[SOLVED] good examples wanted of grey or black sites

[Gerry]

hey gang,

I am considering building myself a site that gives visual emphasis to images, illustrations and web examples and therefore wish to consider grey or black as its background colour, as well as restrained ancillarry information.

I find that, unless done well, grey sucks the energy out of colour, and black, although working extremely well in allowing strong contrast, sucks energy too, to an extent, and also runs the risk of looking a bit back room garage etc which is not a look I need to emulate (yes its relevant to some but not in this instance).

Are there any good examples out there that you can suggest treat this approach well?

Many thanks
G

[alexgeek]

It's hard to pull off. Have a look at cssmania.com, they tonnes.

e.g.
http://cgcraft.com/
http://beta.pixelmilk.com/
http://www.iceactivity.com/

Something i made in the last hour out of boredom, it uses mostly grey.

Lil bit o' green

Trying to create a portfolio design... but they all just look so so to me

Make your own mind up.

l_c6695d295ca7e26e91860d57e17f664d.jpg

[Stuart]

That looks nice. A bit too much gray, but a nice variation of shades...

[alexgeek]

Would be hard to apdapt to HTML without using a scroll bar unless you straighten the smaller containers sides.

nah mate... i've planned the adaptation... plus there are a few things you could do anyway... you could just straighten the center. But mine isn't going to be for masses of content. Well anyway i still think the design looks a bit tacky and is graphics heavy.


Whenever i need inspiration, i go here... plus a few other sites

http://browse.deviantart.com/designs...=9&alltime=yes

[Nortus]

I would go for white to show off images.
Around a year ago there was a large thread at a site called worth1000 when JaxomLotus (The site owner) was asking the community for ideas regarding a new site theme.

Every suggestion of adding colour, black or grey was thrown out by the experienced members as they all say white is the best for showing off images. (Some of them extremely well known professionals and the best in the business.)

As you mention, grey sucks life out of colour and black is great for high contrast images but not much else.

With white you have a harder job making the site look designed but isnt the point to let the images do the talking anyway?

[karinne]

This might help:
Black
Grey

[Gerry]

thanks gang,
few things to go at there.
seems like a dash of colour takes away the dullness, but then i guess the illustrations will do that anyway.
cheers