Introducing 13 people everyone in the web industry should be familiar with.
Take any creative field and you will find recognized influencers who are responsible for leading the way, be it with new interpretations, technical approaches or ideas. This is true whether you are looking at David Bailey in the photography world or Tracey Emin in the fine arts. It occurs because some practitioners define a movement or technique, either inventing it, defending it, or directing a charge towards it. We have gathered the best website designers for your inspiration, we leave their networks for you to follow.
Of course, the world of web design is no different. We have our own champions and leaders, some of whom are responsible for creating new web design tools, although it is surprisingly difficult to pick a few names that every web designer should know. Fortunately, we live in an era of democratized sharing, with users like Facebook and Twitter making it easy to keep up with current and future movers and shakers, so check out these fourteen and see who they recommend!
A quick note of caution before we disturb someone, these names are not classified or in any specific order. If we’ve missed someone who you think should be on our list, please let us know.
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The best website designers until 2021
Sara, a Lebanon-based UI developer and author of UI, has worked with clients around the world, including Netflix, The Royal Schiphol Group, Smashing Magazine, and more. He leads workshops and helps businesses and agencies create clean front-end bases for websites and apps, with a strong focus on progressive improvement, performance, and accessibility.
Abby Covert is a Senior Staff Information Architect at Etsy specializing in delivering collaborative information architecture processes, as well as teaching those she works with along the way. She speaks and writes under the pseudonym Abby the IA, focuses on sharing information architecture content with those who work in the design and technology communities, and is a co-founder of World AI Day. She is also the author of How to Make Sense of Any Mess , a book on information architecture for everyone.
If there’s one man in the web industry who probably doesn’t need an introduction, it’s Ethan Marcotte. Marcotte, one of the web’s best-known designers, is a regular and popular speaker on the conference circuit and, in his own words, the one who “started this whole ‘ responsive web design ‘”.
Chris Coyier, world-renowned CSS expert and HTML guru, writes one of the most popular CSS blogs on the web, CSS-Tricks . Throughout his career, Chris has published many tutorials, websites, and scripts to help designers improve their skills. Chris, Co-Founder of CodePen, can also be found on the web design and development podcast ShopTalk .
UX expert Karen McGrane’s motto is simple: ‘On a good day, I make the web more amazing. On a bad day, I make it stink less. ‘ McGrane, a content strategist and user experience designer, has over 15 years of experience building large and complicated websites. She is currently a managing partner at Bond Art + Science, and is also the author of Content Strategy for Mobile.
Dan Cederholm is the author of five web design books covering everything from standards-based code approaches to Sass. In addition to writing, Cederholm is a practicing web designer and popular speaker. Along with Rich Thornett, Cederholm is a co-founder of the popular website dribbble.com show-and-tell that allows designers to upload micro-shots of their work in progress.
User interface designer Sarah Parmenter specializes in design for the web, iPhone and iPad. Design studio owner You know who and co-host of the podcast Happy monday Parmenter can often be found traveling the world to speak at the world’s leading web design conferences. His client list includes Blackberry, News International, STV, and The National Breast Cancer Foundation of America.
Dave Shea is most famous for his project CSS Zen Garden , which helped spearhead the move from table-based web design to CSS-based layouts. The website became very popular, both to help push the boundaries of CSS-only design and to encourage web designers around the world to take the approach.
Jeffrey Zeldman is perhaps the best known of all the people on our list. He is the author of an essential book, Designing with Web Standards , book publisher via A Book Apart, and is the driving force behind the industry-leading, immensely popular online magazine, A List Apart . Zeldman is also the founder of Happy Cog Studios, a US-based consultancy with clients including MTV, Ben & Jerry’s, and Stanford University.
Rachel is a prolific web developer, speaker, and writer. His books include titles for SitePoint, Apress, and Five Simple Steps, which cover topics such as PHP web development, CSS3 design modules, and Adobe’s Dreamweaver web design tool. In addition to speaking and writing, Rachel is the CEO of edgeofmyseat.com , a web development consultancy known for its Perch CMS application.
Simon Collison is a designer, speaker, and author. Having worked in a variety of situations throughout his career, Collison shares his knowledge of web design through books and lectures. He is also a proud partner of Fictive Kin and organizes the annual event New adventures in web design in his hometown of Nottingham.
Veerle Pieters is a highly talented graphic designer from Belgium, best known for her work through Duoh !, the agency she co-founded with Geert Leyseele, and for her blog on veerle.duoh.com, where you share ideas and tutorials. She is also an author and speaker, and has worked on a few high-profile projects, including the GUI for ExpressionEngine.
Cameron Moll is a well known designer who speaks regularly at web design conferences around the world. In addition to the Authentic Jobs website, for which Moll is responsible, he has collaborated on books with artists such as Andy Budd and Simon Collison. In addition to his lectures and books, Moll is well known for a number of typeface rendered posters, which are well worth a look!