Award-Winning Web Shops
The Principals Behind the New Principles of Web Design
By Mary Jo Fahey
Web developers everywhere can benefit from a close-up look at some of the industry's pioneer Web shops. Who are they? What are they calling themselves? And what are their stories?
One thing's for certain: They're a diverse group that must learn to reinvent themselves constantly. Change is an inherent characteristic in the industry and occurs almost daily. Click once and there's a new form of HTML; click twice and Web developers need Java and relational database skills; click three times and Web development for large sites is driven by distributed object technology such as CORBA and DCOM. Incredibly, Web shops are thriving and inventing key business practices as well.
The impetus for this article came in January of this year at New York's One Club for Art & Copy, where I attended an interactive exhibit called "Web Sites At An Exhibition." Several exhibitors were recipients of the One Show Award, the advertising industry's most prestigious prize for creative excellence. Kevin Swanepoel, Director of Interactive Marketing at the One Club, gave me contact names at award-winning firms, and several others on One Club's board of advisors. In 1998, the award for excellence in interactive marketing was upgraded from a category to a dedicated event, One Show Interactive.
But what does Web-shop participation in an advertising industry award mean for other Web developers? Certainly it's one more sign that the advertising industry is finally taking the creative and technical output of Web designers and developers seriously.
