Hi Jason,

Although the choice for a web designer is pretty subjective, here are some individuals I think make something very special:
- James Mathias (http://leihu.com)
- Steward Curry (http://www.irishstu.com)
- Eoghan McCabe (http://www.eoghanmccabe.com)
- Kevin Potts (http://www.kevinpotts.com)

Best regards.

Frederic

PS. Does that count for the dinner & 24" iMac? ;)

posted January 6, 2007

I say that Mark Langeneck of Emeriti (www.emeriti.com) is one of the top 10. His work is just spectacular and he really spends time thinking before designing. His understanding of the Web and of design make him second to none.

Links:

• http://www.emeriti.com

posted January 6, 2007

Bradley Sepos of whonk

Links:

• http://www.whonk.com

posted January 6, 2007

Second Eoghan McCabe (http://www.eoghanmccabe.com)
mentioned him before on your blog post Jason. The guy is a genius, just finishing a site for me at present so leave him in peace for few days.

posted January 6, 2007

Its very hard to reduce this to a list of ten. In fact, the list could sway greatly if there were certain criteria you were looking for such as interactive designers, standards based designers, freelancers, and so on.

My personal top 10, with no specific criteria and in no particular order, would be as follows:
Barbarian Group (http://barbariangroup.com)
Firstborn Multimedia (http://www.firstbornmultimedia.com/)
Domani Studios (http://www.domanistudios.com)
Cuban Council (http://www.cubancouncil.com)
Happy Cog (http://www.happycog.com/)
Huge, Inc. (http://www.hugeinc.com/)
Big Spaceship (http://www.bigspaceship.com)
Behavior (http://www.behaviordesign.com/)
magneticNorth (http://www.magneticn.co.uk/)
R/GA (http://www.rga.com/)
Organic (http://www.organic.com)
Hello Design (http://www.hellodesign.com/)
Chopping Block (http://www.choppingblock.com)
Juxt Interactive (http://www.juxtinteractive.com/)
HiRes (http://www.hi-res.net/)

OK, so I went a little over ten!

Also, I'd suggest taking a look at the extra links I have provided. They are all link stations that provide links to great work by the world's best web designers.

Links:

• http://www.k10k.net
• http://www.newstoday.com
• http://www.thefwa.com

Daniel S also suggests these experts on this topic:

• Toke N
• Ryan C
• Michael B

posted January 6, 2007

I vote for Andrew Lin - currently with Adobe.
http://www.androo.com

posted January 6, 2007

It's hard to name the top 10 in this category with so much talent everywere you look. But here's my top 10 in completely random order:

Dan Cederholm (http://www.simplebits.com/)
Veerle Pieters (http://veerle.duoh.com/)
Jon Hicks (http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/)
Douglas Bowman (http://www.stopdesign.com/)
Dave Shea (http://www.mezzoblue.com/)
Shaun Inman (http://www.shauninman.com/)
Jason Santa Maria (http://jasonsantamaria.com/)
Cameron Moll (http://www.cameronmoll.com/)
silverorange (http://www.silverorange.com/)
Cuban Council (http://www.cubancouncil.com/)

posted January 6, 2007

http://cubancouncil.com/

I hold these guys with the highest regard

posted January 6, 2007

As a designer myself, I've always looked to Bryan Veloso for help and inspiration. He's an amazing designer and used to work for facebook, automattic, and flock. Some of his work: http://www.revyver.com/

If you had asked a few years ago I would have said the guys over at 37signals, back when they were a design firm. But I don't think even you could get them to work on anything but their own projects :)

Bill E also suggests this expert on this topic:

• Bryan V

posted January 6, 2007

Jason,the next big thing www.pxidigital.com Kodak are lusting after us.
barrie@pxidigital.com

posted January 6, 2007

Hi Jason - Broad question because it depends on what strengths you're looking for: architect, creative, technical, security, commerce, brand strategy... there's a long list.
Local guys (L.A.) you have to look at are Dale Herigstad and the guys at Schematic. They're doing some very cool stuff with UI, EPG, IPTV, and web. Peter Luttrell at 3Jane is a software whiz and can make anything happen on the web. Stick to the boutique guys....

http://www.schematic.com
http//www.3jane.com

posted January 6, 2007

Jason,

That is a tall order to fill. There are so many different styles out there. Every person that has been mentioned int his list is with out question amongst the greats. I guess the challenge is to know who is the best on the budget you have...?

Here are some that i am pretty confident could hold their own on any list.

Arc Worldwide (http://www.arcww.com/)
Cameron Moll (http://www.cameronmoll.com/)
Radiant Core (http://radiantcore.com/)
Teehan Lax (http://www.teehanlax.com)

Cheers

Scott

posted January 6, 2007

Barry Schwartz heads up RustyBrick Inc. - they've done some very top-notch work!

posted January 6, 2007

Being from Sweden I must add some swedish firms to this list:

Farfar www.farfar.se
Starring www.starring.se
Great Works www.greatworks.se
Forsman & Bodenfors www.fb.se
Perfect Fools www.perfectfools.com (recently opened up a office NYC)

And of course the vikings at BigSpaceship, James and Jens. Great guys.

posted January 7, 2007

What about virtual world site design? 'Rivers Run Red' seem to be excellent - seeing what they have done for PA Consulting, Adidas, Duran Duran and others in SecondLife.

