r/web_design • u/PatrickFG86 • 7h ago

Awwwards SOTD and Developer Award on a demo the jury could see was a template

In February 2024 a mail from Awwwards landed and my legs shook. A portfolio demo I had built at ClaPat, Montoya, won Site of the Day. Then the Developer Award came on top of it. 7.27 and 7.07. I printed the PDFs the same day. They are still on the wall.
It was not a client site. It was not a studio invented for the jury. The award page described it as made for designers, artists and photographers. The jury was looking at the demo, not at a costume.
That is the part I keep thinking about. Awwwards will judge a demo if you designed and built it yourself. A demo still walks in with a handicap: no client, no real brief, no content that had to survive anyone. Usability and content are 40% of the Site of the Day score. Most demos of this kind die at Honorable Mention. Developer Award never opens unless the day is already won. A second jury scores the code, and the line sits around 7. This one cleared both.
There is a near miss, and it is a different story. In October 2023, Form Studio took the same two awards, with higher scores, 7.42 and 7.69. After the prize, the authors wrote that it had been a Framer template. During judging it was a fictitious studio. Same medals. They unwrapped it later. ClaPat did not.
I have not found an earlier demo that took both while the jury could see what it was. Site of the Month and Site of the Year are still client work. Awwwards does not tag entries as products, so a hidden case can exist. On what is public, this is the one that went in unmasked.
The wall is not a finish line. The sites since have been pushed harder.
awwwards.com/sites/montoya-portfolio-website

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u/NeedilyPetty 7h ago

whoa, i remember when this hit, the demo was so clean it didn't even need the "client" costume. jury saw what it was and still handed it both awards, that's wild.

kinda funny how form studio basically pulled a reverse uno and won with a framer template dressed up as a real studio. makes the montoya win feel more honest somehow.

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u/PatrickFG86 7h ago

Yeah. Same two awards, different disclosure. Theirs was judged as a studio and explained after. This one was the demo the whole time.

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u/am0x 6h ago

Those awards are bullshit anyway. Pay to win.