And out of a zillion webdesigners in the world, a child understands there’s always someone better.

I agree with your main point about how the world’s best web designers are unknown. This is true in many industries.. Art, Music, etc.

Here are my thoughts.

1.

The list, as I’ve discussed with some of you on Twitter, doesn’t really showcase the world’s top 20 web designers, but rather the world’s most famous 20 web designers.Just because you make a lot of noise in the web design industry, doesn’t mean you’re a good web designer. If anything it means that you’re a good marketer.

In my opinion, they are famous not only for their marketing skills, but also for having the well rounded talent of being able to design/code/speak/write/teach/etc. The talent of all of these combined are what makes them famous. To take away their accomplishments by saying they are just good marketers is disrespectful.

2.

“Becoming well known in the web design industry does not equate to you being a good web designer. It also does not equate to you having a successful business. To prove this to you, here are the top 5 digital media companies in the UK for 2009, and their annual incomes:” … “To prove this to you, here are the top 5 digital media companies in the UK for 2009, and their annual incomes:”

Just because you have big clients or make the most money, does not mean you are a great web designer/firm either. Just playing devil’s advocate here :-p If you want to talk straight hardcore skills, clients/money/fame is not required to fit the label.

Although they may not be the “Best Web Designers” in the world, I feel they should be much respected and honored for the contributions they have made to the scene. Where would web standards be without any leaders spreading the word and teaching? Web standards means nothing to a client, but it does affect the long term health of the industry and their business online. I bet half of us would still be designing in tables if people did not speak up and lead the scene. :-p

The world’s best web designers are unknown? Yeap, I agree. But let’s not dismiss the accomplishments they have made on the scene.

Thanks for listening!

-Soh

But I don’t agree that income/client lists indicate a good designer either. In my honest opinion, I think some of the examples you give don’t exactly display outstanding design work, and a lot of the big earners also offer other services aside from design. But I see the point you are trying to make for sure.

So yeah, great point(s) definitely, but for me the examples don’t really connect/relate.

In a way though, do you not think it’s what people expect these days? With Twitter/Facebook/Blogs etc, it’s easier for us to get “involved” with these designers we all love and admire, even if we perhaps give them too much attention I’d rather that than not hear from them at all.

Thanks for the post.

It’s the same in every industry. Music, Film, the Arts…

The core is ego. Many are content with their work and their inner level of success.

If I see 2Advanced get another “award”, I’m going to scream. Their website is a geek’s wet dream. Impressive? Definitely! Could I use it for more than 2 minutes without wanting to kill something small, cute and furry? No!!!

Fans are a nice to have, Clients are essential. – How many people who want a web site built read web design mags?

So generally I would say these people from WebHeads are not even close to the subject of this post. I really wonder what type of service they really did for big clients from their list.

I definitely agree that the world’s best web designers are unknown.

I think there a lot of more talented designers out there, working under the radar agency side or client side who work their absolute socks off only to have no appreciation. How many times have you heard of a (team of) web designer(s) get all the credit for a high profile campaign or website…hardly never, its always the project manager, Art Director or CEO, never the designer(s).

I think some of the most talented designers are graphic designers transitioning to the web. Take a look at the publication Computer Arts. Absolutely amazing individuals with so much skill and knowledge to share. I subscribe to this magazine and I’ve never heard of any of them every month.

The article “The Top 20 web Designers” in .Net is pretty predictable to be honest. They are all people who are “Internet famous” and its just getting their name out there as household “internet glitterati”. You can’t knock their efforts to make a name of themselves out there but how is anyone suppose to break into this elite crowd to be noticed? I think its a closed knit circle there. I have no chance of breaking into that elite.

As web designers, we never have complete freedom to design, there are always boundaries and style guides to adhere to. Its how you interpret and overcome design challenges I think makes you great. Besides its always a team that works on a design and quite rare that its one singular person.

An analogy: The famous web designers are the Gordan Ramseys of the internet world where as some of us in the community are more like Marco Pierre White. Both exceptional but one doesn’t make a song and dance about it.

I see many beautiful women walking around London all the time who are far more attractive than the so called “Top 100 most beautiful women.” Why don’t they make the Top 100 list? Because it’s simply not important in their lives and thus they aren’t on the “celebrity” radar. Anyone with half a brain knows that lack of celebrity status does not equal lack of worth.

