11 Inspiring Kitchen or Food Headers
In preparation for a new header design for a cooking blog, I gathered eleven headers to explore how one might enhance a blog header for a kitchen, cooking or food-related site. Under each site, I noted what I liked about the designs. Feel free to add your own reactions in the comments.
Cooking with Amy
Cooking with Amy
What’s notable about this site is the post-it note for linking to categories and the attractive photo of produce. The header itself is a bit large for my taste, but it certainly draws one’s attention. Note the color scheme: greens, bold blue, and a tan background.
Simply Recipes
Simply Recipes
In contrast, the header for Simply Recipes is quite simple. This allows the reader to focus on the inviting and tempting photos in each post. The typography and logo of the header are crisp and professional. Color scheme: brown with a pale pink, gray background.
Ecoki
Ecoki
The header is a professional-looking logo with 4 beautiful advertisements. There are plenty of menu links as well. One could easily have 4 parallel images that link to categories in a similar attractive fashion. The background is a grunge look – this is currently stylish for web design, especially an ecological site. Color scheme: greens and browns with some blue.
Start Cooking
Recipes Index of Start Cooking
This is the recipe index for Start Cooking. I like the simplicity and brevity of the header; the photo of food works well with the tabbed menu. The header takes up only a small part of the page, but it is useful and cheerful.
Design Sponge
Recipe Section of Design Sponge
The card-like menus of the Design Sponge would work well with a cooking site. As in Cooking with Amy, categories are linked in a creative manner. Design Sponge does a better job of integrating the pictorial menus into the overall layout.
A Year in Bread
Year in Bread blog
A simple header with a great photo can be inviting and attractive. Maybe just incorporate a menu to jazz it up and make it more utilitarian.
Food on Food
Food on Food
A whimsical illustration can make a fun header.
The Kitchn
The Kitchn (yes, that's with no 'e')
Header is a simple logo in green with a bar of bright yellow underneath; it pops out against the grays of the site. If you go to this site, note the clever little favicon.
What’s Cooking Blog
What's Cooking Blog
This blog header combines a friendly photo of mother and child cooking on the right with an illustration on the left. The subdued green and gray color scheme helps the photo pop out at the viewer.
The Organic Supermarket
The Organic Supermarket
An attractive photo with bold green labeling and an integrated menu captures the eye in this header.
Food Tease
Food Tease
Which of these appeal to you and why? Thanks.
Themocracy
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These are all great. My favorites are the first one and the one with the loaf of bread (a year in bread which I think is 6th). I like them both because the food looks so fresh and appealing and to me they say that the site will care about fresh, beautiful food. Depending on the audience I’m not sure with the first one if I’d have the recipe sheet over the food but that does add to the message (depending on the message). However, the second one would be my favorite for a mass audience looking for quick recipes. Not sure why I think that. My reactions are gut ones.
Love those gut reactions, Carver. Thanks very much.
I like Cooking With Amy and The Organic Supermarket the best. I think that a single really crisp high quality image of food is critically important for the header of a food blog. Like Carver suggested though I’d lose the note on Amy’s, it’s distracting. For ease of use Simply Recipes has long been a favorite of mine but it’s not as visually appealing, and to me the ones with the illustrations or busy looking headers look “not serious”, to coopt an awkward Hebrew expression. A food blog should look like a very high quality hard cover cookbook. It’s food – use food porn to sell it, and spring for a professional shot.
I have to say that I’ve never cared for the Year in Bread header, the font looks amateurish to me and the picture has blown highlights and not enough definition. They do make good bread though, and I was lucky enough to win a great giveaway there a few years ago – I won a terrific artisanal bread cookbook that has become Jay’s go-to staple and which seriously improved the quality of the bread he bakes.
“single really crisp high quality image of food” – good advice!
PS I really dislike Design Sponge’s entire page – WAY too busy.
Funny – that one won a design award. That’s why I like doing these kinds of posts – the kind I see on “design” blogs all look the same after a while.
I’ll try to leave a comment for each one.
1: Nice. the fresh variety of food is appealing. So are the colors. The shopping list is a fine addition but it is a bit too big.
2: Warm colors but might get boring after a while, especially once the weather is warmer and the need for warm food has decreased.
3: Too many different items.
4: The header is too narrow. Nothing remains once you stop looking at it so it probably won’t
be remembered and recognized.
5: Too many things on that first page too.
6: Appealing too. I agree with Carver as the bread looks homemade and fressh.
7: Amusing but a bit pale.
8: The colors evoke my kitchen – not that it is relevant – but here again the header is a bit narrow.
9: Too soppy for my liking. The perfect WASP mom with the good daughter. Might turn off a number of people who won’t identify with the people featured.
10: Efficient especially if you wish to promote a blog dealing with healthy or/and organic food and recipes.
11: I am not too keen on the colors.
Hope this helps.
Yes, thanks, especially the comments on headers being too narrow.
I love the first one the most because it is both warm and inviting and sharp, although I think I could do without the PostIt note. The last one is also clever and playful while retaining that professional quality. The rest, I think, are generic.
Good eye, Vicki. So you like the foodtease one, but others don’t. I liked it, too, so it probably only appeals to some.
Re the single image, I’d also go for something very flexible and generic looking – ingredients more than an actual dish. It will remain fresh (less dated) longer that way and will enable the viewer to provide their own interpretation. Choose a photo that highlights good quality (foodwise and visually) ingredients and then let it speak for itself.
Simply Recipes and A Year in Bread do it for me. I like the warmth emanated from Simply Recipes…the design breathes warmth to me. I like the tones which add to that feeling.
A Year in Bread… How can one not like this design?!! It breathes comfort, food staples and dining…from simple meals to elegant ones…from dinners for two to dinners for several.
I like the first one, even with the post it. I like seeing the fresh produce. It’s much more inviting than a specific dish (maybe suggests potential and promise rather than finished perfection?)
Also, I go for easy to follow menus with clear lettering, like the ecoki. I’m not crazy about the grunge colors though (just me maybe).
I like the Design Sponge menu but I don’t really like all those thumbnails with so little white space in between. Too busy for me.
Food Tease is a very nice design (although I don’t like the yellow color so much).
Thanks, Risa. It seems a lot of you like fresh produce. But from design to design, there is variety on what appeals.
Nice list… I like quite a few of them! all are quite different from each other so hard to pick just one:) Cooking with Amy has catchy image and sticky – post it while Ecoki is a great site like it from the very first time I saw it!
Thanks for the feedback, Dhaval!
I like number one (cooking with Amy) as well it is bright, eye catching and generic…. I mean that in a good sense, at first glance I see foods that appeal to everyone bu the next down for instance a bowl of chili someone not into meat or spicy foods may see that and pass up the site on first glance because they don’t identify with the food upon first contact with the site. But the first is simple yet catches the eye not many people are put off by veggies. I also like the little post-it at the top it gives the header the feeling of being organized (for me at least) not a site that is hairy cary or too random.
Good luck!
Thanks, Amanda. That first header sure is popular.