While all that is very important they still miss the boat on tons of crap. I work for the second largest sporting company in the world as a designer… so I would consider myself a professional as well, I could keep up with them, so I would consider my opinion just as valuable as theirs… a lot of their stuff they obviously pick only what has been paid to be looked at (which is expensive)… however if they opened it up freely I gaurantee a lot of the art and designs that they feature would be knocked out of the water by many many other designers and artists. They haven’t seen the cream of the crop which is a shame and is what makes the annuals they have misleading. As ppl tend to consider them the best of the best if they show up in those magazines… which is definately not the case. Of course that can be said about any type of award. One of our partner companies acutually won best in print in HOW just recently… Quality Printing: The Red Thread. 
Just thought I would say thanks to you guys…you have cut my work in half! Instead of having to go through the hassle of searching the web, now I can just copy and paste! If there are any more websites that you guys can think of, that would be great!
Me too man, (largest aftermarket auto manufacturer - lead artist)
Just remember that very many of the members of these forums and award sites are still in high school, and while they are very talented web developers, they have a long way to go before they can make educated statements on the scope of design and the forming of trends.
You are right though… awards are slanted a bit.
if i ever recieve a fcukstar, ita, or bombshock i will be happier then a little kid with with an icelolly!
ITA and FWA are definatley the big guns in web awards.
lol. clears throat
For the record I was kidding when I said that golden and diamond web awards rock. :lol:
As for paying to be judged: I think it’s crap.
I think this is pretty new
That site is such a template. 
lol yea and looks really bad aligned to the right… or thats my just bad scripting on the coder part.
Doe
Does it look like a template?
Or it *IS *a template?
To me, the site
[U]Website Awards[/U]
http://www.standoutawards.com/
looks like another SK http://blog.silberbauer-keusch.de
which is doing pretty well
Cuz I submitted my work to that. :puzzle:
I don’t know…
E for Effort section in DOPE Awards, this section is for people with not so much talent- the winners in the effort section are just going to love that.
awards…they just wasted my time & bandwidth :tired:
Clients don’t come through award-sites. 99% of the visitors are just designers themselves.
…and inspiration doesn’t come from looking at other sites, but from NOT looking at it 
I get inspired from others works, nothing wrong with that. Also awards sites are good because it is always good to be recognized. Not to mention some studios look for outsourcing resources from there. As well as when applying for a job and they want to see your portfolio, it is good to show that you have award winning skills.
So I fail to see how awards sites are a waste of time. Can you explain?
And how come this thread keeps coming back?
i like that. kinda… although you can’t help but be affected by everything around you. and i think it’s good to keep your eyes open and see the big picture.
i haven’t read this whole thread, but i just thought i’d throw out a site i look at for “inspiration” –> http://designiskinky.net
not an award site, but been around forever and tons of good stuff, and not just web stuff either.
and for some reason i really dig wtf7.com but it seems to be down at the moment.
Its just a very subjective feeling, DDD. I have nothing against them.
I can’t deny I go now and then to FWA, just to see whats going on in flashworld, but they actually block my inspiration. I get far more ideas out of reading comics and doing something completely different, like walking my dog :).
and I learned its just better to give up my spare time for networking in real life (eg going out a lot :)) instead of surfing all the time. I get a lot more jobs that way and its way more fun.
you tell me 
I’m certainly with hydro on getting inspiration from other sources such as comics, magazines, the world around you. Having said that I still look at what other designers are doing - whether it be web, print, or art in general. I just enjoy the whole field of art and design.
this would be my top 10 in order.
[LIST=1]
[]Macromedia SOTD
[]FWA
[]Bombshock
[]ITA
[]Kirupa
[]Fcukstar
[]dope
[]moluv (featured site)
[]newwebpick.com
[]e-creative.net
[/LIST]
DDD im excited your entering that site has some really cool ideas going for it.
Let us know if you win anything! :geek:
how do you guys rate the css site showcase stuff? All these links seem to be flash related - I love both methods of approaching websites - although I have to admit i’m going more down the line of html and css in recent times.
