Web Design Trends: Cityscapes, Landscapes and Seascapes

A popular trend over the past year or two is using landscapes, cityscapes and seascapes in a design. Often placed in a website’s footer, they’re a great way to show off your creativity and as a web designer gives you a chance to test out your Illustrator skills.

A few tips for designing your ‘scape’

1. Get some stock photography

You can get lots of downloadable vector graphics and photos from iStockphoto.

2. Check out Flickr

Flickr has loads of Creative Commons photos available for use.

3. Take your own photos

Get out around your town/city and take a few photos of noticeable buildings.

4. Sketch your own ideas

Jot down your own hills and buildings on paper.

5. Finally, get tracing and cutting in Illustrator and Photoshop

Now you have your inspiration you can start tracing in illustrator and trying different Photoshop effects on your buildings to come up with the perfect amazing scape.

Check out the showcase below for inspiration from the best.

Showcase of cityscapes

1. Andy Sowards
Andy Sowards
2. Disability Heroes
Disability Heroes
3. Flayks
Flayks
4. Gotta Get To FOWA
Gotta Get To FOWA
5. Carrot Creative
Carrot Creative
6. Sawyer Hollenshead
Sawyer Hollenshead
7. TJ Mapes
TJ Mapes
8. Bainbridge Studios
Bainbridge Studios
9. NY Moon
NY Moon
10. DrupalCon
DrupalCon

Showcase of landscapes

11. The Mattinator
The Mattinator
12. Kulturbanause
Kulturbanause
13. Hicks Design
Hicks Design
14. Viget Inspire
Viget Inspire
15. Rissington Podcast
Rissington Podcast
16. Adit Shukla
Adit Shukla
17. Vimeo
Vimeo
18. Koller Media
Koller Media
19. TwitterFone
TwitterFone
20. Project Vino
Project

Showcase of seascapes

21. Dizzain
Dizzain
22. Tomas Pojeta
Tomas Pojeta
23. We Are Not Freelancers
We Are Not Freelancers
24. Frisk Design
Frisk Design
25. David Torondel
David Torondel
26. Design Disease
Design Disease
27. Volll
Volll
28. Get Me Fast
Get Me Fast
29. Stylized Web
Stylized Web
30. DivVoted
DivVoted

Further Reading

Related articles


13 Appreciated Comments

  1. On the , Andy Sowards said:

    Lee! Amazing post! these are some top notch sites! And the technique is dead on. Find a good pic, trace an outline in PS or Illustrator, and then get creative!

    Takes forever sometimes but theres just something about an all vector design that makes me weak in the knees :).

    Keep up the good work!!

  2. On the , Kyle Boyd said:

    Thanks for the add, some of those other ones look epic.

    The key is getting the right landscape to sort your need. Once you get that is game on.

  3. On the , Lee Graham said:

    Congrats Andy!!!

  4. On the , Bryan said:

    Lee…when I saw this topic in my Reader I was hoping that my site had made the list. There’s definitely a growing trend with using cityscapes, landscapes and seascapes in design.

    If you’re looking for great vector versions of big city scapes check out Go Media. They’ve got some great stuff.

  5. On the , Lee said:

    Thanks guys, glad you like the list.

    @Bryan: Sorry mate, your cityscape does look very cool though!

  6. On the , Charles said:

    Here’s a landscape to add! Very colorful, illustrated landscape header. Surprised you missed it :)

    http://www.bestmortgagedeals.co.uk/

  7. On the , Carlos Hermoso said:

    Nice showcase of cityscapes, landscapes and seascapes for inspiration. Thanks

  8. On the , Isabel said:

    I love this post… sometimes I’m already here again just to inspire myself! Is really a good research! THANKS!!

  9. On the , Atak Teknoloji Web Tasarımı said:

    nice collestions. thanks.

  10. On the , David Torondel said:

    Thanks for the link on my blog :)

  11. On the , Max Weir said:

    Nice collection, there’s some really nice ones in here.

  12. On the , morteza said:

    Hi
    most of your collections are wonderful such as this.
    try for more!!!!!!!
    thanks

  13. On the , Lauren said:

    These sites are amazing! Great post.

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