Safetygoat

My Top 5 Guy Webdesign Heros

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

A while back, I wrote a post about my female webdesign heros, and felt a bit guilty about singling out girls. It does affect me that there are so many more fantastic guy designers out there than girls (although the girls are starting to come up thick and fast), and I wanted to showcase girl talent (Lee Munroe went further and even featured little ol’ safetygoat on his list of top 26 female webdesigners… *blush!*).  But the fact remains that I am actually much more inspired by these talented men.  (side note: these are my heros, not necessarily *the best* as I really think that’s way too subjective, these are those that really inspire me…) So here they are!

---

---

#5

Brendan Dawes

Brendan Dawes is an inspiration mainly because he doesn’t just have a style, he also tries to display data and information in different and meaningful ways. His intro page displays all his articles vertically and sized by popularity. It’s almost incoherent, but done in a way that makes you want to explore. He’s one of those people that is pushing interaction between the different creative industries, and seems to see no boundaries when it comes to web design. His stuff isn’t beautiful, and it’s layered on top of a traditional blog platform (which isn’t exactly cutting edge in itself) but his experimentations, such as doodlebuzz , make the web a more fun and interesting, and most of all, dynamic place.

---

---

#4

mikekus

Mike is Carsonified’s designer.  Mike seems to constantly push himself to do really fantastic work, and he’s a really fun illustrator with a distinctive sketchy style.  Each of the conference sites he’s revamped recently have been gorgeous, but they maintain a similar feel and style (with different illstrations and colours) to keep them linked together. I saw a video of his presentation at FOWD, and his slides were all hand-drawn.  You can tell that he is passionate about designing EVERYTHING, and gives himself a hard time about following web trends too closely.  He also preaches that designers should get into html/css as soon as possible in the designing process, which I’m starting to agree with– you make more useable, dynamic, rather than flat websites.  Mike is definitely the type of designer you can look up to.

---

---

#3

wez maynard

Wez is one of my buddies on twitter, but that’s not why he’s here (I have lots of great fun web design buddies on twitter but I can’t feature them all!). I’ve chatted with him a lot, and he’s a really nice guy. Little did I know, he was also the creator of YoDiv‘ and divVoted’s design (my screenshot here), both of them sites I’ve admired and put in my inspiration book. Wez is fantastic at integrating in his illustrations and textures into his headers and footers. His design utilizes his artistic abilities so well, and while he’s definitely a web 2.0 designer, he has his own style which resonates through each and every design. Looking through his portfolio, he experiments with different techniques, but always produces cohesive designs. Take a look at the footer of his most recent design for Dean and Reddyhoff Marinas. I love how the design is bursting out of the water. Wez is one of those designers that pushes me to try and use graphics and illustrations in more effective ways. His work is definitely drool-worthy.

---

---

#2

Jason Santa Maria

It’s hard to make one of these lists without this guy appearing on it. Before I knew of his own site, I had admired his work a few times (just look at wordpress or alistapart). Jason really spends the time to design things right. His current blog is simple, but a great framework to allow him to individualize every post. It is nice to see a designer, who is also a good blogger (it’s amazing how many quality design bloggers are not very good designers, but that’s another story), actually spend the time to individualize each post that he writes.  He is also thoughtful and conscientious about where he’s come from.  You can read how he came into typography and design from an art background in this article, but I love one of his recent posts has been about his first and second online portfolios back in the day.  They’re pretty good, yes, but you wouldn’t call him amazing at that point. That’s what makes him an even bigger hero:  he used to be mediocre, and now he’s amazing.  This says to me, “If I work hard, with a little bit of luck and a lot of sweat, I too can be amazing.  That’s a hero.

---

---

#1

Olliekav

Ollie has to be my biggest webdesign hero. He’s self-taught, both at design and code, and he is one of those people that pushes himself all the time, because he wants to be better. In code, he is the one who has made me care about standards compliance, microformats, and new technologies.  In design, he has instilled in me the importance of grids, pixel perfection, and the value in the little details.  A few of my favourite examples of his work is his design for theBoxCat (launching soon).  I worked on the logo, but he took that logo and came up with a better webdesign than I could imagine. I remember seeing it and immediately wishing I had done it, and respecting him even more as a designer. His illustrative style is unique, but the area I admire most is his logo design.  Just take a look. He loves typography and is always experimenting with type– an area where I need the most work.  Of course, Ollie doesn’t sit down and tell me about these things, he is my hero by his example.  Now, I’m sure you’re all thinking that I’m just saying all this about him just because he’s my boyfriend. But the truth is, we don’t work together too closely. He always wants to get better, and nothing pushes me harder to want to be better as well. Take a look at his stuff, and talk to him. You will never meet a more helpful and hardworking designer.

---

---

How about you? Do you agree with my choices? Who are your heroes?

---

---

blogging design