Elementary in its simplicity, suprising in its curation. COMME des GARÇONS's decade-long web presence is laudable for its enjoyable navigation and comittment to brand direction over ecomemrce marketing ploys.

A logo, a phone number, and a Place Vêndome address. What more does a business need? Charvet's site is the epitome of a distinctly French genre of we're-too-good-for-you luxury. By showing nothing, everything is left to the viewer's imagination. It's only fault? A link to Instagram.

A humble reminder that a six-figure budget isn't required to create an iconic website—sometimes all you need is Eurostile, fuchsia, and a little yellow.

Appealing to an innate desire for clearly demarcated content and easy clicking, Balenciaga's hairline grid took ecommerce by storm in 2017. Within a couple of years of its launch, variations of its grid popped up in hundreds of other shops. An ecommerce design direction this cohesive has seldom been pulled off.

Hated by many, loved by few. Yale School of Art's website reads as an eternal work-in-progress, ticking the boxes of institutional design while continually finding new ways to break its rules.

An early example of an e-shop fully committed to a full-width design approach, resulting in a distinctly youthful and web-native design direction.

The good, the bad, and the bizzare of urbanites distilled into a list of lists. Iconic for its unabashedly pragmatic design; a gift to future ethnologists and archæologists alike, a little sliver of our universe.

Fuchsia arrows on green, pixelated camouflage field mark the landing page of a behind-the-scenes tour of Lutz Bacher's practice.

A distinctly machined design as though this site emerged naturally from the web itself. Oppenheimer's site feels sharp and effortless without making concessions to an overarching design direction.

A masterclass in communicating agency through design. Nothing says “we know what we’re doing” quite like a trillion-dollar company with a Web 1.0 website.

A couple of awkward design decisions to an otherwise pragmatic layout give this site an iconic on-the-fringe feel which works particularly well for an architectural practice.

A build-your-own-website design approach that captures the political motivations and aesthetic taste of a prominent Italian artist and designer.

Many try to pull off multi-column layouts for the web, few succeed. Repossi's 2019 site is chic and effortless, a touchstone for representing luxury online.

Is it intentional or the result of negligence? Is it trash or is it art? Reena's site exemplifies how a series of micro decisions over time accumulate to form a decidedly real website.

Anything you could ever want from a website is here. Friendly, informative, but be careful, clicking "add to order" automatically charges you and fulfills order.

Perfect in concept, brand context, and design execution. Though there have since been a multitude of attempts at skeuomorph emulations (e.g. servers, terminal windows, and desktops), none has pulled it off like Maison Martin Margiela's 2006 site