MONTCLAIR, NJ.- Graphic Design USA, a monthly news and information magazine for and about the professional design community, has honored the Montclair Art Museum with an Award of Excellence for its newly launched website. The site went live last December.

For four decades, Graphic Design USA has sponsored national competitions that spotlight the most important areas of design. In 2009, it added the American Web Design Awards. This newest annual competition celebrates the power of well-designed websites and other online communications to attract audiences, generate engagement and response, and promote products, services, and ideas. In selecting winners, the competition emphasizes visual design and aesthetics.

LformDesign (www.lform.com), based in Montclair, created the site for the Museum. The principal of the firm, Ian Loew, was the art director and designer; Edward Knittel was the programmer and web developer.

The inaugural competition generated more than 500 entries from around the country, in categories running the gamut from websites to enewsletters to blogs to banners, and from companies ranging from independent design firms to ad agencies to corporate and nonprofit in-house departments. Of the hundreds of entries, 60 were selected as winners, representing a highly selective 40 individual companies and organizations.

Winners are published online, with images and full credits, in the American Web Design Awards Web Edition (www.gdusa.com) for the entire calendar year of 2009; the site attracts 100,000 visitors a month. Winners are also listed with links to their winning work in a special article in Graphic Design USA magazine and in a special enewsletter sent to the entire creative community.

Besides winning the award, the new MAM website has won over the public as well. In the first three months of 2009, the site has attracted more than 10,000 unique visitors per month, a 32% increase over the previous highs in the same three-month period in 2004.