like something you might print out, not read online. Where are the leaders of modern blog design?

The particular platform (WP, Moveable Type, Typepad, Handcoded) doesn’t matter. It’s what you do with it that counts. This isn’t about prettiest blog, or the best written blog. This is a list of the most groundbreaking, cutting edge blogs out there. You see these blogs and cry, because they’re creatures of fierce untameable beauty.

#1) Ordered List

Besides his Tiger Admin plugin for the WP administrative interface, Steve Smith’s blog invented the wide-horizontal look. Black, green, and blue, with bigger fonts than most blogs, it’s both plain and subtle at the same time. Check out the careful use of icons everywhere, tagging and related links, and comments. Because he uses more color than images, the pages are light and fast to load. They’re also very uncluttered.

10-best-sites-01-orderedlist.jpg

#2) Superfluous Banter

Dan Rubin’s blog flows sideways, left-to-right instead of up and down. The clever interlocking columns draw your attention to the comments on each post, and the date they were posted. He’s designed the official blogger template, used by millions of bloggers around the world, and invented a clever CSS button technique. While the two columns to the right are hard to read, their lack of strong contrast challenges the reader to explore them–but only when he has the time.

10-best-sites-02-superfluousbanter.jpg

#3) Odds and Ends

It’s true that a lot of photoblogs follow the one-photo format for their blogs, but Lim Zhi Xin’s has a stunning vertical format, excellent typography, and no-nonsense navigation. Every photo is detailed with descriptive text on the permanent page, and contains a technical description of the photograph and the equipment used to take it. His archives take the same style, showing the last few photos as thumbnails, with navigation in a thin bar to the left.

10-best-sites-03-oddsandends.jpg

#4) Joshua Ink

Although John says that being a webdesigner is “this hair brained scheme,” one look at his site tells us differently. Clearly he’s hit something right, with flowers cascading down all sides, elements of photoshop guidelines present on top of the design to highlight intellectual designer power, and a footer that wakes up when you poke it. While the use of white spaces could be improved, John will be a player in the blog-design category for a long time to come.

10-best-sites-04-joshuaink.jpg

#5) The Big Noob

Neubix Studios is a design firm of four, and addicted to the color blue. Their site takes the one-column layout to a new high, going from a wide, tall banner to a highlighted story, then breaking into three columns. However, there are nice graphical touches everywhere, from the portrait images to subtle shadowing. A random quote highlights the top, and links are scattered in the far right column. The length of the three-column section needs improvement, and the colors could be improved as you move from top to bottom. However, it’s a great source of inspiration in the little things it does well.

10-best-sites-05-thebignoob.jpg

#6) Avalonstar

Why don’t designers ever give their full names on their about pages? Bryan is actually Bryan Veloso. He loves 800×600, doesn’t like LinkedIN, and seems to favour fuzzy-blue. Check out what he’s worked on and you’ll be amazed. This is the next generation of designer, the guy that will work on web 3.0 applications before the web 2.0 craze is over.

10-best-sites-06-avalonstar.jpg

#7) Simple Bits

Dan Cederholm isn’t like the rest of the famous designers. His blog is fresh, modern, and continuously updated with new graphic design ideas. He redesigns incrementally, which means that his blog is always on the cutting edge. He’s worked with Google and ESPN. Ladies and Gentlemen, let me present Simplebits!

10-best-sites-07-simplebits.jpg

#8) Emotions by Mike

Mike is a freelance designer, and Emotions is his portfolio. It’s not a blog, but it easily could be. The green gradients, the three dimensional look of the header into the background, and the round shadows are graphic elements I haven’t seen elsewhere. If nothing else, this site should be unique and inspiring to you.

10-best-sites-08-emotions.jpg

#9) Jonathan Snook

Snook’s blog uses four columns in a combination of fixed and floating elements. You go to submit a comment, and no matter where you are, you can use the comment box in the third column. His style could be called severe because of its choice of green, grey, and white, but the shapes he uses to delineate sections more than make up for it. Even more, he can take on complicated Web 2.0 issues with a blink and a few keystrokes.

10-best-sites-09-snook.jpg

#10) Binary Bonsai

Famous for creating Wordpress’ default theme, Michael Heilemann is the most famous designer in that circle, but is probably not well known on other platforms. His site is the definition of AJAX, from a javascript archives browser, to strange dynamic comments, to his very own livesearch. And, with little graphical pizzaz, it’s a great model for a minimalist design.

