In this inspirational showcase article, I collected a little bit different blogs – usually blogs serve for one purpose – design or function. Just a few blog designs fulfil both important tasks, I thought I will find a lot more design suitable for this article before I started.
Here you’ll find a lot of beautiful simplicity and functionality where design really works and matters! Enjoy and hope you will learn good things from those blog designs and implement in your own designs as well!

1. Web Is Love

You will find just a few colors used in this layout, effectively used whitespace, cool hand-drawn illustrations and little icons. Unique concept.

2. 15 June

Very clean landing page without any images, but visit his individual posts as well, you’ll see unique styling and change of navigation color!

3. NuWomb

What I enjoyed the most was a little touch with textured background and featured slideshow putting all main content above the fold. Only I think since middle section is so long, designer should have 2 column layout not 3 to give more space to actual article. It’s good to have the most important information on “above the fold” section though (RSS subscribe, newsletter, shop).

4. Cult-F

This blog has excellent header to show immediate creativity, not sure though if it’s not too big. Navigation is very interesting – when you scroll down, navigation cloud moves with you – idea is great, I felt a little bit disturbed since I am sitting on my laptop with little resolution, but this is a great way how to increase pageviews I think.

5. SkyLab Blog

Here I enjoy the most little, silent Twitter,Facebook, Delicious and RSS buttons – every designer will notice and evaluate this approach!

6. Creative Depart

Interesting approach – you can switch between grid/normal modes and choose which layout works better for you. At least for me – I feel appreciated, like I have some kind of modification possibilities and personal touch.

7. Veerle’s Blog

Great example showing how it’s possible to consume a lot of different information in good way. All those little icons, header and light typography just creates right accents and makes layout interesting.

8. Freelance Switch

Every site in Envato network is designed in smart and very effective way.  Watch out how they put the most important information in above the fold section, but in the meantime they emphasize effect with big typo, self describing icons and cool mascot!

9. Twirk Ethic

Beautiful simplicity – can retro style be any cooler? Excellent 3 column layout consuming a lot of information in visually appealing way.

10. Ecoki

Is it possible to be any more cleaner and grid based? Such eye-candy and so effective design!

11. Best Blog Box

Visually and content rich magazine type website – on index page you will find a lot of different articles to grab your attention in 3 column layout, but when you are in article, you’ll get even more space for article and just 2 column layout! Handy!

12. All For Design

Very clean and textured French blog design – I enjoy social networking mouseover buttons and style throughout whole design keeping it clean, grungy – yet  trendy. Visual beauty is emphasized with colourful “above the fold” header.

13. CSS Tricks

Close to perfection, Chris has many projects already and he advertised almost all of them in single landing page! Very functional website, only I think it needs more detailed sections, so people could find information more easier besides search and sidebar featured articles.

14. Mike Precious

One more great dark design!

15. The Designed

Very often it’s good idea to just keep layout clean to be effective.

16. SquareSpace Blog

Little rulers and transparent header creates an effective impression, I am not sure about sidebar but other than that – unique approach!

17. Elliot Jay Stocks

Besides colors, I enjoyed original footer and even more notice Search, which is only there! Good way of thinking – people scroll through site, don’t find what they want, but then notice footer and fat search button inviting to search for desired topic!

18. Good.Is

You can learn from this website, how to consume huge amounts of information and sections in good way.

19. Mashable

Mashable’s great design is huge case of study more from functional point of view (I would give a little bit more artistic look to it, but it’s social news site, not design blog).

I include whole index screenshot, because I wanted to show how many ads and information is consumed here, how mashable promotes their all social networks and really dominate there!

20. Web Design Ledger

Henry Jones has given this 3 column site some great functional and visual features – beautiful featured images and a lot of small thumbnails in sidebar to grab reader (designer) attention and it works!

21. Coda

One of rare exceptions where I really like dark design! Design could be more functional, but it always depends from specific project – for them, I think, suits perfectly!

22. Think Vitamin

Beautiful light and functional design which works using just monochrome, orange and green colors in the right sections!

23. Simple Bits

Handcrafted pixels done effectively!

24. Freelenz

Little things matters and a lot of little things used in good way, create amazing website like this!

25. 45 Royale

At first design seemed to be chaotic, but just after a moment I got a very good impression about its appearance and functions!

26. N-Design Studio

Amazing designer blog – extremely creative and surprisingly functional in the same time!!

27. PSD.Tutplus

Not a long time ago Envato changed their network site designs – big case study, interesting choice of navigation, sidebar organization and great icons to make good accents!

Chalk this one up as a victory for the free software movement: Thesis, the wildly popular proprietary WordPress theme from developer/designer Chris Pearson, is now available under a split GPL, the license that makes it possible to alter and redistribute this software as you see fit.

Pearson’s decision marks the end of a high-drama clash between him and Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPressand of Automattic, which runs WordPress.com and a handful of related software. Some folks wondered if the battle of words might end in a battle of legal precedent as Mullenweg struggled to preserve free-software principles and Pearson struggled to maintain control over his highly successful software.

Thesis caused a bit of a ruckus when it was first released a couple years ago; being built on WordPress and using the WordPress plugin API (GPL software), the theme was supposedly subject to the same share-and-share-alike principles and should have been released under the same GPL.

Also known as a General Public License, this document was created first by Richard Stallman, who still hasvery definite views about software sharing. According to the GPL, software can be sold commercially but the user must be free to share the software, free to modify it, free to redistribute it to the community and free to share copies of his modified versions. In the words of the license, “If you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must pass on to the recipients the same freedoms that you received.”

Thesis was being sold for $87 per copy under a more conventional license, even though it used and referenced GPL-licensed code. And for whatever reason, we didn’t hear too much about this single WordPress theme from day to day, even as it grew to become quite a money maker for Pearson.

The sleeping dog was lying quite peacefully until Mixergy’s Andrew Warner conducted an explosive interviewwith Chris Pearson, creator of Thesis. We say “explosive” in the sense that the blogosphere (and other social media spheres) exploded as the video racked up views. As Pearson revealed the financial success he’d seen from his should-have-been-at-least-partially-free-and-open-source software, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg fired back on Twitter. This testy exchange culminated in another Mixergy interview, this time a face-off between the two gents. A lawsuit was a-brewin’.

“Even if Thesis hadn’t copy and pasted large swathes of code from WordPress (and GPL plugins) its PHPwould still need to be under the GPL,” Mullenweg wrote on his blog. He also began encouraging Thesis users to abandon the theme and seek GPL alternatives.

“We write software that empowers and protects the freedoms of users, it’s our Bill of Rights. People should respect that,” he said on Twitter.

While it seemed over the past week that neither party was willing to budge on his position, Pearson has just now relented, if only enough to satisfy the legal requirements of the GPL.

“Friends and lovers: Thesis now sports a split GPL license. Huzzah for harmony!” he wrote on Twitter this afternoon. Still, he said the change “has no practical implications for 99.9% of people.”

The split GPL will allow the parts of Thesis that use WordPress code to be freely shared. All the PHP code is GPL, while CSS and JavaScript code sections remain proprietary. It’s not a complete win for FOSS, but at least it’s fair, compliant and fork-able.

Mullenweg’s public response seems to be one of relief. “This has taken a lot of my time over the past few days and was going to consume more if it went forward,” he wrote on Twitter today. “Thrilled, however, that Thesis is now legal and in compliance… What’s going to be far more useful to Thesis is the fixes we can send him now — which is the most beautiful part of open source.”