The top 55 web designers in the world
By Andy Denton on Sunday, November 5, 2006 - 10:59 am
So you’re looking for a reliable, talented web designer? You’re wanting someone who is on the cusp of all the latest web trends? You’re looking for a web design which is worth the valuable money that you intend to pay? — I asked myself each of these questions. Tired of being less-than-thrilled with my experiences with web design firms I’ve used in the past, I set myself on a mission to find the best of the best.
To find the best, I set aside an entire week. I packed a cooler with snacks and drinks, locked myself indoors, turned off the phones, disabled my IM’s, and cranked up my favorite browser (Opera!) to begin my mission.
I’m more of a wanna-be than a techie. I don’t know how to code (well). And I’m not in any way a graphic designer. And in the web world, you can easily find a coder or developer, and you can also find a decent graphic designer. But, it is very rare to find a person or firm who can do both successfully.
So, as I set out on my mission to find the world’s best web designers I had a few qualifications in mind. They not only had to have an award winning portfolio, they also had to know how to code. Here were my criteria in a nutshell…
1. Superior design.
2. Clean design.
3. Great UI (User Interface) for ease of navigation.
4. Use of CSS and web standards.
5. Utilizes CMS backend architecture. (Content Management System – ala, Wordpress, Expression Engine, Joomla, or other)
6. Good portfolio.
7. Freelancer or very small firm. (lower overhead, lower prices)
8. PHP, Ajax, Ruby on Rails, mySQL, and CMS plugin knowledge were a plus.
9. Eat their own dogfood. (their own website had to look just as good as I hoped my site to become)
So without further adieu, and in no certain order, I give you the best 55 web designers in the world today.
UPDATE: As a good exercise, should anyone have any suggestions on who may have been overlooked, please feel free to make suggestions in the comment field. It would be nice to refine this list with help of the design and blogging community.
| 1. oneLotus 2. EMOTIONS by Mike 3. Feios 4. 31Three 5. 45royale, Inc. 6. badboy.media.design 7. Bartelme Design 8. Bauhouse Design 9. BusinessLogs 10. CactusLab 11. Cameron Moll 12. Catch Design 13. Cre8d Design 14. Blaze New Media 15. Dan Lindop 16. Dragon Labs 17. Element Fusion 18. eNavigate 19. Fahlstad Design 20. Snook 21. Hyperblitz 22. IdeaCodes 23. imedia technology 24. Inertia Web Design 25. Jeff Croft 26. John Mills 27. Keegan Jones 28. Keoshi |
29. Masuga Design 30. Matt Brett 31. MONFX 32. MW Systems 33. New Bamboo 34. oBeattie 35. Phusion25 36. Pixelworthy 37. Drew Warkentin 38. Project83 39. Reflex 40. Rob Goodlatte 41. Serene Green 42. Simple Bits 43. SonSpring 44. Natalie Jost 45. the pixelage 46. Third & Grand 47. Unifusion 48. Veerle 49. Warpspire 50. Webhues 51. Verdue 52. Whalesalad 53. Will Clark Designs 54. Jonathan Bradley 55. Paul Neave Bonus: RubyRedLabs |
Ontop of my own research, I would like to thank the 9Rules Network, Vitamin, GodBit, and the many CSS showcase sites for their compilations and resources.
Yes, I am eating my own dogfood too. I am using two of the above professionals to launch a new site (under the Realty.com umbrella). Look for an announcement in the next few weeks.
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Comment from Tom
Posted on Monday, 6 November 2006 at 2:43 am
Come on? I know this is a very subjective list, but how on earth can you include overhyped designers like Veerle Pieters, while leaving out Jon Hicks, Mark Boulton or Greg Storey?
Comment from b
Posted on Monday, 6 November 2006 at 9:27 am
This serves no purpose whatsoever.
Comment from Matthew Denton
Posted on Monday, 6 November 2006 at 9:52 am
good work!
Comment from Andy
Posted on Monday, 6 November 2006 at 11:56 pm
@ Tom,
I don’t consider myself an expert on this matter. But, I do feel this to be a good exercise.
I’d love to get some more suggestions from readers to help refine my selections a bit.
Comment from Michael Müller
Posted on Wednesday, 8 November 2006 at 3:26 pm
Good selection, thanks, I’ll post a trackback to your site about this!
Trackback from Michael Müller C. | Diseño y Desarrollo Web, Estándares, CSS y más! | Desde Guayaquil, Ecuador
Posted on Wednesday, 8 November 2006 at 3:32 pm
Los 55 diseñadores web más influyentes…
Encontré un artÃculo interesante en el blog de Andy Denton, el cual enlista, según la investigación que realizó, a los 55 mejores diseñadores web del mundo.
