Modern art — whether it’s painting, architecture, or sculpture — can inspire people across all fields. Naturally, web designers are no exception. By visiting museums or strolling through city streets, they search for unique ideas — something that will bring elegance, uniqueness, beauty, and most importantly, usability and clarity to their website designs.
Today’s article is dedicated to the art of the past two centuries, with a focus on trends from recent years.
Arts and Crafts
A movement from the Victorian era that emerged in response to the rise of industrialization in the early 20th century. This style is known for handcrafted details, decorative plant motifs, visual simplicity, and functionality. For instance, furniture of the time often featured pegs and dowels. In other words, it was both austere and intricate, original yet practical. Paintings were also rich in floral patterns, painstakingly drawn by hand, which could not be reproduced by the printing presses of that era.
A great example of this style can be seen at lotie.com — a project that combines hand-drawn visuals, musical accompaniment, and various overlay and depth effects, all integrated with modern web design trends.
Another great example of handcrafted web design is ernestandcelestine.com, featuring hand-drawn visuals, a functional layout, Facebook social media integration, and animation.
Through this approach, website creators aim to convey the uniqueness of their product and present the owner as a refined person with a strong sense of style, trends, and the needs of their audience.
International Style
An architectural movement born out of the Bauhaus school that dominated globally until the 1960s. Think of the UN headquarters, the Seagram Building, and other skyscrapers. The style is defined by clean lines, right angles, and a focus on squares and rectangles. A striking example is the Tugendhat Villa by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe — its strict geometry is balanced by functionality, abundant light, and the incorporation of the surrounding environment into the design.
The website designs in the screenshots below exemplify the international style — minimal color usage, functionality, and a clear application of the modular grid system. Visitors can easily find what they need without distractions.
Swiss Design
Known first in Switzerland and later globally since the mid-1950s, this style focused on legibility, clean typography, and layout standards. It emphasized left-aligned text, clear sans-serif fonts like Helvetica, and strict grid-based structures.
The design of v4.jasonsantamaria.com clearly demonstrates the core principles of Swiss design — from element placement to font use, and even the presentation of the designer’s portfolio.
This example also shows how Swiss typography blends well with modern trends: clean, understandable, user-friendly, yet enhanced by subtle effects. It looks equally good on mobile devices.
Futurism
Ever since humankind entered space, dreams of distant galaxies, alien civilizations, and UFOs have inspired entire generations. Sci-fi became a cultural force, with artists and writers like Asimov, Hamilton, Bulychev, Harrison, and Orson Scott Card transforming those dreams into stories and visuals — ideas that remain relevant today.
Thanks to technological advances, those space-age dreams now have vivid visual representation. Web designers actively use these aesthetics — enhancing websites with special effects and thematic elements.
The examples below feature not only space-themed projects, but also various styles combining animation, parallax, music, shadows, and modern techniques.
Grunge
Originally a musical genre, grunge influenced visual artists who translated its aesthetic into canvas and fashion. Torn jeans, leather jackets, heavy boots, metal studs, and floral dresses became iconic. In visual art, this translated into textures with scratches, stains, and roughness — evoking strong emotions, often from teenagers or young adults rejecting societal norms.
Despite its rebellious origins, grunge is often used in web design — especially for rock band sites or recording studios. But it’s not limited to that. Below are examples of grunge web design that stand out not only visually, but emotionally. Torn edges, worn textures, retro elements, and photography give this style its unique identity.
21st Century
When we speak of today’s art, realism stands out. Paintings now feature detailed, photorealistic depictions of people, often presented with surreal composition. Such works by Warren Chang, Aurelio Bruni, Stanislav Plutenko, and Dmitry Annenkov are renowned for their emotional depth and visual beauty.
In architecture, we see abundant use of triangles and diagonals, alongside curves, arches, and striking lighting. A great example: the new stations of the Moscow metro.
These trends have found their way into web design. Minimalist layouts are now paired with parallax effects, light shadows, real photography, 3D elements, and responsiveness. Design styles continue to evolve rapidly — yet none have disappeared entirely. Elements from each are reused and reinterpreted. Sites like IBM (ibm.com/ru-ru/), Teplitsa (te-st.ru/section/ngos/), and Envatomarket (graphicriver.net/?osr=tn) clearly reflect these modern trends.
Conclusion
Over the course of two articles, we’ve explored how art influences the development of web design styles. Of course, we didn’t cover every possible movement or trend, but we’ve shown how styles have evolved over hundreds of years. Creativity never stands still — it grows, absorbing what came before. That’s why designers often combine elements from different eras. A single website might include international-style grids, baroque flourishes, or arts-and-crafts motifs with touches of grunge.
Every website is unique, and elements can be mixed as long as there’s balance in their quantity and color palette. For example, a grungy paper background might clash with futuristic neon or geometric icons, but it pairs beautifully with swirls, plant motifs, ribbons, brush strokes, and photography.
Innovators and skilled designers can take almost any artistic legacy and reimagine it for modern use — creating something functional and captivating all at once.