Yet again, I asked my friends on Twitter and readers if they would be interested in submitting their favorite website they designed for a client, themselves or as an experiment. Since the submissions received was well beyond what I’d initially expected (53 to be exact!), I will be breaking this post into a 2 part series — so make sure you subscribe or check back in 24 hours so you don’t miss part 2!
In no particular order, 27 impressive websites submitted by the designers themselves with 26 more to follow.
Wez Maynard & Carl Crawley, Ocvision
“DivVoted lets you vote for your favourite sites with Twitter. Great for showing off your latest designs, or checking out other peoples votes for inspiration. DivVoted was a great in house project at ocvision.com - and it really helped to cement the YoDiv brand. It’s also a great way to stay upto date with what Twitter users are finding inspirational on the web.”
» Twitter: wezmaynard, cwcrawley
Pat Dryburgh, patdryburgh.net
“This was a project I worked on for a friend who needed a simple but attractive design, with the ability to update regularly with different types of content (video, audio, blog content, etc). The whole site is built on WordPress, which worked perfectly as an all-around content management system.”
» Twitter
Craig Farrall, CF Designz
“This website allows the users to search for there area, property style and so on, and then gives details/pictures about that property. If you are then satisfied with it, you can contact the website, and they can sort a viewing of the property.”
» Twitter
Dave Savage, Savage Monsters Industries
“Savage Monsters started out as a portfolio site with a fun theme. Since its inception, it’s become more of an entertainment site and brand. I’ve spun all my portfolio work off to davesavage.net.”
» Twitter
Dave Millar, The Griddle
“My favorite self-designed site is the one I have been working on for myself. It feels like I have been working on it for ages as I am always making adjustments and adding new features to make it better, as well as improving content.”
» Twitter
Mokokoma Mokhonoana, Mokokoma.co.za
“Resource for designers”
Mark Poppen, Poppen Design
“I got the initial inspiration from CSSMania, and all of a sudden the design whacked me in the face. It took me less than an hour to draw this. The coding took a little longer.”
» Twitter
Allison Foxall, alisonfoxall.com
“The Artistik Envy Competition is a competition among creative’s, mainly students from the Academy, in search of the creative genius in Tampa, FL. The purpose of the site is for information, media, and the ability to vote for competitors every other week a challenge is held.”
Athena Emily, AthenaEmily.com
“When it comes to making my own website I usually draw inspiration from a song I like (or frequently listen to) because it can create the mood and image of myself.”
» Twitter
Sharlyn DeWeese, Sharlyn Kaye Design
“My inspiration was when we had a “art show” for the advertising dept at where I work. We all could bring in stuff that we had made, to show off our talents (non work related). This person brought in the art quilt on the home page. You can see the site is designed with a patch of that quilt in mind.”
» Twitter
 Jon Bergan & Marnie Bergan, Bergan Blue
“It was designed for Jendar Interior Designs, a local company. Their interior design work is spectacular. Elegant, modern and and polished. They needed a website to match that work and we took inspiration from the photos of their work they provided us with.”
» Twitter: Jon, Marnie
Eleonor Tapia, EleonorTapia.com
“The design inspiration has come from my love of my late dog Spotty who died last year who I still miss very much. The cesna flying in the sky represents my boyfriend Daniel, who has taken to the air as a pilot in training over the last year.”
» Twitter
Lee Munroe, LeeMunroe.com
“The aim of the site (design) was to easily allow the everyday small business owner to setup a store in as little time as possible, so we cut the signup process way down so the barrier to entry was very low. The design also involved a variety of shop front themes so the user could choose how their store looked.”
» Twitter
Mike Garrett, KernMe
“This was for VCU’s Art History Department. It was a big project for a student like myself. I wanted to focus on the typography and usability. They wanted to focus on images and a professional feel. We compromised.”
» Twitter
Devlin Holliday, DevlinHolliday.com
“This is a flash promotional site for a record label in South Florida called 2 Hot Records, Inc. To me it is still an experimental site and never really finished it. I used this project to learn what I needed for flash. I built this in 2006 with AS2 and if you would like to purchase the project from me, feel to bid me an offer.”
» Twitter
Kostas Mavropalias, IconOf
“The client wanted a highly elegant and stylish theme, and I had the freedom to experiment and apply my own ideas too. The final design is a dark stylish Gothic theme, which also fits perfectly with the content of the blog.”
» Twitter
Dan Costello, Sandbox
“Designed for a market research company who offer incentives for people to take surveys. The brief was to design a character made of sponge!”