10-best-sites-10-binarybonsai.jpg

In conclusion, I believe that if you go check out these 10 blogs, you’ll find enough juicy design ideas to overfill your head. There’s enough inspiration in these 10 best-designed blogs to fuel web 3.0. And, if you think there’s some totally awesome blog that I’ve forgotten about, leave me a note in the comments.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 16th, 2006 at 7:54 pm and is tagged with photo format, vertical format, odds and ends, administrative interface, descriptive text, zeldman, steve smith, technical description, time check, banter, time 3, lim, xin, typography, santa maria, blogger, bloggers, fonts, cutting edge, photograph. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.

141 Responses to 'Top 10 Best Designed Blogs'

  1. Evelyn said:

    on April 16th, 2006 at 9:28 pm

    so nice all the design. It is one pretty hard work of design they must have been.

  2. Peter Dolan said:

    on April 16th, 2006 at 9:32 pm

    A wonderful list which will give me quite a few design ideas, but I’m always wondering what more can be done with a blog? It seems almost a shame that people ‘only’ go the journalistic route, or the photo-a-day route, or the rant route. There should be more we can do with blogs than simply post text and photos.

  3. Jonathan said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 7:17 am

    Interesting that none of those blogs have ads. Ads just cheapen your design by default.

  4. Andy Brudtkuhl said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 8:53 am

    the big noob and snook are my favs you picked. but there are a lot of good designed blogs out there.

    check out ours here

  5. Jesse said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 10:42 am

    Some of those are great (binarybonsai, avalonstar) others not so great.

    One of my favorites is Mike Davidson’s blog.

    Shawn Inman’s site is also really snazzy

  6. Derek Punsalan said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 12:17 pm

    Great list. I can’t complain or critic in any shape way or form. Most of the ones you listed were already classics in my book. Inspiration for us all who yearn to create something worth noticing.

  7. Ellis Web » Items of Interest: 2006.04.17 said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 12:21 pm

    […] Top 10 Best Designed Blogs - Elliot Back presents his picks, along with screeshots […]

  8. Sean Puckett said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 2:01 pm

    For the past few years the web has been doing better with a profusion of whitespace and more use of high-contrast monochrome text. Your picks in general (with a few exceptions) show a trend backwards to vibrant colors, crushed together content, and more information than is really necessary. The older I get (and I ain’t that old), the more I appreciate consice, clear layouts with a minimum of decor and showiness. Fly-out extras that keep the screen uncluttered but allow the user to explore further without another server hit are in wide use in 2.0 apps but well past due for blog designs.

  9. Yaanu said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 3:26 pm

    Sure, it doesn’t compare to the ones above, but I nominate The J-Walk Blog (www.j-walkblog.com) for minimalisticism

  10. oskar said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 3:54 pm

    What are site #2 and #3 doing here?

  11. Eric Lim said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 3:59 pm

    Veerle’s new design is one of my all-time favorites.

    veerle.duoh.com/

  12. Dennis Akihiko Tanaka said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 4:01 pm

    Great list.
    I just think it misses Verle’s Blog
    at veerle.duoh.com/

  13. Marco said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 4:01 pm

    These blogs look good. It may be a list of blog designs that you like… or blogs that you have visited - but there are so many other goood looking blogs out there too…

    Great effort nonetheless.

  14. Anshul said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 4:46 pm

    Fantastic list. All of these blogs are in my list of all time favorites.

  15. Jonathan Boutelle said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 5:09 pm

    Blog design is not (only) about pretty pictures and colors.
    It is about allowing people to consume your content in ways that are relevent to _them_. It’s about getting out of the way so that your users can find the content they are looking for.

    Blog design seems stuck in a wierd, sub-optimal space right now. We need to think more clearly about what would _really_ be useful to readers, rather than sticking with the original “10 stories on the front page, monthly archives” approach that we’ve been using for the last four years.

    I advocate design concepts like the “mullet layout”
    www.jonathanboutelle.com/mt/archives/2005/08/mulletstyle_blo.html
    or the “long tail archive”
    www.jonathanboutelle.com/mt/archives/2006/01/blog_layout_the.html

    And I’d love to see more examples of blog design that actually help readers get to the content they are looking for.

  16. Paul Stamatiou said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 5:14 pm

    Awesome, 9rules for the win. I counted 4 nine rulers. =D

  17. Jonic said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 5:17 pm

    I totally agree with Eric and Dennis that Veerle’s blog should be on the list, but the 10 featured are all great designs… I think Ordered List is my favorite from the list.