Aquà el artÃculo y listado.
……
Comment from Will
Posted on Friday, 10 November 2006 at 12:19 am
Which of these groups would you rank your top 5 Andy?
Comment from Oliver
Posted on Sunday, 12 November 2006 at 9:09 am
Well, I am flattered! Thanks a million, Andy!
Comment from RUDE
Posted on Sunday, 12 November 2006 at 1:41 pm
Where are Adam Betts and Shaun Inman?
Comment from Oliver
Posted on Sunday, 12 November 2006 at 4:01 pm
WHERE is Jon Hicks, Bryan Veloso, Shaun Inman, the list goes on…
Comment from Vladimir
Posted on Sunday, 12 November 2006 at 7:50 pm
I would like to see Jon Hicks and Shaun Inman in this list too. 
Comment from Carl
Posted on Monday, 13 November 2006 at 4:15 am
Nice idea, but: This list need John Hicks, Manuela Hoffmann & Shaun Inman. pixelgraphix.de is a German blog & agency but it really needs to be included.
Comment from Wolfgang Bartelme
Posted on Monday, 13 November 2006 at 4:53 am
Ohh, I didn’t expect to be on the list
take care, Wolfgang
Pingback from Besten Webdesigner at Punctilio
Posted on Monday, 13 November 2006 at 7:31 am
[...] Eine wirklich sehr interessante Liste hat Andy Denton in seinem Blog veröffentlicht. Er hat nach verschiedenen Kriterien, nicht nach seinem eigenen Geschmack, die besten 55 (plus 1) Webdesigner aufgelistet. Fair finde ich, dass er die Designer nicht auch noch nach Plätzen sortiert hat. Auf alle Fälle ist jeder Link dieser Liste sicherlich ein Genuß. [...]
Trackback from masone.ch
Posted on Monday, 13 November 2006 at 2:34 pm
Top 55 Webdesigner…
Andy Denton (externer ……
Comment from Rob Goodlatte
Posted on Tuesday, 14 November 2006 at 5:55 am
Thanks for the mention – not sure if I’m qualified, but thanks
Pingback from Fahlstad.se » No 19 of the best 55
Posted on Tuesday, 14 November 2006 at 12:58 pm
[...] No 19 of the best 55 Nov 14 2006 Acording to this site I’m number 19 of the top 55 web designers in the world. Flush… [...]
Comment from spiraldesign
Posted on Wednesday, 15 November 2006 at 1:20 am
A word of warning. Catch Desgin may be good but there ability to deliver on time is questionable.
Pingback from Fahlstad.se » Sidenotes with commenting - a tutorial
Posted on Wednesday, 15 November 2006 at 8:04 am
[...] A typical sidenotes post look like this. [url]http://www.andydenton.com/2006/11/05/the-top-55-web-designers-in-the-world/[/url] According to this site I’m number 19 of the top 55 web designers in the world. Flush… [...]
Comment from Matt Brett
Posted on Thursday, 16 November 2006 at 5:57 pm
Hold the phone! What am I doing on that list? Have you seen my work? It looks like someone kicked the shit out of my portfolio. 
I’m still baffled that I’m included in your top 55 among so many great designers. Thanks man!
Comment from Amran
Posted on Friday, 17 November 2006 at 9:06 am
surprise that we are in the list, and thanks Andy for choosing us as one. Even though we are not the top 55 in the world, we are to you
Btw, it is thepixelage and not the pixel page. Thanks and cheers
Comment from Fotoblog
Posted on Friday, 17 November 2006 at 12:47 pm
Now all 55 (+1) should start their own List,than you compare and you get a new Top of Top55 List
Comment from Monjurul
Posted on Saturday, 18 November 2006 at 1:49 am
It’s a great honor to be featured on your list Andy, thank you very much!
Pingback from Top 55 Web designers in the world « Rushi’s Ramblings
Posted on Monday, 20 November 2006 at 10:51 am
[...] I stumbled across a blog post by Andy Denton. He did some of his own research and listed the Top 55 web designers in the world. While some people may not agree with the selection criteria or how he achieved his results, I really like his effort. Take a look at the top designer’s own websites, they are excellent. Even if you don’t agree with the criteria take a look at the list to just checkout out those websites. It makes for an excellent CSS gallery. [...]
Pingback from Tag surfer by wordpress « Alex Maughan
Posted on Monday, 20 November 2006 at 6:56 pm
[...] On top of the list was Andy Denton’s “Top 55 web designers in the world“. His selection is very CSS biased. But it is a bias worthy of attention. Some of the sites he lists have the most extensive CSS based designs I have seen (beyond CSS zen garden). [...]
Pingback from DiTTES.iNFO BLOG » Liste der besten Webdesigner der Welt
Posted on Monday, 20 November 2006 at 9:16 pm
[...] Andy Denton hat eine interessante Liste erstellt mit 55 der besten Webdesigner: 1. oneLotus 2. EMOTIONS by Mike 3. Feios 4. 31Three 5. 45royale, Inc. 6. badboy.media.design 7. Bartelme Design 8. Bauhouse Design 9. BusinessLogs 10. CactusLab 11. Cameron Moll 12. Catch Design 13. Cre8d Design 14. Blaze New Media 15. Dan Lindop 16. Dragon Labs 17. Element Fusion 18. eNavigate 19. Fahlstad Design 20. Snook 21. Hyperblitz 22. IdeaCodes 23. imedia technology 24. Inertia Web Design 25. Jeff Croft 26. John Mills 27. Keegan Jones 28. Keoshi 29. Masuga Design 30. Matt Brett 31. MONFX 32. MW Systems 33. New Bamboo 34. oBeattie 35. Phusion25 36. Pixelworthy 37. Drew Warkentin 38. Project83 39. Reflex 40. Rob Goodlatte 41. Serene Green 42. Simple Bits 43. SonSpring 44. Natalie Jost 45. the pixelage 46. Third & Grand 47. Unifusion 48. Veerle 49. Warpspire 50. Webhues 51. Verdue 52. Whalesalad 53. Will Clark Designs 54. Jonathan Bradley 55. Paul Neave Bonus: RubyRedLabs [...]
Pingback from Heiko Eckert - Blog - » Top55 Webdesigner lt. Andy Denton
Posted on Tuesday, 21 November 2006 at 4:28 am
[...] Andy Denton hat in seinem Blog seine “Top55 Webdesigner der Welt” vorgestellt. Die Liste ist natürlich sehr subjektiv aber es macht dennoch Spass mal durchzuklicken [...]
Pingback from 3rd Rock Blog - » The top 55 web designers in the world - Family, Friends, Online
Posted on Tuesday, 21 November 2006 at 12:26 pm
[...] Link to AndyDenton.com » Blog Archive » The top 55 web designers in the world [...]
Pingback from Manuel’s Blog » Blog Archive » The top 55 web designers in the world
Posted on Thursday, 23 November 2006 at 2:00 pm
[...] Auf dieser Seite stellt Andy Denton die 55 besten Web Designer der Welt vor. Diese wurden nach ausgewählten Kriterien ausgesucht. Recht interessante Sachen dabei Posted in Computer, Grafik by Manuel RSS 2.0 *Name [...]
Pingback from Die besten 55 Webdesigner der Welt » Mediengestalter-Blog.de
Posted on Friday, 24 November 2006 at 3:40 pm
[...] Jeder macht sich sicherlich mal Gedanken, wer das beste Blogdesign hat. So nu auch Andy Denton in einem Artikel seines Weblogs. Dabei rausgekommen sind die seiner Meinung nach „55 besten Webdesigner der Welt.“ Wie ich finde eine interessante Liste und sicherlich einen Blick wert. [...]
Comment from Balo
Posted on Wednesday, 29 November 2006 at 9:56 am
Are you kidding?
EMOTIONS by Mike!
Mike is not even a web designer… He is a graphic designer. And Snook? He is more of a coder than a designer, his current site looks pretty crappy!
Veerle is truly a designer and one of the best in my opinion, the complete package.
Comment from beez
Posted on Friday, 1 December 2006 at 1:56 pm
I was exited when I found this list, after all I like to see great web design and the promise of seeing the TOP 55 web designers in the WORLD sounded great. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There ARE some good sites listed above and some have inspiring portfolios but there is also some, well lets say ‘not so great’ stuff as well that was rather disappointing and very cliché (to many looked alike).
I particularly disliked the sites with adds on them, that is 100% bad taste for a personal portfolio site (even if you are selling templates, place your adds sparingly).
Interesting list but laked the overall quality to be called “best web designers of the world”.
Comment from Fredrik
Posted on Monday, 4 December 2006 at 3:43 am
Thanks pal.
Pingback from Call to fame? | MONFX
Posted on Thursday, 7 December 2006 at 2:37 pm
[...] I’ve been getting a lot of buzz in the past month or two, only to find out about it via referral links from my stats. In November, I was featured on Andy Denton’s Top 55 Web Designers in the World, just after being featured on Web Creme and more recently, on Style Crunch and Design Crunch. It’s been very flattering to have all of this publicity and it’s just making me more excited about an upcoming redesign! [...]
Comment from Rohit
Posted on Tuesday, 12 December 2006 at 3:07 am
When will I ever be on that list ? 
Cool list, some of them are really awesome!
