Inspirational design and development can come from many different sources. So it's not a bad idea to stretch (thematically speaking) and examine the "dark" side of site design.
In this showcase, I have collected "dark" designs from both ecommerce and non-ecommerce sites. While these sorts of designs won't work for every ecommerce implementation, they offer interesting elements that can infuse your projects with new energy.
No. 1: Sikorsky
The Sikorsky Helicopter site uses a dark gradient background ranging from blue to black. Various shades of deep blues can be found throughout the site. And the site's home page features one of the best Adobe Flash-based content sliders I have seen.
No. 2: Foot Locker
Foot Locker uses its gray and black site like a high-contrast canvas to call attention to its many products.
No. 3: Starbucks Coffee at Home
This Flash-driven micro-site promotes Starbucks Coffee at Home products and uses hues reminiscent of the roasted coffee beans.
No. 4: Rawlings
Rawlings' website gets its color scheme from the blacks and browns of the baseball gloves the company manufactures.
No. 5: Idea Foundry
Rich, earthly brown characterizes this well designed and developed site.
No. 6: Texture Lovers
Leather and fabric motifs abound on this free texture-graphics site.
No. 7: Anton Peck Digital Artist
If you're a digital artist, you have to have a great website, and Anton Peck does. Notice the excellent background image.
No. 8: Hewlett Packard
Elegant and simple, this site's black background and reversed logo make for one beautiful site.
No. 9: Aptina
Aptina's dark color palette and modern graphics communicate its high-tech breeding.
No. 10: Next
Next uses gray and black to create a foundation on which it can showcase its wares like fine art.
No. 11: tweetCC
Refresh tweetCC a few times to walk through all of the available colors.
No. 12: Blackberry
Blackberry uses a black leather background and dark accents to convey its brand.
No. 13: The A-Team
The A-Team movie site has a dark grunge feel and includes hover to play video.
No. 14: Duffs
This French purveyor of footwear uses high-contrast colors and graphics on its otherwise dark gray and black site.
No. 15: SixStepRecords
This dark-themed site makes extensive use of Flash and audio.
No. 16: Cover Duck
A single band of light blue cuts across a large field of deep sea blue on this ecommerce site.
No. 17: Jonah Hex Movie Site
Intense graphics and audio permeate this hip new movie site.
No. 18: EMDKAY
A site that sells mini arcade game consoles has to be dark.
No. 19: Oneplace
Dark blues, purples, and greens define this audio distribution site.
No. 20: Love Never Dies: The Coney Island Experience
A site from Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Love Never Dies." Be sure to play Whack-A-Clown.
No. 21: Hail the Villain
Think of this site as an online comic with web camera integration.
No. 22: Australian Defence Jobs: Submariners
This military recruiting site uses deep blues to match its deep sea theme.
No. 23: Airness Attraction Day
Dark colors, near full-screen video, and movement help Airness hock its grooming products for men.
No. 24: Feel the Power
This site has an awesome Flash-driven product display widget. Be sure to check it out.
No. 25: The Official M. Night Shyamalan Site
The Internet home of the director of Sixth Sense and Last Airbender is a dark place indeed.
No. 26: Gatorade
Massive graphics and fully integrated video make this site exceptional.
No. 27: Star Trek Movie Site
Although the movie has now been out more than a year, the website is still awesome.
No. 28: The Egg Republic
This agency website exudes cool.
No. 29: Hollister
Hollister is an internationally-recognized brand that has chosen dark hues for its website.
No. 30: Birdman
This is the highly stylized site for a Japan-based graphic arts company.
No. 31: Hinton Group
This site is completely reversed out with white copy on a pure black canvas.
No. 32: Tiger Leisure
This retail apparel site features large sections of black and dark gray to excellent effect.
No. 33: Start Fitness
This site offers another example of very readable light-colored font on a dark background.
No. 34: Smith & Wesson
This gun maker's site features several relatively dark shades of blue.
No. 35 Ugmonk
Ugmonk uses a charcoal gray background to make its products stand out.
No. 36: Bungie
This is the official site for the team that created the very popular Halo video game series.
No. 37: Oakley
Oakley, a maker of high-end sunglasses, uses a deep gray color for its site background.
No. 38: Myla
This London-based retailer frames the content section of its home page in solid black.
No. 39: Ringside
The Ringside site uses light to call attention to the hero section of its home page.
No. 40: Armani Exchange
This site shows off its high-style apparel in dark tones.