    I actually preferred the last design of Simple Bits to the current design… It inspired me a lot…

  18. mark said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 5:18 pm

    blogs are bullshit

    this article should be “top 10 best designed blogs that elliott back has actually seen”

  19. Oliver Zheng said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 5:25 pm

    Blogs by big time designers, of course they are the best designed. There are a lot of really nice blogs out there not discovered.

    @Jessy: Mike D. could really use a redesign for his blog.

  20. Fred said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 5:41 pm

    Eh, Emotions is very nice and Superfluous Banter is interesting though somewhat unimaginative. Other than those two the rest are very typical and rather bland, nothing much sticks out as being above good design. They’re not bad by any means, just nothing outstanding.

  21. Chris said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 6:58 pm

    You forgot stopdesign.com!

  22. ******* said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 7:31 pm

    This list is absolutely ridiculous. In your outline you stated… “This isnt about prettiest blog…” yet Joshua Ink’s description is simply just about the pretty flowers on the screen. Not much mention about the content. Being a good web designer obviously has something to do with your design.

  23. Isopo said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 8:27 pm

    Again, one more vote for Veerle’s weblog after her last redesign.

    veerle.duoh.com

  24. Taylor McKnight said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 9:31 pm

    #4 Joshua Ink has been a favorite design of mine forever. I think Denis Radenkovick should get most of the credit though (because that illustration is really what makes it stand out, and is just fantastic)
    38one.com/work/joshuaink-illustration

    And if you are going to mention quality minimalistic design (like #10) you can’t forget Jason Kottke.

  25. Trula said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 9:36 pm

    Nice list, I truly enjoyed seeing these sites. I just love a nice layout, it’s so inspirational for those of us with little design sense.

  26. inmate said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 10:08 pm

    You should check these two blogs:

    www.kimrom.info
    www.draftlab.net

    both customised versions of 3 comuns relaxation:
    clemens.orth.me.uk/2005/05/15/wordpress-theme-3-column-relaxation/

    I think they are very pretty, but perhaps a bit “oldschool”.

  27. Thomas Coats said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 10:52 pm

    Another vote for veerle.duoh.com/

  28. ArthurSoares said:

    on April 17th, 2006 at 11:49 pm

    amazing list :)

    I just loved.

  29. Balakumar Muthu said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 12:12 am

    Very nice list … thanks

    Balakumar Muthu
    i5bala.blogspot.com

  30. ced64k said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 1:19 am

    Nice… but you forgot my website ;-) ) 64k.be

  31. Martin said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 1:47 am

    I agree that Odds & Ends is a bit of an obscure choice. What about:

    veerle.duoh.com/

    instead?

  32. Jackdaw said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 2:03 am

    Nice list, worth going through and studying. Three of them are new to me.

  33. OldMack said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 2:41 am

    The beauty of any blog isn’t in its color or lack of it; the beauty is in the content. While many of the blogs above are striking, when it comes right down to it, what do they offer that you can’t see on tv news, or online newspapers?

    The best web site for both appearance and content, imo, is “Failed Success Purveyors of Useless Knowledge” www.faliled success.com/

  34. molts said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 3:11 am

    Hey, your site is borked in IE (the content is below the side bar). I guess some content (Maybe teh screenshit) is spanning it more than it shoult, resulting in a mess.

  35. Brutal said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 3:25 am

    Great list!

  36. grzybu said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 3:30 am

    nice round-up. I would also add Veerle’s blog. After recent redesign it looks fantastic!

  37. Steve Rivers said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 5:11 am

    I believe it’s “hare brained” not “hair brained.”

    who said designers could spell?

  38. Stuart Robertson said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 5:44 am

    Thanks — there’s a couple on your list that I hadn’t seen before and one or two that I hadn’t visited in a while.

  39. Haochi said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 6:27 am

    Seems like most of these are 9rule members.

  40. Ten Best Designed Blogs at ListLearn said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 7:24 am

    […] According to Elliot Back. Definitely some nice looking sites in there. It’s interesting that four of the ten have 3 columns in their layout and two have only one column, making the two column layout a minority. […]

  41. Piers Fawkes said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 7:30 am

    Try fashion.psfk - fashion.psfk.com

  42. Chrono Cr@cker said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 8:11 am

    Good list, but I like Techcrunch’s design which is very sleek!

  43. Michael Newton said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 9:16 am

    #4 Joshua Ink…John will be a player in the blog-design category for a long time to come.

    That blog hasn’t been updated in a year. He may still be designing them, but he sure isn’t writing them!

