Great creative partnerships in web design don’t just happen – they’re carefully cultivated through mutual understanding, shared vision, and relentless attention to craft. Few exemplify this better than Thomas Monavon and Grégory Lallé. Thomas is an independent creative designer and Awwwards Jury 2025 member based in France, known for crafting original web experiences based on motion, creative layouts, and minimalism (and his love for plants). Grégory, a creative developer also based in France, specializes in animations and user interactions to create immersive and cohesive online experiences. While working full-time at Beaucoup Studio, he takes on freelance projects, primarily collaborating with Thomas. In this piece, they share their journey and process, offering a window into how their distinctive partnership brings exceptional web experiences to life.
Our story, like many great partnerships, began in the halls of university where we first crossed paths. Years later, we reconnected and discovered that our individual paths in design and development could create something greater together. Over the past three years, we’ve developed a collaborative approach that has shaped our creative process and defined our work. While much has been written about the gap between design and development, we wanted to share our perspective on bridging this divide through real partnership. But first, let’s walk you through some of our recent projects that showcase what happens when design and development truly work in harmony.
Featured works
Thibaud Fellay portfolio 24’
One of our most recent collaboration is the portfolio of Thibaud Fellay, a swiss cinematographer.
The goal of this website was to place projects at the center of the portfolio while offering an original navigation experience. We focused on a graphic universe centered around the pixel, the core element of his work. This visual concept allowed us to incorporate various interactive elements, such as a custom modular player that provides information about the projects and facilitates navigation between them, as well as a customized icon system.
Grégory Lallé portfolio 24’
October was a busy month for us, especially with the release of Gregory’s new portfolio. The redesign of his folio had started in 2022 and we had a lot of ideas in mind.
However, due to other projects, time constraints, and the complexity of the initial layouts, we never completed the portfolio. So in 2024, we started over from scratch with the goal of creating something simpler—no WebGL, no unnecessary animations—just a clean and original design. We opted for a more brutalist and minimalist experience. For more details on the creation of this portfolio, we invite you to check out our recent Awwwards article on the subject.
Angus Emmerson portfolio 24’
In 2024, we published another portfolio, this time for Los Angeles-based video editor Angus Emmerson. Angus approached us with the idea of creating a WebGL slider in the style of a portfolio we had designed in 2023 for Theud. We aimed to develop a similar navigation experience while ensuring originality, which led us to the concept of a slider with two views. These two project views are always connected to the timeline (graphic assets) at the bottom of the portfolio. It was also important for us to enable an intuitive and seamless transition between scrolling and dragging projects.
Thomas Monavon portfolio 24’
To conclude the presentation of our recent work, we also wanted to introduce you to Thomas’ new portfolio. It wasn’t developed by Grégory (too busy, haha) but by our talented friend Benjamin Robinet. However, Grégory was still involved in the design process of this new portfolio, and since we’re writing this article, we’re taking the opportunity for a little publicity—lol. As for the portfolio itself, it embodies the kind of experience we love to create: simple, smooth, and featuring non-intrusive animations.
Our way of collaborating
Together from beginning to end
It may sound like the title of a movie you wouldn’t want to watch, but that’s genuinely how we work together. From the first meeting with a client to the final delivery of a project, we always operate as a duo. Developers are often left out of initial discussions or only brought in to estimate a prototype, which is a shame. First, because they have a lot to contribute in these early exchanges in terms of inspiration, feasibility, and design advice (yes, many people tend to forget this, but creative developers often have a great eye for design—haha).
Initial workshops
When we start a project, we like to run a workshop to help our clients identify the inspirations they like (or dislike) through a curated selection of references. They then refine, refine, and refine again until they narrow it down to a shortlist of references—typically from 20 down to just 3.
From this initial workshop, both of us select inspirations that we believe will be most relevant for the client. This is also the stage where we discuss our ideas and creative ambitions based on what we’ve gathered from our early conversations about the project.
The advantage of this collaborative approach in the early stages is that it prevents us from getting stuck on fixed ideas. Designers often dive headfirst into a concept, convinced they’ve found the perfect design solution, but confronting your vision with someone else’s perspective opens up more possibilities. More often than not, this is the key to crafting an experience that is truly original and engaging.
Design
Once the workshop stage is over, we move on to the design process, and it’s Thomas’ turn to take the lead. During this phase, we create multiple UI layouts and tests, develop motion concepts to explore interactions and animations, and discuss these initial ideas. It’s also common for Grégory to test front-end elements directly during the design phase to assess the feasibility of certain ideas.
Once the first UI tests take shape, Grégory’s involvement provides a fresh perspective on the design, helping us gather valuable feedback. This also minimizes time spent on impractical ideas—those that are too complex to integrate, technically challenging, or inefficient in terms of performance—while also serving as a source of creative solutions. Developers like Grégory spend a lot of time exploring front-end inspirations (Awwwards, Codrops, CodePen…), which often leads to alternative approaches that enhance the initial design concepts.
This is why frequent sharing of small progress updates is so important. Throughout the design and development process, we send each other daily recordings or screenshots of new features to gather feedback or simply showcase progress. This method of communication helps us save time, avoid misunderstandings, and prevent unnecessary delays later on.
Development
After conducting the necessary tests to validate the design, Grégory begins the development phase. This stage, which is usually the longest, requires us to continue working closely together. This ensures that we remain pixel-perfect to the original concept, quickly identify if certain ideas don’t work as well once implemented, and fine-tune many elements collaboratively.
For most of our projects, we dedicate significant time to refining easings and animations to achieve the exact feel we both envisioned. This is one of the most important and enjoyable aspects of collaboration between designer and developer. These fine-tuning moments bring meaning to the entire project and help create those subtle details that others will notice and appreciate.
Final thoughts
There’s still so much more to say, but as we reach the end of this article, we hope you’ve enjoyed this little behind-the-scenes look. It’s not always easy to condense all this information into this format, and writing an article is even more challenging. Our goal was, of course, to introduce ourselves, but more importantly, to share our vision, our creative process, and above all, to highlight the importance of close collaboration between designers and developers.
We also want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has encouraged and supported our work. We ended 2024 on a high note with some award-winning productions, and we’re incredibly proud. Now, we can’t wait to see what 2025 has in store for us.