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?