You can view the sites for yourself by clicking the first image in each series.

Lush

Lush is a good place to start because white space is the hero here.

It’s the delicious colouring of the toiletries, contrasted with large black and white typography and a black header that makes this such an enjoyable site to browse.

lush

lush

lush

odd pears

The sock retailer (hipsters note, all designs come in threes) is another that uses its colourful stock to full effect.

One can browse by the socks themselves or by the patterns thereon. Though most of the colour is delivered by the products, this ecommerce site features a number of fun photoshoots, previewed above the fold on the homepage, which deliver additional colour.

Note the ever-contrasting headers displaying shipping information (in green) and order incentives (in coral).

odd pears

odd pears

odd pears

On The Grid

Hipster neighbourhood guide On The Grid employs a strong blue and white design that uses brightly coloured tiles once you drill down into a category.

designer neigbourhood

designer neigbourhood

Huge

Huge is an agency in love with pink, using the colour to highlight mouseovers and also liberally splashing the stuff on its homepage.

Once again, contrast is achieved with text as well as imagery and background colour.

just thursday

just thursday

just thursday

Dropbox user guides

Altogether more muted than some of the other examples in this list, I like the way Dropbox uses complementary colours to split the page in two.

dropbox

Trainline

I’ve previously sung the praises of Trainline’s app. It’s the bold colouring of the booking engine, all mint and navy blue, that’s so distinctive.

This colour scheme is used sparingly to highlight the calls to action through the ticket purchase journey. I love it.

trainline

trainline

Panic

I think I have a thing for mint and pink, so couldn’t ignore this lurid website of a Latvian video production studio.

panic

panic

Colston Hall

This concert hall in Bristol, England, has a joyous website that colour codes event listings and uses riotous shades to showcase its content.

Here’s an interview with the agency that built the site and one of the Colston Hall team. The site was built in 2013 but looks as fresh as ever.

colston hall

colston hall

colston hall

Nicolas Eberienos

A paean to black and white, now, though there is some colour, too.

This is a very simple portfolio website (just one page) but I like the way the colour helps to fill out the space, as text is sparse.

nicolas eberienos

nicolas eberienos 

Urbanears

Urbanears is another retailer that uses colour as a USP, its ecommerce site allowing one to shop by colour.

It’s not the most usable or sophisticated shopping experience but strong text works well with product imagery to create a bold aesthetic.

urbanears

headphones

For more on web design, see the following: