The virtual reality of the world wide web is a playground with some spooky places that might give you the chills. I discovered numerous horrible websites I wouldn’t dare to take a closer look at for they really take it beyond the limits of any taste. What really interested me were sinister and moody websites. I have been about everywhere looking for good obscure webdesign. Unfortunately the majority of the moody and the evil fellows who publish on the internet don’t seem to be blessed with much creativity and taste. Their websites look so sadly unspectacular - it is really kind of depressing. To aesthetic eyes their work is definitely the absolute horror.

 

 

 

The unimaginative squeeze the classical horrormyths for the last blooddrops to crossbreed and clone like modern media frankensteins. In their webdesigns all black backgrounds are quite common, as well as cliché horror pictures on black, scattered unsystematically or lined up in rows. The illustrative components are as scary as a middleschool Halloween party. Devils, skulls, pentagrams, zombies, werewolves, and vampires, surrounded by gravestones, coffins, blazing flames, and a lot of blood – Yawn. Scary stuff!

 

If headlines are not typed in corny gothic letters or fat wedge writing you will find them written in grotesque blood fonts. Titles are usually outlined and often pepped with 3D and glow effects. Somewhere scattered on the blackness of your screen you see text placed in extensive lines and chunky blocks. But this is not enough: words and phrases appear in a violent clash of colors, multicoloured from white to bright red, to screaming green, fluorescent blue and nasty purple.

 

 

 

Good obscure websites do not need a whole lot of dark content at all. Atmospere is what counts.  Anybody will agree that outworn horrorsymbols alone cannot create a sinister atmosphere. In webdesign you need to work intermediarily in order to transport a mood.  The existing digital tools allow to realize almost any creative idea using both visual and audio effects. Undoubtedly style and clear design principles remain the core - the skelleton whose bones will be enveloped with creative elements.

 

I would recommend to any dark designer: Make the visit of your website a journey of discovery. Motion graphics are very attractive and even more exciting if combined with sound. As we have seen in film and theatre music is an extraordinarily strong emotional vehicle used to build suspense.

Suspense is also aided by mystery and surprise. Especially in the horror genre the element of surprise is one of the most important means to support the tension of a plot. On websites startling animations being actuated by click or roll-over have a great surprisal value. There are still numerous audio-visual habits and customs that can be broken for the benefit of shock. Believe me, shocks are very welcome.

 

It is the sad truth that the internet users are constantly bored by tedious websites. That’s why we need new ideas, new attractions, new shocks. The dark and moody side of webdesign is yet to be discovered and developed to reach its blackest depths.