Create a Photoshop grunge design for your site

In this world of gradients, logo reflections, horizontal stripes and rounded edges, the web has become bloated with sites obsessed with looking Web 2.0, when in fact the term is meaningless when applied to pure aesthetics. Fighting back against the gleaming white websites and their uninspired shine is the so-called “grunge” look; an aesthetic more interested in dirty, worn, scratched and jagged textures. It’s a muddy Doc Martens boot in the face of Web 2.0 neatness. However, achieving an authentic look isn’t easy, and many get lost along the way with how to “mess up” a site that has a decent, solid structure at the foundation of its design. Well read on!

I have two words for you: dirt and decay. These arethe key components of the grunge aesthetic, and they’re all around us, given that the very nature of most real-world objects is to degrade over time. It’s the malfunctioning quality of decay that really sets this look apart from designs that smack of sterile cleanliness.

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The Creative Bloq team is made up of a group of design fans, and has changed and evolved since Creative Bloq began back in 2012. The current website team consists of eight full-time members of staff: Editor Georgia Coggan, Deputy Editor Rosie Hilder, Ecommerce Editor Beren Neale, Senior News Editor Daniel Piper, Editor, Digital Art and 3D Ian Dean, Tech Reviews Editor Erlingur Einarsson and Ecommerce Writer Beth Nicholls and Staff Writer Natalie Fear, as well as a roster of freelancers from around the world. The 3D World and ImagineFX magazine teams also pitch in, ensuring that content from 3D World and ImagineFX is represented on Creative Bloq.