10 simple but effective email newsletter designs

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With your inbox bulging with email newsletters - from small businesses you've never heard of to major retailers such as Amazon - it soon becomes clear how needlessly complex some newsletters can be, and how quickly they disappear into your trash folder. These 10 simple but visually stunning newsletter designs are a selection of the few that have caught our eye...

Words: Richard Carter

01. Freshbooks

Accountancy is not the most glamorous of topics, nor is it an industry particularly renowned for clean, simple digital marketing. But Freshbooks, the online accounting service based in Edinburgh, has nailed it with this clean looking template.

It makes good use of an eye-catching block of their corporate blue colour to draw your eye to a new feature in their system as well as providing a selection of recent news topics below to provide an update at a glance to customers.

02. With Associates

With Associates is a digital marketing agency based in London, and its strikingly simple newsletter really caught our eye with its one-column layout and stylistically simplistic icons. A particularly nice touch is the use of a logo which rotates through icons related to their services.

03. District Dining

District Dining, a restaurant in the Surry Hills area of Sydney, keeps things simple with a black and white design spread over two columns, letting the fantastic photography of the venue and their food stand out. They also include their opening times in the footer of the design, which is surprisingly rare in restaurant newsletters.

04. Smithsonian

Email newsletters are often a call to action for a list’s subscribers to take advantage of an offer, purchase a product or book an event. The Smithonian's efforts to advertise a design talk event are no different, with a striking header image and very clear venue and date details alongside a simply design but vibrant “Register Now” call to action button.

05. Native Shoes

Native Shoes proves that simplicity can be very eye-catching indeed with its large, welcoming typography and intriguing photographs. Paired with their one-column layout, it draws your eye down the page to skim every article within it: nicely done!

06. Lole

Lole is a female clothing brand, and its clean design with blocks of their bold yellow colour and simple photography make for a simple, stunning template that doesn’t feel pushy or salesy.

07. StyleCampaign

This email newsletter template from StyleCampaign is a must see for lovers of pixel art as well as CSS3 since this design uses no images in its build. A fantastic example of how simple visuals can have an appeal unmatched by busier layouts.

08. Charlie Pratt

It may be two years old, but this template from Charlie Pratt goes to show that good design can work wonders. With a simple header graphic in striking colours, Charlie communicates to readers who is and what he does instantly, and the large heading leads into the first article cleary.

09. Budnitz Bicycles

Another example of clean photography being used to great effect, Budnitz Bicycles’ template makes use of the ubiquitous one-column layout to make the most of the limited screen width we’re left with for email design.

10. Fiasco

Whilst Fiasco Design’s template relies heavily on imagery from a design project completed for one of their clients, the overall effect is a great appreciation for their work as you're drawn through the identity and its various applications.

The progress bar centered alongside each heading is a particularly nice touch to indicate the reader’s progress through the newsletter.

Richard Carter is creative director at web design agency Peacock Carter Ltd.

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Have you seen a great email newsletter design? Let us know about it in the comments!