CHICAGO, IL — October 1, 2026 — ArtVersion has received eight honors at the 21st Annual W3 Awards, earning three Gold and five Silver awards across three distinct digital projects. The recognition spans work for Legat Architects, Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, and VERSIONS®, representing ArtVersion’s strongest season in the W3 Awards to date.
For 21 years, the W3 Awards have recognized work across the evolving digital landscape. Entries are reviewed by the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts (AIVA), an assembly of more than 500 industry leaders from recognized brands, institutions, and agencies. Jurors receive criteria specific to each category, score entries on a ten-point scale, and evaluate each submission on its own merit rather than against a fixed number of winners.
“For 21 years, the W3 Awards have been shaping the standard for the web, judged on merit by a guild that understands digital,” said Goran Paun, Principal and Creative Director at ArtVersion. “Receiving eight awards this year carries both real meaning and a responsibility to keep pushing the work forward.”
ArtVersion’s 2026 W3 Awards
| Project | Award | Category |
| Legat Architects | Gold | Best Micro-Interactions & UX Details |
| Legat Architects | Silver | Best Visual Appeal |
| Dinsmore & Shohl LLP | Silver | Law & Legal Services |
| VERSIONS® | Gold | Best User Interface |
| VERSIONS® | Gold | Website Redesign |
| VERSIONS® | Silver | Best Ethical & Transparent UX |
| VERSIONS® | Silver | Best Art Direction |
| VERSIONS® | Silver | Best User Experience |
The eight honors span different kinds of digital work, from interaction and interface design to art direction, user experience, visual appeal, and industry-specific website design. While the projects differ in audience and purpose, the work reflects a shared approach that brings research, strategy, creative, and technology into the same process.
That breadth also reflects what the W3 Awards jury emphasized during the 2026 season. In their reflections on this year’s entries, AIVA jurors pointed to human insight, clarity, purpose, strong ideas, and digital craft as qualities that distinguished the work they reviewed.
For ArtVersion, the 2026 recognition continues a long history with the W3 Awards. The agency has received Gold and Silver honors across multiple years for work spanning web design, user experience, cultural organizations, professional services, and other digital experiences.
“What makes this recognition meaningful is the range of work being acknowledged. Different projects asked different things of the team, but each one required the same attention to clarity, craft, and the people using the experience. That is the kind of work we want to keep doing.”
— Erin Lentz, Executive Director of Design, ArtVersion
The categories may be different, but the work behind them never begins with an award category. Each project starts with its own organization, audience, challenges, and constraints. The role of the team is to understand those conditions and turn them into an experience that is clear, useful, visually distinctive, and appropriate for the people it needs to serve.
That process also depends on collaboration. The work recognized this year developed through close partnerships between client teams and ArtVersion’s designers, strategists, researchers, and developers, with decisions continuing through design, implementation, testing, and refinement.
“Awards are a nice moment to look back at the work, but what stands out to me is the consistency across very different projects. Each one had its own audience and challenges, and the design had to earn its place by making the experience clearer, more useful, and more considered.”
— Hailey Marczak, Executive Design Associate, ArtVersion
The web itself continues to move quickly. New technologies are changing how digital experiences are conceived and produced, accessibility expectations continue to mature, and the lines between design, content, development, and emerging technology continue to shift. The standard for thoughtful digital work moves with all of it.
For ArtVersion, receiving eight W3 Awards in one season is meaningful not simply because of the number, but because of the community doing the judging. Recognition from people who understand the decisions, discipline, and craft behind digital work carries weight—and raises the expectation for what comes next.
Great work earns recognition, but recognition also raises the bar for whatever comes next.
About the W3 Awards
Established in 2005, the W3 Awards celebrate excellence in digital content, design, and experiences. The awards are sanctioned by the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts and recognize work across websites, marketing, social media, mobile experiences, video, podcasts, and emerging technologies. The 2026 program marks the 21st Annual W3 Awards.
About ArtVersion
ArtVersion is an independent creative agency based in Chicago, specializing in brand strategy, web design and development, UI/UX design, design systems, and digital experiences. Founded in 1999, the agency works with organizations across industries to create human-centered experiences that bring together strategy, design, and technology.