    And this is a list of Best Designed Blogs, isn’t it? Some seem to be under the impression it has something to do with the content. It doesn’t!

  44. Michael Newton said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 9:19 am

    Scrap that last comment, I didn’t realize I’d clicked on the link to the archived entry! I see now that it’s active and still very pretty.

  45. gigigan said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 9:29 am

    cool list !

  46. Clark said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 9:41 am

    Blogging killed the web design star - this article sums up my opinion nicely.

  47. Andy said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 10:00 am

    I’m racked with jealousy with my piddly modified someone-else-made theme. Great work everyeon!

  48. roc21 said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 11:00 am

    Quien sabe que tanto dicen pero yo no estoy a favor…

  49. farf said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 11:16 am

    Bouhouhou ! Mine is not in the list :-(

  50. Tom said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 11:27 am

    And what about www.dangergraphics.com/ ?

    This site’s design blows away almost all of the above without question.

  51. Mike D. said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 12:07 pm

    Oliver: Ummmm, I could “use a redesign for my blog”? This coming from the creator of this site? I’ll take the Pepsi Challenge against that **** any day of the week.

  52. hjalle said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 1:37 pm

    I love small collections of nice blogs, especially this one. Joshua Ink is an old favourite.

  53. Aleph Ozuas said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 3:14 pm

    Very good list yours. I just think that the #4) Joshua Ink, is a little bit polluted. But indeed, is a beautiful site!

  54. hacker not cracker said:

    on April 18th, 2006 at 3:54 pm

    I love this list! It is inspiring ….. yet sort of discouraging. These blogs put my sites to shame….

  55. Poster said:

    on April 19th, 2006 at 7:13 am

    Emotions by Mike so greatful

  56. fat trucker said:

    on April 19th, 2006 at 10:26 am

    What about german blogs? I like the minimalistic style of popnutten.de

    It’s a blog about music, net-culture and about technics.

  57. Jason D- said:

    on April 19th, 2006 at 2:09 pm

    I’m really surprised you didn’t list Derek Powazek’s blog since he pioneered the look Simple Bits is using.

  58. christian said:

    on April 19th, 2006 at 2:49 pm

    Great! one of the best selections i have seen.

  59. come on said:

    on April 20th, 2006 at 2:01 am

    you have no ******* clue what good design is. (your site even use a free theme) … but it must be very easy, just enitle your posting “top 10 of …” and you get some hits from digg.

    no digg!

  60. melkorcete said:

    on April 20th, 2006 at 3:03 am

    My favorite is #8

  61. […] This is a list of the most groundbreaking, cutting edge blogs out there. You see these blogs and cry, because they’re creatures of fierce untameable beauty.read more | digg story […]

  62. Anderw Faulkner said:

    on April 20th, 2006 at 9:11 am

    Great list. Kudos on your choices.

    Andy
    fadtastic.net

  63. SB said:

    on April 20th, 2006 at 10:43 am

    Can’t help noticing — every one of your picks is a man. What’s that about?

  64. Rupert said:

    on April 21st, 2006 at 4:07 am

    Several of those designs are controversial, especially #s 2 & 3, which I can’t say I’m fond of…

    My contributions to the list: (to replace #s 2&3! :D )

    Lokesh Dhakar’s site, from the guy who brought you the Lightbox AJAX.

    Matt Mullenweg’s site (one of several) recently amazed me with its razor-clarity… see how long it takes you to figure out where/how to download the widgets code for wordpress…

  65. Digg Defender: A Plugin For Wordpress by Elliott Back said:

    on April 21st, 2006 at 6:57 pm

    […] An article I wrote about well-designed blogs got more than 1,200 diggs yesterday, causing an influx of some 20,000 to 30,000 new visitors, each pulling down the following page elements: […]

  66. How do you know? said:

    on April 22nd, 2006 at 7:02 am

    I came because of the title, it made me wonder how you had time to go thru the millions of blogs out there. I know mine doesn’t deserve to be on a list like this but to say “This is a list of the most groundbreaking, cutting edge blogs out there.” is just ridiculious IMO. Nice selection though.

