December 2004 Winners
Wednesday December 29th, 2004
The last Silver Star of the year goes to the (very) personal site of Martin Smith for the excellent usage of bleached colours, left-aligned layout and clever, unusual navigation. I also really dig how each section is indicated by a "tab" on the left. Since the text is a bit on the light side I will make a silent wish in a couple of days for a way to increase the contrast a la Zeldman.
A very Happy New Year to everybody! Keep your markup lean, mean and valid in 2005!
Reviewed by Johan Edlund :: Comments (4)
Thursday December 23rd, 2004
It seems that people other than dedicated web designers have something to bring to the Internet as well. Last month's gold star winner was designed by the Heads of State illustrators, and this month's winner was beautifully sketched out by Mr. Bearskinrug himself.
Artists such as Kevin Cornell bring a freshness to the Standards-compliant arena in which many of us have become weary. While it mightn't suit every site out there, Bearskinrug is a perfect match for its own purpose -- pure enjoyment of drawing and an insight into Kevin's world askew. Is there anything else it need do?
More...
Reviewed by Cameron Adams :: Comments (7)
Tuesday December 14th, 2004
Catch this Christmas edition while you can. Kansas City based designers Look And Feel have made a site worthy of the Lee brand.
Muted colour palette, clever (and very 'fitting') treatment of images and well structured XHTML Strict. It isan enormous shame that Look And Feel have chosen to opt for fixed font sizes within the CSS and a few too many links open in new windows, but every site must have room for improvement somewhere. And this one is still a belter.
Reviewed by Andy Clarke :: Comments (7)
Friday December 3rd, 2004
Jeremy Koempel has been around the Standards scene for a while now. The previous design of his personal site had been featured elsewhere, but left me a little cold -- professional, but unfinished.
With this iteration I think he's hit the target. I'm always a sucker for red and grey, but with this design I think it's the imagery the Jeremy has used that really brings the site to life. Together with a clean, content focused layout (which isn't revolutionary, but does it need to be?), it creates an intimacy and atmosphere that was otheriwse devoid on version -1.
Reviewed by Cameron Adams :: Comments (2)