Redesign an Outdated 90s Website – Winner Announced!

We were so excited to see the number of great entries we received in our ‘Redesign an Outdated 90s Website‘ challenge. To everyone who participated, well done! Each of you greatly improved the original design and brought our fictional friend Mario into the 21st century!

We hope you had fun honing your skills on this project and if you’re proud of your design, we encourage you to add it to your portfolio.

Of the 24 eligible entries, we asked the Design and Marketing team (Jackson, Christine and Larz) at Business Catalyst to select a shortlist of their 5 favorite designs. The same team voted on the shortlist, and were joined by Joel, Skellie and Amanda from FreelanceSwitch – six panelists in total. Each of us gave 5 points to our favorite design, down to 1 point for our least favorite on the shortlist.

To remind you, here is the original Mario’s Catering design. It’s a fictional business, but it wouldn’t be hard to find other businesses still stuck with designs from the 90s. It was up to our readers to bring the design into the present day.

The 90s Design

Winner: Lindsey Grande

Lindsey was given high scores by everyone on our panel of six, never scoring less than 4 points out of 5. Lindsey wins a shiny new copy of Adobe’s Creative Suite 5 – Web Premium Edition, courtesy of our sponsors. Congratulations on a fantastic design Lindsey! We loved your use of textures and detail. It’s clear Lindsey took the time to make sure every aspect of the design was polished to perfection.

2nd Place: SEVENTY7

SEVENTY7’s design was the closest competitor to Lindsey’s design and a very worthy 2nd place, but the unique style divided the panel, with some rating it as their favorite and others rating it lower. It evened out a few points behind the leader, but it’s clear SEVENTY7 has a heap of talent and that Mario himself would be proud of this design. We loved the use of type and illustrated elements.

Third Place: Stephiking

This design was also rated very highly by some members of the panel, and was close to the second place spot. We liked the contemporary take on Mario’s business, and the sleek, light feel of the design.

Fourth Place: davidmendesgd

In a close battle between 4th and 5th place, David edged ahead because of his interesting use of light and clever use of contrasting colors to divide the layout.

Fifth Place: Reece Butler

Our original 90s design for Mario’s Catering featured branding desperately in need of an update. Reece’s logo redesign was arguably the best of the bunch!

Not on the shortlist?…

There were many outstanding designs in the group and though we could pick only 5 as part of our short-list, we’d love each design and designer to be seen by a wider audience. Next week we’ll be showcasing every entry!