Those Gorgeous Websites from Apple’s iMac Event
If you’re a designer, I know you saw them too
If you’re anything like me, you love watching Apple keynotes. They can be hit or miss as far as products come, but I think Apple had a pretty great “Spring Loaded” event this April. They came out with a lot, like AirTags (finally), an M1 iPad, and even a purple iPhone! But one thing that stood out to me the most was the update of the iMac, revisiting their roots with its colors, but with an incredibly thin design thanks to their new fancy chip.
However, this article isn’t about the new iMac. This is about those beautiful website examples that were shown when they were spotlighting Safari.
As a UX designer, my first response was a double take (yes I really rewinded the keynote). My second response was a wave of curiosity to find these websites! I was curious not only if these were real, but if there was more to sites, since I could see myself gaining some real inspiration from them! So I took the liberty to look up each one and see if they exist, in order:
1. Piecework Puzzles
Exists? YEShttps://pieceworkpuzzles.com/
A beautiful, niche, and colorfully designed website for an online store selling puzzles! They have a great home page (you have to scroll a bit to see the screenshot from the keynote) with large imagery and unique shapes for call-to-actions and a lovely blend of high-contrast serif and bold sans serif typography.
Their puzzles look as good as their website too, so if you want a modern take on a dinner table classic, I’d look here first.
2. Game Dev Dojo
Exists? NO
http://gamedevdojo.net/
Unfortunately, this large format classic Helvetica-based website featuring game development insights doesn’t load when you visit the URL from the keynote. Not sure if this website has moved or was designed by Apple for the presentation!
3. Omsom
Exists? YEShttps://omsom.com/
Omsom is a bright, loud, and proud website featuring restaurant-quality Asian dishes you can put in your pantry! The website uses bright colors that make you hungry, unique bold sans-serif typography choices, and has fun off-the-grid layouts and 90’s inspired borders and shadows and you scroll down.
This company’s food honestly looks delicious, I might actually have to try it! (Thanks for the rec Apple 😄)
4. Table Talk
Exists? YEShttps://joinourtabletalk.com/
Table Talk is a very cool concept looking into it, where they want to open up deep, thoughtful conversations that were lost when we weren’t able to have “table talk” with friends during the pandemic. The website features (yet again) very bright and vibrant colors—with a very mustardy yellow background with various pastels contrasting against it—a mix of quirky san-serif typography, and features very fun animations and illustrations to compliment it.
The layout is simple, but the content definitely isn’t, so I’m glad most of the website isn’t too crazy (besides that yellow, wow!) I can’t wait to read more of these articles and get my mind spinning during my next dinner party!
5. Mondo Ciotola
Exists? NOhttp://mondo-ciotola.com/
Sadly, this gorgeous bold, blue and yellow website isn’t found at the URL featured in the Apple keynote. I even searched beyond to URL to try to find this very cool website, but to no avail.
Again, I’m not sure if this website has moved or was designed by Apple for the presentation. However, that high contrast serif header is to die for, and just that element will give me inspiration for days!
6. Calienna
Exists? YES
https://www.calienna.com/
Calienna is a store design agency based in California that predominantly appears to focus on one main thing: plants! Plants for days! This simple yet distinctive website feels like you’re in an art gallery, featuring their photos and designs in mosaic format and is complimented by a soothing serif font to tell their story.
Their design is both calming and exciting at the same time, and I can tell they bring life into every space they touch (including their online space), whether it’s with plants or with their passion. They started in September of 2020, so help keep them and their plants alive by supporting them! The world needs more good design and definitely more plants 🌱
7. The Conservatory
Exists? NOhttp://cacti-conservatory.com/
This is the third website I’ve tried and failed to access. Unlike the other two, this URL actually gives a server error, eluding to that it probably never existed. This website had a cool newspaperlike title and tabs for their pages, but then boasts a full screen gallery of their cacti below it.
I’m not too surprised that this website isn’t real, since the nav pages seem arbitrary and there’s no real content featured above “the fold”. Guess you’ll just have to visit Calienna for your cacti needs instead!
8. GoodMoods
Exists? IF YOU WAIThttp://www.goodmoods.com/
According to their very-slow-to-load website, “Goodmoods is an inspirational digital magazine and creative agency highlighting today’s and tomorrow’s trends.” This website has a fun layout of great trendy imagery, a great combination of artsy sans-serif typography, and natural colors to compliment their content.
I struggled trying to find where GoodMoods is based, but considering their website defaults to French, I’m assuming France or Canada. Like I said, I believe their website bandwidth may be overloaded due to long website wait times, but it’s there and real, and is a nice piece of inspiration.
9. Kinfolk
Exists? OF COURSEhttps://www.kinfolk.com/
Kinfolk was the only website featured that I already knew existed. Their magazine and online media based on home, work, style and culture has been around since 2011, and has always been a great source of inspiration to many different designers. Of course this would be one of the picks for Apple’s keynote, but what was interesting to me was this screenshot is actually the magazine shop page, not the home page.
Regardless, this was a great final website to wrap up the collage of featured websites to promote Safari on the new, beautiful iMac.
I hope you found this article useful, and perhaps might have found some inspiration yourself! If you made it this far, I know you were intrigued by this little snippet of the Apple keynote as I was, and if you enjoyed seeing each one of these websites in depth, give some claps!
Also, as a UX and website designer & developer, I love working on creative website projects, many like these websites! If you’re looking for a premium quality, custom designed, and Apple keynote-worthy website, drop me a line! I’d love to see if I could help make that happen for you 😄
