The 11 most creative 404 pages on the web 

Discover how 404 pages can be both practical and enjoyable.

In an ideal world, every link would go exactly where it's supposed to go, and anyone typing in a URL would get it right the first time. But… things happen. No matter how it occurs, when a server receives a bad request, the person on the other end gets a 404 error page, informing them of their misfortune.

While ending up on a 404 page is a hard stop in a visitor’s web experience, it doesn’t have to be a dead end. In addition to giving people a chance to get back to the main homepage or other important parts of a website, 404 pages are also a chance to help make things better by giving them something extra.

How can 404 pages be creative?

While all 404 pages inform users that something has gone amiss, they also offer the opportunity to amuse or entertain those unlucky enough to land on them.

• Imaginative visuals: While there’s nothing wrong with 404 pages that simply state an error, they have the potential to be so much more. You've captured someone's attention, albeit because something went wrong, but providing an artistic or branded visual experience feels warmer and more personal than a dry error message.
• Comedy: How many of us have pressed the wrong button in an elevator and made the joke, “I guess we’re taking the scenic route?” It's human nature to use humor when we've made a mistake or something hasn't gone right. Creative 404 pages often use comedy to poke fun at visitors or themselves to lighten the mood.
• Easter eggs: It may be a rare occasion that someone lands on a 404 page, so why not surprise them? 404 pages that have in-browser games and interactive features make users feel like they’ve stumbled upon something special.

Our favorite creative 404 pages

Vev

Our very own 404 page is up first. We're all about creative freedom at Vev, so our 404 page isn't a dead end to your creativity. You can create some random drawings, and take a quick break from browsing the web. Happy doodling!

Theo Eyewear

Theo, an online purvey of stylish eyeglasses, offers a 404 page in the form of a whimsical eye chart. By moving the eyeglasses over the blurred letters the words, “Theo loves you” come into clear focus. It’s a fun discovery and friendly message, that fits right in with their brand identity. Learn how to create this effect using Vev with this tutorial (it's for hero sections, but you can achieve this effect for any content-type you wish — a 404 page, a landing page, and more!).

Fountain of Youth

Fountain of Youth, a coconut water beverage company, offers an artistic 404 page that goes beyond being a mere error message. With colorful flying dragons, pouncing tigers, leaping chickens, mystical eyes, and mesmerizing shifting colors, they deliver a 404 page alive with a sense of magic and motion.

Somefolk

Somefolk, who is both a branding and development agency, offers a brilliant web experience filled with inventive visuals. We see this same artistry on their 404 page, which delivers the bad news with a waving kid and old Macintosh strolling across the screen. We also like the self-deprecating humor of the text that saying that the page someone was trying to get to, “probably wasn’t that great anyways don’t worry.”

Blizzard Entertainment

For those not acquainted, Murlocs are slimy but endearing amphibious creatures inhabiting the digital space of World of Warcraft. Blizzard’s 404 page greets you with a rescue Murloc, beckoning to bring you back to the safety of the main homepage. The call to action button is another inside joke, with the message “Mmmrrgmgrrrgmmll" being a reference to the guttural vocalizations these creatures are known to make. For anyone who is a fan of Blizzard and the World of Warcraft they’ll appreciate this moment of comic relief. This is a great example of how 404 pages can be used to connect with customers by giving them visual experiences directly tied to what they’re fans of.

RCA Records

While most 404 pages don’t give people any reasons to linger, RCA Records is in no rush for them to leave, offering a fully functional music sequencer to explore and experiment with. With knobs and square keypads it looks very much like a piece of gear you might find in a producer’s studio. We also like the nod to the famous 808 drum machine, with the big text “RCA-404.”

While RCA could have gotten away with a simple instrument, they went all out with a variety of high quality sounds, loops, and the flexibility to sculpt them. It’s so fun to mess around with the different parameters and knobs and in no time you’ll have a track that you’ll be nodding your head to. Experiential content is definitely an option worth exploring if you want to gamify your audiences experience on your website.

Zendesk

While the 404 pages we’ve discussed so far have centered around sophisticated visuals, sometimes all that’s required is to make a simple joke. Zendesk is known for its often offbeat humor and this 404 page low-key roasts those who have done the almost impossible in arriving there.

Slack

While Slack gives you the bad news that, “There’s been a glitch…” they do so in the gentlest of ways. With a pastoral landscape of greenery and flowers where butterflies flutter and a chicken and pig daintily step through the grass, it’s a tranquil and peaceful visual experience.

Quentin Hocdé Portfolio

We love Quentin Hocdé’s 404 page for its sense of experimentalism. Pixels swarm and scatter, mangled by code, and each click brings someone closer to a 3D representation of Quentin made with three.js. As a designer and developer whose work often involves generative art and algorithms, it fits right in with his hacker aesthetic.

Wendy’s

Known for their hilarious and often surreal social media posts, Wendy’s online presence is known for being a bit eccentric. This 404 page fits in so well with their weird sensibilities letting you play the 80s video game BurgerTime right in your browser. With red-headed Wendy as the hero you get to walk over the buns, lettuce, cheese, and meat, dropping ingredients in place while avoiding the blobs of pink slime ambling towards you. This is a great easter egg, that even if you weren’t alive in the 80s will appreciate for its retro arcade campiness.

Headspace

Headspace offers an app to help people become more present and to achieve a better sense of mental well-being. Opening up their 404 screen an orange circular face looks slightly perturbed then closes its eyes and smiles. This peaceful character along with the message to “enjoy a deep breath on us” is a reminder that sometimes we should just center ourselves and relax when life presents us with unforeseen circumstances like landing on 404 pages.

Get creative with your web designs in Vev

There are so many opportunities to inform and entertain website visitors through interesting designs. Even 404 pages have the potential to captivate users through imaginative visuals and clever text.

Vev is the bridge between no-code and code and helps you take care of whatever you want to build. Whether you’ve never touched code before or are an experienced developer you’ll be able to get your website ideas up and running quickly through our easy-to-use visual editor.