Meet the best websites of 2025

The Readymag Websites of the Year award has found its winners. You’ll learn more about them below, along with the jury’s comments—but first, a few words about why this year stands out.

This time, the winners were chosen not only by popular vote but also by two jury panels: one from the Readymag team and another composed of external experts—practicing professionals with solid reputations in the community. This approach is more balanced and helps compensate for the limitations of relying only on public voting.

The expert jury panel included:

• Catalina Risso Rodríguez (Portafolio Project, Elisava).
• Cat How (How&How).
• Tea Uglow (Dark Swan Institute, ex-Google’s Creative Lab in Sydney).
• Marcos Rodrigues (Porto Rocha).
• Valentin Baumann (Studio Dumbar).
• Preston Tham (Design Everywhere, MPTY).
• Andrea Trabucco-Campos (Pentagram, Vernacular).

The second important update this year concerns the prizes. Over the years the prizes have taken different forms, but it’s become clear that the only thing that’s universally valuable for everyone is new opportunities: building a brand, attracting new clients, and growing professionally. That’s why this year we focused on giving the winners additional visibility. Sharing winners’ stories across our channels increases their chances of being noticed by a large ecosystem of designers, studios, brand managers, and creative directors. We’re also helping to amplify their work through media coverage, and providing a Readymag subscription to support whatever they create next.

Now let’s get to the main event: announcing and honoring the winners.

Jury Choice

People Look at Art or Art Looks at People by Anton Repponen

This art project by New York designer Anton Repponen is a scrolling meditation on photography and viewer interaction, built with minimalist typography and pixel aesthetics. The result is an interactive, almost cinematic experience.

Cat How: “‘People Look at Art…’ transforms the simple act of viewing into an unexpected dialogue between you and the work. As you move, the site responds with a quiet intelligence that feels both playful and profound. It shifts the browser from passive surface to living space, demonstrating how digital design can deepen attention rather than distract from it. I love it.”

Marcos Rodrigues: “It’s a great documentary series, and the website handles its navigation with such an intuitive flow that keeps the content front and center. Special shout-out to the typeface—it does a fantastic job of shaping the overall archival/analog tone.”

Preston Tham: “A fresh perspective on presenting photography projects, combining thoughtful interactions that feel refreshing without distracting from the work. The design highlights the photographs, while the interactions elevate them in a subtle, memorable way.”

Valentin Baumann: “Besides making me feel watched while scrolling, it’s genuinely a pleasure to explore the project—a photographic dialogue, beautifully executed as a simple but memorable digital experience. Now I’m waiting for the inevitable sequel: ‘People look at people look at art or art looks at people or people look at art or art looks at people looks at people.’”

Сatalina Risso Rodríguez: “A beautifully sensitive, poetic project that shows how powerful simplicity can be. The construction is minimal, yet every detail feels intentional and thoughtful. It carries a quiet depth that resonates emotionally—a reminder that impactful design doesn’t always need complexity.”

Readymag Choice

Jo Iijima’s portfolio by Jo Iijima

This NYC-based designer’s portfolio resembles a laboratory interface structured in grids, yet within it, visual life swirls—neon colors, mutating typography, animated logos, and exaggerated fonts that feel like living pixels.

Alexander Moskovskiy, Readymag’s head of design: “The website delivers a real wow effect—the page grabs you immediately. The rare feeling of "I haven’t seen anything like this" is the most valuable. Part of what makes it work is the website creator’s approach—a mix of bold colors and shapes with precise, accurate typography. The contrast works beautifully. As a result, the website operates as a standalone piece of art, with its own style, idea, and internal logic.”

Cat How: “This site doesn’t just show work—it lives the designer’s vision. Typography pulses. Colour and form clash and harmonise. Navigation feels like moving through a gallery. It’s equal parts attitude and craft. It doesn’t play safe. It asks something of you and demands that you succumb to all its bombastic colour assaults and lack of respect for the grid. That’s gold.”

Marcos Rodrigues: “What I love about Jo Ijiima’s portfolio is how clearly his point of view comes through, with a meticulous craft across the interface visuals and case-study narrative. The level of care sets his work apart and makes the entire experience feel genuinely memorable.”

Preston Tham: “An eye-catching website full of character, where the designer’s voice shines through in every detail. This balance of playfulness and order makes the design both dynamic and easy to navigate.”

Valentin Baumann: “Jo Iijima might’ve landed on Earth, but the design clearly didn’t. It’s layers upon layers, whole worlds to explore, chaos, order, and absolutely zero predictable patterns. Very impressive.”

Сatalina Risso Rodríguez: “This portfolio really stayed with me. It feels honest and unapologetically personal, yet still sharp and professional. Every detail feels intentional, with a quiet confidence in how the work is presented. It’s one of those portfolios that makes you want to explore every corner.”

Community Choice

Wakuli Impact Report by Anjori Tandon

Clear, structured, and understandable, this report grabs attention, holds it with a balance of pictures, text, and blank space, and invites exploration through a gentle unfolding of the story.

Cat How: “The report’s website stands out for its clear, compelling storytelling and genuine sense of purpose. The team has created not just a platform, but a movement—their messaging is focused, authentic, and inspiring. Thoughtful design and strong visuals make their work feel both urgent and achievable. A well-deserved win!”

Valentin Baumann: “Back to the basics of Readymag—and what feels like its intended use—this well-crafted project turns something dense into an engaging narrative, with well-placed motion moments that actually make me want to keep scrolling.”

Сatalina Risso: “A super solid and well-crafted project. The structure, clarity, and content are strong throughout, communicating impact in a clear, no-nonsense way. The website feels grounded and confident—a great example of design serving its message in a meaningful way.”

Common patterns and trends in the 2025 submissions

Alexander Moskovskiy noted that in recent years we've seen two strong currents in web design: the rise of brutalist websites that “break web canons,” and the dominance of polished, uniform product design. In this year’s submission, he said, these aesthetics are beginning to merge in contemporary projects, where “neat, nuanced typography and animation is paired with rough, bold, expressive colors and shapes.”

For Denis Devyatko, Readymag’s marketing designer and the mastermind behind the award’s identity, the most striking thing about this year’s nominees was “how dynamics and rhythm have become integral to the design system.” He said that motion, interactivity, transitions, and effects are used thoughtfully “to shape how a website feels, not just how it looks.”

Both designers also emphasized the diversity of the nominated websites’ identities, with each one representing its own world and its own character. “It’s exciting how far digital design has come from uniform templates to this kind of expressive variability,” Denis remarked. Alexander added that it’s a “good reminder about the added value of design.”