  67. 10 najładniejszych blogów według mnie at Imaginery.pl said:

    on April 22nd, 2006 at 10:50 am

    […] W sumie miałem duży problem…bo layoutów, które otarły się o tą pierwszą dziesiątkę, było o wiele więcej. Musiałem (albo bardziej- chciałem) ograniczyć się do magicznej liczby 10. W sumie to resztę blogów, które się tutaj nie znalazły możecie zobaczyć właśnie na Top 10 u Elliota Technorati Tags: blog design layout […]

  68. Ash Haque said:

    on April 22nd, 2006 at 9:10 pm

    My favourite one:

    www.forgetfoo.com

  69. pixtorm blog » Blog Archive » Top de diseño de blogs said:

    on April 23rd, 2006 at 7:09 am

    […] El post completo aqui autor: jairoo categoria: diseño […]

  70. ryanB said:

    on April 23rd, 2006 at 3:57 pm

    I highly disagree with #5, they had a weak coding error. They are a web-design company but the error was caused by copying from MS Word. See my post here

  71. Yansky said:

    on April 24th, 2006 at 6:19 am

    Just thought I’d let you know that this page doesn’t seem to load it’s stylesheet when viewed with Internet Explorer 6,

  72. Debajit said:

    on April 30th, 2006 at 11:55 am

    Beautiful blogs I must say :) Most of them have this inviting magazine-ish appeal to them that would make any visitor want to look around and explore the site. I’d agree with your choice for #1

    I personally however find some of these Hemingway-style layouts a little difficult to navigate — often requiring me to scroll down — or click on an “Archives” link to browse older posts for instance.

    If by “design” you mean “graphic-design” or visual appeal alone, I’d mostly agree with the list. I, however, see blog “design” as transcending graphic-design per se and comprising other elements like readability, navigability, and usabiblity… and by that yardstick I’d rate some of the more non-”web-2.0″-style blogs like photomatt.net/ or daringfireball.net higher in terms of a cleaner interface and better navigability.

  73. Ulli said:

    on April 30th, 2006 at 3:25 pm

    nice site!

  74. Vanina said:

    on May 1st, 2006 at 8:22 am

    I fully agree with this list and I am trying also to pass through the message to French blogers as well. Indeed, all the blogs have the same looking so there is definitely a need for differenciation. If we can mix design and content, readers would love it.

  75. […] read more | digg story Posted by Dan Bach Filed in digg.com stories […]

  76. Rik said:

    on May 1st, 2006 at 3:06 pm

    Paul Smith has been blogging a while, his blog: www.paulmichaelsmith.com/blog/ is nice.

  77. H.NET :: Выпуск #243 :: May :: 2006 said:

    on May 2nd, 2006 at 2:32 am

    […] Top 10 Best Designed Blogs. Десятка блогов с лучшим по мнению автора подборки дизайном. Stand-alone блоги в рунете стали появляться в последнее время, как грибы после дождя. Досадно видеть, что оформление у них оставляет желать много лучшего. Надеюсь, что взглянув на лучших из лучших, наши соотечественники все-таки начнуть более серьезно относиться к дизайну своих блогов. Надоело, в конце-концов, разглядывать одну и ту-же «умолчальную» схему WordPress-а. When you’re looking for the next leader in web 2.0 blog design, Hicks starts to look a little too plain, Santa Maria wicked-worn out, and Zeldman like something you might print out, not read online. Where are the leaders of modern blog design? […]

  78. glango said:

    on May 2nd, 2006 at 12:53 pm

    cool…

  79. arconati.net » Blog Archive » links for 2006-04-22 said:

    on May 3rd, 2006 at 12:26 am

    […] Top 10 Best Designed Blogs by Elliott Back When you’re looking for the next leader in web 2.0 blog design, Hicks starts to look a little too plain, Santa Maria wicked-worn out, and Zeldman like something you might print out, not read online. Where are the leaders of modern blog design? (tags: blogs articles reviews reference technology web-developer web-developer/css) […]

  80. Justin said:

    on May 3rd, 2006 at 12:10 pm

    Great list. I’d like to nominate YouAreSoLastYear! for his minimal, functional, clean design. Great designer as well.

    Check him out: www.youaresolastyear.com

  81. Gopalarathnam Venkatesan said:

    on May 7th, 2006 at 2:16 am

    I’m also a big admirer of the “mullet”-style blog layout mentioned by Jonathan Boutelle. I’ve implemented the “mullet”-style layout in my web site, and also have put up a WordPress theme based on the default Kubrick theme.

    wordpress.org/support/topic/71529

  82. Jonathan Boutelle said:

    on May 14th, 2006 at 11:35 pm

    Gopalarathnam,

    Awesome! Thank you so much for doing this.;->

    If you have any ideas as to how to get this layout to work in wordpress.com or blogger, let me know: the disadvantage of these hosted blog platforms is that they don’t seem to let you control the templates enough to make these kinds of improvements.

