The Stories Behind Webby-Nominated Sites

Winners were announced this week for the 27th annual Webby Awards, including more than 60 innovative digital projects that make up the fourth Crafted with Code: a unique and interactive showcase of some of the best Webby-recognized websites brought to you by the Webby’s and WP Engine marketing teams.

The Webby Awards are all about honoring excellence on the internet, and since 2020, WP Engine has curated Crafted with Code with The Webbys to take that mission a step further, celebrating the designers, developers, and marketers behind some of the year’s most innovative websites.

40% of all Webby Award-winning projects built on WordPress used WP Engine as their platform of choice!

Crafted with Code is also a unique resource for research on the difficult questions faced by these designers and developers so that, hopefully, the stories uncovered by Crafted with Code can inform and inspire the next generation of great web creators.

Crafting the Crafted with Code Experience

To prepare for this year’s showcase, WP Engine took a hands-on role, working with The Webby Awards team to redesign the Crafted with Code digital experience. The goal was to provide an interactive experience that inspires designers, developers, and marketers while providing easy access to a repository of best in class websites.

The new design features include:

• Improved UX, including upgraded navigation, filter functionality, and scroll effects.
• Prominent display of participating Crafted with Code projects.
• Featured projects in the hero highlighting sites recognized for Innovation, Design, Performance, and use of WordPress.
• Project spotlights and supporting narratives for dozens of sites.
• Dedicated Site Innovation module “Brought to You by WP Engine,” which points visitors to thought leadership content, developer resources, and more.

The Stories Behind Great Sites

Now in its fourth year, the Crafted with Code showcase uncovers some of the goals, planning, processes, and technologies that go into making a Webby-nominated project.

While many Webbys projects, and by extension Crafted with Code projects, are built with technologies outside of WordPress, WordPress-powered projects can be found across both, winning numerous Webby awards in a variety of categories and providing insightful backstories through their Crafted with Code profiles. 40% of all Webby Award-winning projects built on WordPress this year used WP Engine as their platform of choice!

“Great websites tell great stories, but getting there takes a village of highly talented people,” said WP Engine Chief Marketing Officer Sachin Puri.

“Those people, the tools they use, and the processes they follow are the inspiration behind Crafted with Code, which allows us to tell the full story of how a great website is produced—from start to finish.”

This year’s Crafted with Code participants represented a wide range of industries, from arts and entertainment to activism to technology and beyond, and included projects built for global brands like Star Wars, Gucci, and ESPN, just to name a few. 

To give you a taste of what’s in store, here are a few of the projects highlighted by this year’s Crafted with Code that were built with WordPress.

Ms. Foundation Women of Vision Awards

For the last 50 years, the Ms. Foundation has used their annual Vision Awards to honor and applaud women who are owning their power and making progress to advance meaningful social, cultural, and economic change. To celebrate their 50th annual awards event this May, the organization tapped the creative technologists at DD.NYC to build their Webby-nominated site.

Warner Music Group

This global collective of music lovers operates across more than 70 countries, and their impact on the industry is undeniable. Their new website, built by agency experts at CMYK, now mirrors that effect, leaving an undeniable impact on their visitors.

Wellington College

Wellington College is one of the highest-achieving schools academically, not only in the UK but across the world. To make sure their digital footprint matched their academic prowess, they teamed up with experts at The Web Kitchen to build their Webby Award-winning website.

Building a Showcase to Inspire Builders 

By explaining the processes, tools, and technologies used to create these digital experiences, Crafted with Code provides a framework for other builders to see and be inspired by other experts in the field as we all work together to build a better, more beautiful, more powerful web landscape.

One of the trends that we’ve noticed more often in this year’s Crafted with Code showcase is the adoption of headless technology. A significant percentage of Webby winners are using headless architecture this year.

We’ll continue to look at this and other trends as we highlight additional Crafted with Code projects—specifically those created on WordPress—in the coming months. 

WP Engine extends our sincere gratitude to all who participated in this year’s Crafted with Code showcase, and hope that builders from all corners of the web are inspired by these beautiful, performant, and interactive sites.

We’re excited to continue these deep dives into some of the most impressive Webby-nominated projects as the showcase continues to grow in the future!

Build With the Best

For your next project, make sure you’re using the best tools and tech available. If you want to learn more about building on WP Engine’s industry-leading WordPress platform, speak to a WP Engine specialist or take a look at our plan types before building your next project!