Lester Chan, LesterChan.net
“I am a WordPress plugins author and my site is for me to showcase my portfolio as well as blog about gadgets and technology.”
» Twitter
Jonno Riekwel, jonnotie
“It’s a website for 2 friends in Belgium with their own development studio. We work together a lot.”
» Twitter
Lisa Firke, Hit Those Keys
“For one thing, the brief went something like, “I want it to look part 50’s cocktail dresses and part cowboy boots.” [...] in the process of creating the art for the header, I stumbled on an interesting technique for recreating that “Sally, Dick and Jane” look of 40s and 50s magazine art.”
» Twitter
Paddy Donnelly, iampaddy
“A blog following web designer and illustrator, Paddy Donnelly’s adventurous journey through the web. It features all the projects that distract him from real work and the random, simple, ‘messy clean’ design represents Paddy’s style accurately.”
» Twitter
Collin Robinson, CJGraphix
“The site was built for my 7 year old daughter who wanted a way to track all the books she has read. Considering the site was for a 7 year old girl I had to step out of my comfort zone with the color scheme. My daughter specifically asked for Pink, Blue, and Yellow.”
» Twitter
Andre Weier, NALINDESIGN
“[...] explore the atmospheric flash website of the german based Freikirchliche Gemeinde Neuenrade through a unique growing interface.”
» Twitter
Angie Bowen, Arbenting
“This is the site for my personal art gallery. I wanted to have a slightly grungy look while maintaining a clean and open feel at the same time. I chose large thumbnails for the gallery so that viewers could get a good idea of the art without having to click on each image. This way they can take a more detailed look at the pieces that interest them without wasting time.”
» Twitter
Tim O’Connor Jr., Notre Dame Webgroup
“The site needed to be basically non-denominational (even at a catholic school), because part of CM’s mission is to cater to students of other faiths in order to make them feel welcome.”
» Twitter
Gopal Raju, Productive Dreams
“ProductiveDreams is just meant to help out the designer/developer community which would of course make them more productive.”
» Twitter
Ian Moss, Pixelfinity
“A showcase of retouching work by Ian Moss, UK based graphics designer and retouching specialist. Working with top photographers and brands worldwide.”
» Twitter
Check out other past designer submitted posts
» 40+ Creative Logos Submitted by the Designers Themselves
» 29 Inspiring Print Design Projects Submitted by the Designers Themselves
» 26 Business Cards of Graphic & Web Designers on Twitter
Huge THANKS! to everyone who submitted this time around — keep up the great work! It’s truly inspiring to see us all grow and learn together.
Critique Time: Feel free to share your thoughts, comments & feedback — and PLEASE BE FAIR!
And don’t forgot to check out Part 2 on Tuesday for 26 more websites submitted by the designers themselves. Subscribe here for free.
Thanks for displaying my website up here, it is a great way to see what everyone else is made of. I especially love Wez Maynard & Carl Crawley, with Ocvision
Nice collection! Dang I missed the deadline! Oh well, you have some quality sites up there and more to come I am sure!
Thanks for the roundup!
Those are some mighty talented designers.
Very nice list of sites.
Interesting wrap-up here. I think it is a cool idea for the designer themselves to show “their” best work. Usually we are not able to choose our best work. Nice change of pace!
useful links for designers’ thanks..
Nice list! Thank’s for featuring my design.. but you spelled my name wrong… lol
The DivVoted site is beautiful!
I enjoyed seeing everybody’s stuff — both installments. Thanks for including mine. It’s hard for small shops to get seen.
What a great idea. As Lisa Firke said “its hard for small shops to get seen”. This sort of thing can really help people with their business.
Plus you get to see some relly cool stuff you might otherwise not get to see.
Nicely done.
A great selection here, must have spend quite a bit of time collating them and sifting through the rubish!
Very nice list, thank you.
awesome ones… they wil come very handy for us designers.
nice nice, great designs, thanks
Very nice list, thank you.
awesome… they wil come very handy for us designers.
thank you ,good job !
Shame we missed out on the call out!
Drop by and check ours out if you have a chance.
It is very nice! Thanks for featuring my design!
Some very nice sites there… what a great idea for a post. Its a shame I missed the submission day as I would love to have submitted a few.
cool sites! I like Ocvision and alisonfoxall.
Thanks!
awesome ones… they wil come very handy for us designers.
Those are just great designs! I am a frustrated web designer and really appreciate such awesome designs. Good work!
awesome… they wil come very handy for us designers.