    Thanks again, really cool stuff.

  83. Tom said:

    on May 14th, 2006 at 11:54 pm

    Great ideas for blog layouts!

  84. Darren Hoyt said:

    on May 16th, 2006 at 2:10 am

    Three of my recent favorites:

    New in Philly (defunct)
    www.newinphilly.com/

    PR Blogger
    www.prblogger.com/

    Alazanto
    www.alazanto.org/alazanto4/category/journal/

  85. pulse said:

    on May 18th, 2006 at 2:34 pm

    Splendid! :)
    Some which I have already visited though. :p

  86. Tavox said:

    on May 21st, 2006 at 6:21 pm

    Damn the technology !!!

  87. Chris Wible said:

    on May 30th, 2006 at 9:45 am

    A nice collection of some of my favorites! Not to mention a couple new ones I’ve never read. But where’s Khoi Vinh?

    Just my $.02 ;)

  88. links for 2006-05-31 | Edward O’Connor said:

    on May 31st, 2006 at 3:19 am

    […] Top 10 Best Designed Blogs by Elliott Back (tags: blog web design) […]

  89. A MattPayne.org blog » Static rendering WordPress…. said:

    on June 8th, 2006 at 3:06 pm

    […] elliottback.com/wp/archives/2006/04/16/top-ten-best-designed-blogs/ […]

  90. .. said:

    on June 10th, 2006 at 5:30 pm

    […] In fact, I think good design may actually intimidate people. If you visit sites like these, you’ll probably think, “Wow, I wish I could do something like that.” You might even spend some time trying, only to be disappointed when yours looks like a kid’s drawing compared to theirs. […]

  91. Timothy Post said:

    on June 26th, 2006 at 10:30 pm

    Check-out www.okaydave.com Not technically a blog but certainly an impressive personal website.

  92. […] 10 melhores designs de blogs […]

  93. Stuck in Customs said:

    on June 27th, 2006 at 1:00 am

    Wow some great finds there… now if I only knew some good AJAX guys to purloin some of those cool ideas.

  94. Mike Ernst said:

    on June 27th, 2006 at 4:48 am

    Great list. Thanks for sharing.

  95. El blog de Alejandro Maceira » El Top Ten de los Top Ten said:

    on June 27th, 2006 at 5:23 am

    […] #10 - Top 10 Best Designed Blogs […]

  96. 4111y80y??? said:

    on June 27th, 2006 at 8:01 am

    The Top Ten List Of Top Ten Lists…

    #10 - Top 10 Best Designed Blogs
    #9 - Top 10 Social Networking Sites
    #8 - Top 10 Astronomy & Space……

  97. […] Top 10 Best designed blogs […]

  98. Bloggitation » links for 2006-06-28 said:

    on June 27th, 2006 at 8:31 pm

    […] Top 10 Best Designed Blogs by Elliott Back (tags: blog design web web2.0) […]

  99. Kerri Pangman said:

    on June 28th, 2006 at 9:09 am

    […] elliottback.com/wp/archives/2006/04/16/top-ten-best-designed-blogs/ […]

  100. […] #10 - Top 10 Best Designed Blogs […]

  101. […] Elliot Back’s Top 10 Best Designed Blogs […]

  102. Top 10 Best Desigend Blogs at Jejoong said:

    on July 7th, 2006 at 12:28 am

    […] Top 10 Best Designed Blogs […]

  103. FN said:

    on July 10th, 2006 at 3:08 pm

    Wonderful blog. Really. My favorite: the first one.

  104. Kroska said:

    on July 26th, 2006 at 11:10 pm

    Thatis cool!

  105. […] Top 10 Best Designed Blogs […]

  106. User Experience & Design said:

    on July 31st, 2006 at 11:53 am

    just things i’ve run across…

    bookdiva.net
    i just liked this design.

    ie7 migration

    why css bugs me
    thoughts from dvorak

    the myspace problem
    When it comes to some of the web?s most popular sites - is their success because of or in spite of ?ugly? design?…

  107. Tony said:

    on August 15th, 2006 at 11:43 pm

    how did 13gb.com not make this list… WTF?

  108. Michael Mller said:

    on August 28th, 2006 at 2:09 pm

    Great Article! I’m just starting my second blog, this time it only will be in spanish, but I hope to get into the best design… the actual one is just template based.

  109. JT Chandler said:

    on August 29th, 2006 at 10:49 pm

    well done!
    I too am especially fond of “creatures of fierce untameable beauty”

  110. David Levin said:

    on September 10th, 2006 at 1:19 pm

    Nice selection! These web sites are definately some of the best looking blogs I have seen out there! I especially enjoyed Joshua Ink’s.