Cheers

Ak

posted January 7, 2007

Hi Jason,

It’s a pretty broad question, but here are some organizations I think can blend strategy, performance, and customer experience.

Jeffery Zeldman www.HappyCog.com
Bryan Eisenberg www.futurenowinc.com
Thornley Fallis’ www.76design.com
www.temel.com
www.organic.com
www.tandemseven.com
www.webreakstuff.com

posted January 7, 2007

The designers and editors at the BBC continually deliver the best web experience I've ever had. It's a whole new universe, with great forums, reliable streaming media, up-to-date blogs, and simply the best news site ever.

It works, it tells me what's on, it knows what I like but prompts me for new experiences, it even works when I use my phone to access the site. If I were deaf, or blind, I know that the site would help me in that too.

The subscription to that site (without advertising) costs me £140 per year, and I get another 35 channels of high quality TV free. Some people get the web side for free because they don't pay the UK TV License, but the BBC website is something I will pay for.

Links:

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/

posted January 7, 2007

Not sure ...
Jim Lane (worked with at AOL)
Erin Malone (worked with at Altavista)
Kris (worked with at Altavista)

-arnaud

Arnaud F also suggests these experts on this topic:

• Kristine A
• Jim L
• Erin M

posted January 7, 2007

Jesse at 31three is a fairly well regarded designer.

Seeing 2advanced mentioned reminds of Ceonex. They were an industry leader more a year or two ago than today, but some of their work is still quite impressive.

Links:

• http://www.ceonex.com
• http://www.31three.com

posted January 7, 2007

Extractable in San Mateo, CA, has one of the most amazing teams of web agency consultants I've ever worked with - I'm interpreting "web designer" fairly loosely here, although Dennis Presiloski, Extractable's creative director, is a phenomenal designer in the traditional sense of the word.

Links:

• http://extractable.com/
• http://extractable.com/blog/

Christian C also suggests these experts on this topic:

• Dennis P
• Dan H
• Christopher H

posted January 7, 2007

I've got an answer that also nods to the future of Newspapers question. My favorite web designer today is Todd Lininger, who built a widget for me after I saw his WashPost and NYT ones.

http://widgets.yahoo.com/gallery/?search=Lininger&x=0&y=0

As far as newspapers (and other content providers) go, RSS via widget is the answer. Any time you discover a site you like, you "subscribe" by clicking a single link which downloads, installs and runs the widget. It instantly captures desktop real estate -- as well as mindshare. The challenge for the editors is to keep the feeds fresh and compelling. You can even blend in ad feeds (properly labeled). RSS and publishing... purrrrrrrrfect together.

posted January 7, 2007

I'm partial to silverorange.com - these guys are pioneers in designing for the so-called 'web 2.0' space. Their designs are clean, contemporary and overall, very usable.

posted January 7, 2007

As a semi ex-web-designer myself, I would ask you to clarify this question:

Of course you want a website that looks good, but do you want a website that LOOKS GOOD and wins all the cool awards? Or a website that performs and gets results (whatever they maybe)?

My only other advice = it really doesn't matter what you do - content is king.

posted January 7, 2007

Hello -
One of my favorites is Marc Peter of "On-IDLE". He is a regular contributor to "Practical Web Design" Magazine, and out of the group of four designers presenting make-overs, and original designs his are always the freshest and most unique. You can see what I mean at the link below.

Yours - Scott

Links:

• http://www.on-idle.com/portfolio/interactive.php

posted January 7, 2007

John Maeda is world-renowned. He was named as one of the 21 most important people in the 21st century by Esquire magazine and gives lectures on simplicity (he's written a book on the subject).

As for people I know personally, Craig Rader, the designer responsible for Simply Hired's simply clean interface is the best I've ever worked with.

Links:

• http://plw.media.mit.edu/people/maeda/
• http://www.linkedin.com/pub/0/b27/7b9

posted January 7, 2007

I suggest trying the list Chris Buch gave you, he's got the top people in there :)

posted January 8, 2007

I think Yugop is the best web designer.

Yugop / Yugo Nakamura
http://yugop.com/
http://tha.jp/

...and, this is a company to which I belong, however, we take pride in it is one of the lead of web design firm in Japan.

Business Architects Inc.
http://www.b-architects.com/

posted January 8, 2007

Dan Cederholm - http://simplebits.com

Links:

• http://simplebits.com

posted January 8, 2007

Very nice to see JUXT on the list. Hit me back anytime to learn more about us, Jason. I'd also have to add www.wddg.com to the conversation.

-Josh at JUXT

posted January 8, 2007