I'd be interested to see what the pro's here on WHT thought of various web design firms. What firms, and/or individuals, do you think are at the head of the pack? I would think that the criteria that would help you make this decision would be: Work quality, professionalism, cost, speed of completion, communication, creativity, reputation, breadth of knowledge, time in industry, portfolio and probably much more. I look forward to the discussion!
The leaders of the pack are going to be the ones that can best work with their clients, meeting their needs while also increasing their clients' bottom line. They'll tend to work with very high profile clients, like AIGA for instance (which contracted Jeffrey Zeldman's firm Happy Cog for their recent site redesign). They'll also tend to be experts in their fields (Web standards in Zeldman's case, CSS for Eric Meyer, and so on). The leaders also consider user-centric Web design with emphasis on information and site architecture, usability and accessibility to be at the top of their priority lists, along with adhering to established Web standards and best practices while using the bare minimum of code to get the job done.