  111. Lautreamont said:

    on September 10th, 2006 at 9:36 pm

    Although we all have our own opinion, and using the expression “top ten” is a bit risky as it is a subjetive opinion, I really think you’ve done an excelent job collecting these sites. God only knows how hard it is to choose just ten out of so many.

    I’ll keep this as an inspirational source. Thx, man.

  112. […] Elliott Bäck comenta os bons desenhos de dez blogs. Se você tem ou pensa em ter um blog, confira. Vale a visita. elliottback.com/wp/archives/2006/04/16/top-ten-best-designed-blogs/ Posted by Edilton Siqueira Filed in Técnico […]

  113. blogging beauty at ganyet.com said:

    on September 29th, 2006 at 5:32 pm

    […] For your viewing pleasure: Top Ten Best Designed Blogs […]

  114. Guy Smiley said:

    on October 17th, 2006 at 7:28 pm

    Blog!?!
    What is a Blog?

  115. Guy Smiley said:

    on October 17th, 2006 at 7:30 pm

    Oh!
    THATS a Blog!!

  116. wordpress dev » Blog Archive » 最好的十个BLOG设计 said:

    on October 29th, 2006 at 5:29 am

    […] 这个TOP 10列表是来自Top 10 Best Designed Blogs BY Elliott Back […]

  117. Terinea said:

    on November 22nd, 2006 at 8:47 am

    Number 3, my home town and number 1 and 7 are my favourites!

  118. Terinea Tech Tips » My 5 top Ten Blogging Tips said:

    on November 22nd, 2006 at 9:46 am

    […] elliottback.com/wp/archives/2006/04/16/top-ten-best-designed-blogs/ […]

  119. Vil du bli en blogger? « Leif Daland said:

    on November 26th, 2006 at 12:34 pm

    […] De andre to tilbyderne er jeg mindre kjent med, men er du interessert kan du starte på LiveJournals FAQ, eller WordPress’ hjelpeside. WordPress skal visstnok, ifølge dem selv, ha en omfattende mulighet til å endre CSSen (malen) på bloggen, samt støtte for plugins og widgets (trolig kun på den hostede versjonen). Hvis du vil ha innspill til utseende på bloggen din, er det bare å ta en titt på Elliott Backs liste over, etter hans mening, de 10 best designede blogger. […]

  120. milo317 said:

    on December 18th, 2006 at 7:08 am

    seems like most of the sites switched to a one column layout.

  121. Blogging about Blogging « tips for easy web sites that work said:

    on January 6th, 2007 at 4:08 am

    […] 6 Jan 2007 Blogging about Blogging Posted by turbonet under blogging , web site design  Blogging about blogging. Sounds funny,but its some serious business. Blogs specifically dedicated to the art of blogging are hugely popular. And it really is an art. I have seen some extremely artistic blogs. Here’s a list of the top 10 Best Designed Blogs They’re certainly fun to look at and ponder, how did they DO that? Goes to show that a nice looking blog can get recognition on its design alone. This site was dugg on digg 1924 TIMES! I personally like the incorporation of adsense in the Karen Cheng Snippets of life blog. […]

  122. jack said:

    on January 8th, 2007 at 6:19 pm

    Nice site actually. Gone to my favourites. Thanks for creation.

  123. Lav said:

    on March 16th, 2007 at 9:45 pm

    Wow. Just..wow. Those blogs have awesome designs and they’re so nice and fluid too!

  124. Batik Picture said:

    on May 17th, 2007 at 1:38 pm

    Thank you for this post. I really enjoy these beautiful and inspiring sites.

  125. Marc said:

    on June 12th, 2007 at 8:49 am

    What about www.lucky19.com ?

  126. Fox Tucker said:

    on June 14th, 2007 at 2:40 pm

    Not suggesting for a moment that my new design at www.thumblounge.com is of the same standard as those feature here, but I’d welcome a bashing

  127. Blogger Blog » Design : Blogger Forum said:

    on August 10th, 2007 at 12:34 pm

    […] We’re going to vary from our usual thing and post the main site of a blog instead of an individual blog post. The reason? We are going to point out overall design as making a good blog rather than the individual blog content. The winner of our Blogger Blog best blog is Ordered List. The site won best design at Elliott Back with this comment: […]

  128. Danny Downey said:

    on August 12th, 2007 at 12:58 am

    Great Picks, Great sites….2 bad viewers could not download a template for these site :)

  129. tobloggers said:

    on August 18th, 2007 at 10:42 pm

    the designs are really beautiful. I like simple bits the best. It is clean and readable.