Comment from Ryan
Posted on Wednesday, 20 December 2006 at 1:02 pm
I was checking my Mint stats one day and saw all these links from andydenton.com and, well, wow…thanks. Maybe your title should have been “The Top 55 Web Designers In MY World”?
I completely don’t agree that I should be on the list, but hey, this list is your single opinion and I thank you for the vote of confidence!
Pingback from Shit Happens » Great Css Designs in 2006
Posted on Friday, 22 December 2006 at 7:22 pm
[...] Top 55 Greatest Designerå‰å的网站，给人很清爽的感觉。 [...]
Comment from Paul
Posted on Sunday, 24 December 2006 at 1:34 pm
I love your List!
Comment from christian becher
Posted on Tuesday, 2 January 2007 at 9:58 am
why you dont mentioned phaziz.com……;-). I like your list, but you forgot Jon Hicks!
Comment from Jonathan Nelson
Posted on Wednesday, 14 February 2007 at 12:32 am
nice list but i noticed you forgot a few goodies….
http://www.456bereastreet.com/
and
Pingback from at iuic
Posted on Friday, 23 February 2007 at 6:03 pm
[...] 在andydenton.com看到The top 55 web designers in the worldè¿™ç¯‡æ–‡ç« ï¼Œå…¶ä¸æœ‰è‹¥å¹²ä½œä¸ºä¸€ä¸ªä¼˜ç§€ç½‘ç»œè®¾è®¡å¸ˆçš„æ ‡å‡†ï¼Œæ‘˜å½•äºŽæ¤ï¼š [...]
Comment from Robert
Posted on Friday, 16 March 2007 at 1:01 am
Feios? get that line deleted please…
Comment from Dan H
Posted on Tuesday, 17 July 2007 at 5:10 am
One day ,,,,,
Thanks
Dan
Comment from mark rushworth
Posted on Tuesday, 31 July 2007 at 9:43 am
Hey why aint I on that list?… oh wait… no… im not that good after all lol!
Comment from Glen (The Gnr Group Web-Design Blog)
Posted on Monday, 1 October 2007 at 1:46 am
Hey Andy
I saw your title on Google did you really review all of these sites because you have some good ones on here but some are… 
Comment from Glen L Graham
Posted on Monday, 24 December 2007 at 8:13 pm
You can’t for get The G&R Group
http://www.thegnrgroup.com
since you asked.
Comment from Yiiit
Posted on Friday, 4 January 2008 at 5:41 pm
Don’t forget the German developer http://www.derbauer.de. they’re amazing with flash!
Comment from Adriaan Fenwick
Posted on Thursday, 7 February 2008 at 3:20 pm
The list definately needs Eric Jordan from 2advanced. http://www.2advanced.com
Pingback from Diseño web en Perú XHTML CSS y Estándares Web | ¿Cúal es tu Diseñador Web favorito? | WEBINPERU
Posted on Saturday, 8 March 2008 at 8:40 pm
[...] tiempo navegando me tope con una lista de 55 diseñadores web top en el mundo, espero te sirva, aunque la encontré hace bastante tiempo sigue siendo muy [...]
Comment from shamseer
Posted on Tuesday, 11 March 2008 at 7:56 am
d
Pingback from Inspiración web « Blog de Diseño Web
Posted on Wednesday, 14 May 2008 at 2:56 am
[...] http://www.andydenton.com – los 55 mejores diseñadores del Mundo según Andy Denton [...]
Pingback from Happy holidays!
Posted on Saturday, 27 December 2008 at 11:54 am
[...] I’m still at a young stage in my career to make that the soul of this blog. Plus there are other great bloggers who do [...]
Comment from BenSky
Posted on Sunday, 22 February 2009 at 6:59 am
Some of these websites are beautiful, some aren’t quite ones that i would have chosen! Love number 36.
Comment from web design leeds
Posted on Friday, 22 May 2009 at 9:02 am
great post, many thanks
Comment from epc london
Posted on Wednesday, 17 June 2009 at 5:06 am
what a great pic of Mr Gates
Pingback from Punctilio » Blog Archive » Besten Webdesigner
Posted on Thursday, 9 July 2009 at 8:49 am
[...] wirklich sehr interessante Liste hat Andy Denton in seinem Blog veröffentlicht. Er hat nach verschiedenen Kriterien, nicht nach seinem eigenen Geschmack, die [...]
Comment from Imam Ciptarjo
Posted on Saturday, 18 July 2009 at 5:15 pm
in the world…
wow, r u kidding?… hi2…
thanks 4 your information
it.alonearea.com
Comment from Desing Leeds
Posted on Wednesday, 18 November 2009 at 10:44 am
Thanks interesting read, maybe one day i’ll be on it?
I wish.
Thanks
De’Sing
