Textures in Web Design – Examples and Best Practices

By Mike Smith | Stashed in Articles, Compilations, Inspiration, Webdesign

When you hear someone say ‘textures in web design’ what is the first thing you think of? Do you picture the heavy textured websites that resemble a grunge band or do you think of the light textures that often occupy the retro styled websites? Whatever answer you chose, you’re right. Textures in web design range from the light, almost unnoticeable, to the thick, in your face style.

Today I want to show you some proper examples of textures in web design. Some of the best practices in textured web designs are shown below so I hope you can become inspired by the images and if you have a website with texture in it, don’t hesitate to drop a comment and let us know – textured website designs are my favorite.

Subtle Grunge Textures

Below are some websites that utilize the subtle grunge effect, which allows their websites to remain clean of clutter and professional looking, while still giving it that slight bit of edge needed in order to stand out from their competitors.

Colin Grist

Le Tipi

Wixel

Krista Ganelon

GroupMe

Beautiful Type

Neve Inspired

Haiti One Year Later

Netzbewegung

Code23

Elise Teddington

Heavy Grunge Textures

On the complete opposite side of the spectrum is the heavy grunge websites that hold the “dirtier the better” mantra very close to heart. You’ll see a lot of messiness in their designs yet also note that everything still looks great and functions very well. It’s hard to do, but if you’re able to pull it off, you’ll walk away with an awesome website like the ones below.

Truth Saves

Kez, Human Jukebox

TAEBO Team Stuttgart

Edinburgh 2 Liverpool

XGO

Random Grunge Textures

Below are websites that couldn’t really be grouped into the above two categories but still utilize the grunge elements beautifully across the board. Some are clean and simple layouts like Solid Giant while others showcase a retro vibe to their designs like Logo Nest and Forever Heavy.