  130. Nick said:

    on December 30th, 2007 at 9:35 pm

    In terms of clean design and functionality, I’ve been enjoying a participatory opinion website called Holy Shnikes at www.holyshnikes.com. Great, clean page layout, simple but eye-catching graphics, and a layout that makes it instantly understandable, without any distracting bells and whistles. Check it out.

  131. Best Blog Posts about blogging (2007) | Blogging Bytes said:

    on December 31st, 2007 at 10:18 pm

    […] From thousands of blog posts, here are the best of 2007: 1. 66 Successful Bloggers and What they can teach you 2. 10 Requisites for Professional Bloggers 3. 7 Ways to Promote your Site with a Bit of Money 4. Top 25 Blogs About Blogging 5. 27 Lessons Learned on the Way to 3000 Visits a Day and 2200 RSS Subscribers 6. 10 Rules for Responsible Blogging 7. 8 Must Read Blogs for Pro Bloggers 8. Blog Setup: 40 Practical Tips 9. Resources for Video Blogging 10. 7 Habits of Highly Efficient Bloggers 11. Top 10 Ways to Market Your Blog in 2008 12. Blogging Tips for Beginners 13. 11 Ways to Find New RSS Subscribers for Your Blog 14. 8 Steps to Branding Your Blog 15. Hundreds of Resources for Finding Content for Your Blog 16. 5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog Post With a Bang 17. 18 Lessons I’ve Learned about Blogging 18. How to Write Great Blog Content 19. How to Find Readers For Your Blog 20. How Bloggers Make Money from Blogs 21. 10 Effective Ways to Get More Blog Subscribers 22. Ten blogging hacks 23. Blogging Toolbox: 120+ Resources for Bloggers 24. My 50 favorite blogging resources by Pronet Advertising 25. The Best Free Blogging Tools for Power Bloggers 26. Top 10 Free Desktop Blog Editors for Windows 27. List of free desktop blog editors - post directly from desktop! 28. Five Desktop Blog Editors for GNU/Linux Users 29. Top 10 Best Designed Blogs 30. Moving from Blogger to WordPress: Best Practices 31. Becoming A Professional Blogger Was Never As Easy As Today 32. The First Steps to Become a Professional Blogger 33. Selling Your Blog: What Are Blog Buyers Looking For? 34. Selling Your Blog: What Goes Into The Selling Price? 35. Best Internet Marketing Blog Posts of 2007 […]

  132. Encaso said:

    on January 21st, 2008 at 7:58 am

    Have you check Ten Thousand Things by J Teixido. Very nice dark layout, which is very hard to find this days

  133. […] Top 10 Best Designed Blogs - The particular platform (WP, Moveable Type, Typepad, Handcoded) doesn’t matter. It’s what you do with it that counts. This isn’t about prettiest blog, or the best written blog. This is a list of the most groundbreaking, cutting edge blogs out there. You see these blogs and cry, because they’re creatures of fierce untameable beauty. […]

  134. Web Design Lincolnshire said:

    on April 15th, 2008 at 6:10 am

    Some lovely website layouts. Thank you for sharing.

  135. Rajita - Logo Design said:

    on May 8th, 2008 at 12:29 am

    I love the joshua’s link the best.The cascading flowering creepers give a very unique effect to the blog.

  136. MILLUS said:

    on May 11th, 2008 at 5:14 pm

    I like the snook blog layout
    and the www.millus.org layout :)

  137. Little Rianne said:

    on May 14th, 2008 at 7:06 am

    nice list. i like #2

  138. Stacy cv said:

    on June 16th, 2008 at 10:55 am

    4) Joshua Ink is amazing. Loving the flowers

  139. Adi said:

    on June 30th, 2008 at 8:58 am

    Hi,
    very nice, i also like simple designed skins like www.ibiznes.katowice.pl or arty.waw.pl

  140. Dubai Web Design, Development said:

    on July 8th, 2008 at 4:19 am

    Very Nice Blog Design. Flower blog design is also good but i like Mike design. Colors are very softy and touchy. colors are very pleasent to eyes.

  141. Sika said:

    on August 5th, 2008 at 8:24 am

    Hallo.
    Emotions by mike is nice. Theme www.investor.wroclaw.pl is simple and i think not bad. It’s also oryginal, i think. Theme with vader is also interesting.

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