I’m completely unknown as a web designer and this isn’t because I’m no good; it’s because I don’t have a big mouth. I’m self effacing with an introverted personality (and no, that doesn’t mean I’m shy.) I get plenty of work, mainly through referrals and it’s enjoyable and rewarding. I’m an OK web designer, I’ve worked hard to learn my trade, and I try and do good work for good clients.

But at the end of the day, it’s still just a job. It’s not a life-consuming passion and I don’t want it to be. I simply want to earn a reasonable amount of money doing something that’s enjoyable and that gives me time and money to do the things I want to do outside of work. Some “web celebrities” bang on about how they are passionate about the web and their work is their life, and that’s fine, but for me personally it’s just not such a huge passion. I enjoy what I do, but it doesn’t define who I am. I’m not in it for the money, and definitely not the fame!

People who actively look to become famous, by any means, usually have some need for attention. While I don’t wish to make this a pop-psychology response, it’s important to recognise that this is the main driver for some people. It’s not about being famous for doing something, it’s just about the fame itself. Fame is an empty objective and if that’s the only thing driving you, you’ll end up a pretty sad person with a hollow life. Becoming famous for doing the work you love, in any field, is clearly going to be far more rewarding.

It always comes back to the same thing for me: Do good work, maintain standards, deliver on your promises, continually better yourself and simply stop caring about what anyone else is doing. You’ll be far happier in the long run.

I agree that .NET magazine should list the criteria for what makes these designers the ‘best’. Now to me, it just shows that .NET is full of shit because personally there’s no such thing as the best, especially in this creative field. There’s good and there’s better but never best because best implies that there’s no other who can do a better job and that’s just plain non-sense unless they’ve surveyed the entire planet.

Design is also very subjective so what I think is crap another would think is great design. In addition to that some people look at just the visual aspect but there’s other aspects to consider before a design is good. So truth is the list is .NET’s opinion. If you think highly of it – great. If you don’t, fine.

I wouldn’t take anything from the designers because that’s them doing what they have to in order to gain recognition – something we all want. So I would congrats them, move on and hope that when and if I make the list it’s not questionable like this.

@Brian: Nice site btw, subscribed!

For me, I want web designers to know there’s a friendly, knowledgeable, web developer willing and able to help with the more technical aspects of a project if they need me :)

If I was ever to be featured in a top 20 list somewhere that other web professionals saw it, it’d be to my advantage. Perhaps that’s part of the reason these guys try to raise their profiles?

Having worked at one of the agencies you mentioned I can tell you that the designers there aren’t even in the same league as the most modestly famous freelance designer.

Your point might make more sense if you were talking about developers and the cewebrities making money selling books and conferences on HTML, CSS, and any other latest “much know” technology or draft spec.

when we say TOP, they should have a benchmark on how do they define TOP. TOP means that there are people ranking from 1st to 10th or more.

if we say FAMOUS, then it sounds more appropriate, because this does not rank them into who is better than the other, but on a list of a particular topic : they are famous and not ranked.

“The 2 most highly-over-rated things in life are: (1) Pregnancy; (2) Owning your own business.”

:-/

I feel your pain.
I don’t know the answer.
You have my sympathies.

As a two man web development team, I am busy 24/7. I don’t understand how these other design rockstars can get away with the amount of blogging, twittering and updating, they do.

If I was spending that much time on myself, I wouldn’t get any work done for my clients.

Do what you love and the money and clients will follow.

I really wish I had the time to truly leave a great comment, but I got some trash to take care. Anyway, THANK YOU! I have been wondering the same thing.

Yep, just making noise all day and night to “get there name out”

thanks

I haven’t seen the list so I will not judge those specific people, and please don’t take this as an angry/jealous comment, but I’m probably not the only one to think that some of those other twitter-famous designers that we look up to are actually not that great…

All those who make too much noise and like you said, they know and understand html5 and css3, and spending more time talking about them rather than really using it doesn’t really mean that they are top designers. You need experience to be expert and sometimes things are kind of different theoretically and practically.

In fact, top designers doesn’t have that much of time to make themselves seen on every social media sites, they have “real” work to do and it is there work that speaks for itself, they don’t need to promote themselves so desperately.

I don’t mean to say that those listed ain’t good designers, they might be, but defining who is what in a list of Top 20 Worlds(!) Web Designers is a lil too overboard.