I browse quite a few Twitter profiles each day, either because I’m looking for people to follow or to look at people who follow me. I don’t just auto follow everyone who follows me, I like to know who I’m following as I find that is were Twitter is most useful; for following real people!
Being a web designer, I probably tend to notice the visual appearance of profiles a little more than the average Twitter user. When I run into a cool looking Twitter profile, I almost always find myself clicking on to the authors website and for the most part end up actually following.
Twitter has found a way to let people customize their profiles, but only to an extend where it still looks clean. They have found the magical middle ground between the messy MySpace profiles and the über clean Facebook pages. The limitations of a changing a few colours and only use one background image, encourage creativity.
Anyway I love Twitter and I love great looking Twitter profiles. It was actually @MakeLiterature who inspired me to do this blog post, as I think their list could use some additions, although I won’t go as far as listing my own profile ;).
As Twitter is currently as (or more) popular than Digg, I was surprised to find that my poor google skills only turned out a few blog posts on this. I have already mention one of them, there is Gopal also who listed his 12 favourite Twitter designs, only to realise two weeks later that he had 15 more. Lee Munroe also has a nice list although I don’t know if they are all original creations.
The Finalists
I wanted to narrow my list down to 10, but I started out with a few finalists:
- @benek from BenekDesign.com
- @divvoted from divvoted.com
- @jakemarsh from TheJakeMarsh.com
- @pixellent from styledeficit.com
- @justtweetit from JustTweetIt.com
- @imjustcreative from ImJustCreative.com
- @chricoyier from css-tricks.com
- @Nabbit from nabbit.com
- @chrisbrogan from ChrisBrogan.com
- @waynesutton from SocialWayne.com
- @SeanMcColgan from ForwardslashMedia.co.uk
- @bzkicks from BZKicks.com
- @MtTweet from MrTweet.net
- @mashable from Mashable.com
- @garyvee from GaryVaynerchuck.com
- @problogger from ProBlogger.net
- @keylimecreative from KeyLimeCreative.ca
- @939design from 939Design.com
A pretty neat list with a few ‘Twitter Celebs’ worth following if you don’t already. It’s by no means a complete list and I have probably missed quite a few genius designs, if so drop me an @ replay on Twitter (@kasperbs) or leave them in the comments.
Best Twitter Designs/Themes
So here are the ones to beat, in no particular order. Let me know who should be the winner!
@939Design
I stumbled upon 939design by accident and I absolutely loved the colour scheme. The wooden floor effect works great and the fact that the logo is on the right makes it stand out.
@Benek
The default Twitter design is nice and clean in itself but a little personalisation doesn’t hurt :).
@Divvoted
There seems to be a trend in web design at the moment leaning towards hot air balloons and parachutes. Divvoted certainly make great use of this trend which is why they have earned their place on this list.
@Pixellent
Pixel drawings are always fun, and even though there are a one or two free pixel Twitter themes on the market I haven’t seen this before.
@Nabbit
Nabbit is an online music service with quite a few followers. I love the use of green on the web and this just feels so fresh!
@WayneSutton
Wayne’s Twitter profile was definitely on my top 3 list. Twitters clean layout don’t lend it self well to ragged edges, but someone forgot to tell WayneSutton.
@MrTweet
Apart from offering a great Twitter app, Mr Tweet also has a sweet design. I love animations on the web, maybe because I’m not an artist myself.
@Garyvee
Gary Vaynerchucks profile was my favourite for a few weeks, it’s clean, simple and perfectly branded for his popular Thundershow.
@ProBlogger
Darren Rowse is one of the few blogs where I actually read every single post. His Twitter profile grabs attention and is very cleverly designed. One of the only ones I have seen where the sidebar isn’t coloured.
KeyLimeCreative
Probably my favourite from the bunch. Obviously I love green and limes are just delicious :).
All right… Time to rip the list apart, who did I forget and who shouldn’t have made the list?
Kasper Sorensen is an online multimedia journalist with everything that encompasses. Hook up with him on 
Great list man.
Thank you for shout-out!
Cheers.
WOW! I’m honoured! thanks! thanks for adding me to the list. Glad you like it and i’m kinda partial to lime myself!
wow. if this is the best, it tells me volumes. really ugly backgrounds here. sorry. you really should look around more.
@heidi
Tell me where to start then. I would be happy to update the list if you can convince me that there’s something better.
That is a great Background Jenn! Makes me think of possibilities for business based themes for twitter.
Have you seen this twitter.com/fitequip? This one really took me away. No one following them !
You can check out mine @brettdusek. I wanted to get a little more artistic. My goal is to create a new design each month and update my “life cloud” to represent things that are important or relevant to me at that moment in time. I actually really enjoyed this design and get a lot of feedback about from new followers. So I decided to keep it up another month. I'm disappointed people don't take more advantage of their backgrounds.
I enjoyed this post and I agree that there isn't a lot of lists out there portraying the best designs.
Anyways, keep up the good work! ;)
I like this design http://twitter.com/VenuThomas
That doesn't surprise me for some reason ;-)
Good list. Favourite out of those is problogger.
I would add DesignBay's twitter layout to the list.
http://twitter.com/designbay_com
Does that have anything to do with the fact that you work for them?
I would like to recommend Drivers Republic's Twitter page..
http://twitter.com/DriversRepublic
Yeah I have seen you recommending that a few other places as well. It's not as artistic as some of the ones exhibited here, but worth a look.
Check http://twitter.com/michaelmarchand … unique, non-Twittery look.
check this out free twitter themes
http://www.freetwittergallery.com
I think the only ones worth mentioning on this list are the top 2: divvoted & benek.
Check out this guys page, I really like how he did the grunge look.
http://twitter.com/teamjar
hope u like dis one too ..
http://twitter.com/dileepiscalling
all of this designs SUUUUUCKCKKKKKKK!!
BORING AS HELLL!!
this background should be added – http://twitter.com/trevorshaffer
this is a great reference!!! but which is the best browser to view the examples and what resolution??
This collection is terrible
They all are Cute and Neat. What You think about mine http://twitter.com/binojxavier
Nice Collection.
Would appreciate if someone could comment on mine:
http://twitter.com/harishchouhan
Another of my link:
http://twitter.com/dreams_media
Cool designs!
My twitter: http://www.twitter.com/oscarmari
http://twitter.com/audieroldan
Cool Design!! –> http://twitter.com/JC2life
i pretty much like this http://twitter.com/tonytey
Great Designs! I like the clean ProBlogger. This month I am trying the Robot Image.
http://twitter.com/RackWire
http://twitter.com/nickbrookfield
Great job, they’re awesome!
nice post…i’ve designed one too..i think it’s better than some of the above..check out @ http://twitter.com/shanteshgogi
http://twitter.com/greenlightsport
insane! http://www.twitter.com/abetaday
mine is best! jaja
http://www.twitter.com/epitia
Hi Jenn, thanks for sharing with the world. I love @Mr Tweet theme and @Benek
Nice collection! Thanks for sharing. I also liked http://twitter.com/99games
Was looking for some twitter bg insperation, thanks. Thought this one was cool to http://twitter.com/SafeTurn
the my is good too.. twitter.com/HermesNeto follow me ;D