So this past weekend I finally got my first pair of Dribbble invites to give out, talk about holding the golden ticket! When I joined Dribble a little over a month ago I promised the first invite to a fellow designer that I shared a hallway with back in Dover, so that left me with one more and nobody in immediate need for one. What a predicament… so like any social media tool such as myself would, I turned to Twitter. I announced the availability of the ticket last Monday. Nothing. Where the hell were all of these “ravenous” designers that I thought were out there? A Couple days went by and still no bites. Then I happened upon a random tweet that said something to the effect of “Got something good to say? Say it at 9:45am”. So I did.

The results speak for themselves.

There were so many responses from designers that just a month ago I could completely relate to, I just had to put some real consideration into who gets this invite. Hence this overly detailed posting. -I was supposed to be working tonight-

I truly did spend a lot of my time weighing the users listed below and I hope I made the right decision. Dribbble is a very exclusive site to become a part of, and I am very thankful that I was given the opportunity to enter the playground of the design industries best and brightest. So don’t take this invite lightly, many designers would actually commit heinous acts and crimes against humanity for these invites…why? Well that’s a topic for another post.

Enjoy!
-@jesserandgd

Contenders

@iBlend - Louis Gubitosi Designer / Developer

Louis stood out to me for a couple of reasons, the first was the common following we both seem to share and his knowledge of Vital Design (The reason I now bleed orange). Always a plus. Then I took the time to view his work over at Interactive Blend and I really liked what I saw. The site itself is clean and easy to navigate with a stand-out header graphic to anchor the whole thing. His aesthetic is clean and articulate and some of his print designs are fantastic.

Find Louis Online

Favorite Piece

@_jannalynn – Janna Hagan Web Designer/Developer

For being as young as she is Janna has built up an impressive web presence, I know when I was in college I certainly didn’t have a working website and blog…but then again when I was a college sophomore you still needed a .edu email for Facebook…Jesus, and that was only like 4 years ago. Anyhow, back to Janna, her work is very clean and well developed and her design sensibilities are very modern and web 3.0? Is that a real term yet? She’s even playing the blogging game very well. Keep it up Janna, this career is a marathon and you’ve got a great head start.

Find Janna Online

Favorite Piece

@richmcnabb – Rich McNabb Interactive Web Designer

Rich came extremely close to this invite. You can read about the winner below, but Rich has himself a fantastic web design aesthetic with some very innovative sites and ideas floating around on his stark yet clean website/portfolio. It’s abundantly clear to me, thanks to his epic awards page, that Rich is a very accomplished and talented designer and I’m sure he could code circles around my head, so rest assured dude, you are on the short list for the next available invite!

Find Rich Online

Favorite Piece

Winner: @CriscoSpectrum

@CriscoSpectrum – Chris Scholten Web Designer/Illustrator

So what set Chris apart from all of these other super talented designers? Well just look over his portfolio and I think you will understand. I can’t even begin to tell all of you how happy I am to find this dude. His bio sounds frighteningly similar to mine, minus the superhero stuff…even though my brothers do call me Jesosipher the Philosipher…but Chris’ work takes all that I do to another level. I’ve always been a firm believer that those designers with a strong background in studio art and illustration will always bring more to the table on any project, and Chris proves this. With solid design sense and the added attention to painterly detail these designs are amazing to pour over.

Welcome to Dribbble @CriscoSpectrum

Find Chris Online

Favorite Piece

Honorable Mentions:

@gibbsstudio – Gibbs Studios Social Impact Web Design

Based in my home state of New Hampshire, Gibbs Studios does some great work for numerous non-profits in the area. I’m a bit of a wanna-be humanitarian myself. You know, like the type that will spit vitriol at the TV when it tells me about attrocoties, but never find the time to actually do anything. Well these guys (gals?) do, and they do it well.

Find Gibbs Studios Online

@chrisayersweb – Chris Ayres Web Designer

Very @yarcom -esque website design, and that is a compliment. I know how much work it is to build a site with a brand new stylesheet for every featured project. Well done sir and keep up the good work.

Find Chris Online

@Jrutlanddesign – Joe Rutland Front End Web Designer/Developer

Big point for persistence Joe, the work looks good on your site, yet I can’t view any live sites or projects as far as I can tell. Get that portfolio up there dude!

Find Joe Online

Header Graphic courtesy of: @graceac – Grace Athayde Designer/Web Entrprenuer