It has to be the BBC’s iPlayer. Great design, and their use of peer-to-peer technology to distribute video in web pages is amazing.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
No porn you say? So, tell me again, why am I clicking it then?
OP asked:
Would you share your best work or the best work of others on web design?
That is, in my opinion, my best work. I wasn’t trying to plug my site.
@Optl: the design is clean and nice… the code is something else… but coding for WordPress (or any CMS) is a pain so I’m not sure that the code could be any better.
Is there any way that you can get rid of the styling at the top of the page though? 
Here is a site I built in Flex & Actionscript 3: <snip>link removed</snip>
It is very graphics heavy and slow to load. Be patient, with some connections it can take up to a full minute to load. The slowness prompted the client to ask me for a rebuild in HTML, CSS & JavaScript (on the same day SitePoint offered the first JavaScript Live course). A good thing too because I hadn’t written any original JavaScript before.
SitePoint’s JS Live gave me the tools I needed to provide a JS solution. I know my code could be optimized much more than it is. But I wrote this code after just one week of finishing the JS Live course. It took me that full week to understand the material well enough to apply it to a real world project. Still that is not bad for $9.95!
So here is the HTML, CSS & JS version: <snip>link removed</snip>
[FONT=“Book Antiqua”][SIZE=“3”][COLOR=“Navy”]I like this website’s use of Flash. I no there might not be many flash fans here. But I like it just the same.
http://www.basilsoda.com/[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
I really, really like most/all of the stuff Halo media does. Usually film sites. Their Persepolis site I think is very well done. And the fact that it’s 3 years old is even more amazing!
Great sites are just magic I think, who knows why? Trying to emulate perfection will just serve to distract from your own masterpiece! Just use them to collect patches for your own “craftwork” quilt.
I like this one I think, http://thelogocompany.net/ , because of the bright, happy blueness (and the fact that it looks like it was designed by a 2nd grader, but still looks professional).
And this site: http://www.glueguncrafts.com/ because of the textures. It’s for a craft site, so the designers had a field day it looks like. I love that one.
If I come up with any more, I’ll post them 
You guys will love this:
(The only Flash part is the intro, the rest is SVG)
http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car/index#/leaf-electric-car/index
Flash sites…
http://www.secretgardenparty.com/2005
http://www.secretgardenparty.com/2006
http://www.secretgardenparty.com/2007
http://www.secretgardenparty.com/2008
http://www.secretgardenparty.com/2009
http://www.secretgardenparty.com/2010
For flash websites I’ve always enjoyed looking at these
I’ve been using quick loading minismalistic page for last three month. What I do when i opened it loads hidden parts in its background which sometimes revealed instantly by clicking on the relevant link.
I like the quick loading minimalistic front page and how it loads hidden parts in the background which are revealed instantly on clicking the relevant link. Cunning, very cunning and food for thought on my sites.
.
One of my favourite sites will have to be Jason Santa Maria’s website.
I love the art direction. Love the rich typography. I like that every article has a different design.
Another favourite of mine is Khoi Vin’s personal journal for pretty much the same reasons as above. Great typography, splendid grid, very good content.
Carsonified. Just.Sexy.
Colly. Innovative, simple, beautiful. I admit, however, that I’m slightly irritated by the amount of narcicissm, particularly the genius reference which doesn’t work for me. The design is masterful though and I love it.
ALA. Classic. Clean. Smart.
I’m still not over http://ma.tt… just an incredible design on this blog (also the creator of wordpress)
Love the design :agree:
NOTE TO ALL MEMBERS
Please DO NOT turn this into an advertising thread full of self promotional links. AnotherDesigner has asked a great question and I would like to keep this thread clean,
My interpretation is that a masterpiece is visually stunning but also the code is clean, accessible and degrades gracefully.
I would also call it a masterpiece if the design is so great that can compensate for the lack of quality in the code. It is for that reason that I think that there are beautiful, well-thought Flash sites that can make it to the list.
These sites should be for inspiration and for learning/refreshing with the best coding techniques.
Be aware that I talk about quality of code but I don’t expect it to fully validate. The reason is that most of these sites are based on CMS and uses plug-ins that may create non-valid code. That’s something hard to change.
Of course, this is my personal view. Ideally, it will have everything: the looks, the code, the accessibily, the usability… all. 