World Sports Photography Awards
About the project
GOALS
Create a platform to support both photo submissions and the public showcase of winning work.
Scale the experience to handle thousands of images across multiple categories and years.
Improve navigation and discoverability across a growing archive.
Ensure optimised performance despite heavy media.
Support multiple user groups, including photographers, judges, and fans.
CHALLENGE
The platform needed to accommodate a rapidly growing archive of high-resolution imagery, while remaining easy to navigate across categories and years.
At the same time, performance had to remain strong despite the volume of content, and the experience needed to serve multiple audiences: from photographers submitting work to users exploring and engaging with it.
Solution
A scalable CMS-driven platform designed to handle large volumes of imagery while maintaining clarity and performance.
The structure enables intuitive navigation across categories and years, while assets optimisation and third party tools ensure fast load times despite the media-heavy nature of the site.
The result is a platform that supports submissions, showcases work effectively, and scales alongside the growth of the awards.
Let's Jam
Designing for Scale & Discoverability
The platform was designed to handle a large volume of content, supporting thousands of images, multiple categories, and a growing archive year after year.
A key part of this was enabling clear navigation and discoverability, allowing users to explore content across a variety of categories through the years.
Alongside the public-facing experience, the platform supports the full awards process - from photographer submissions to judging. Submissions and reviews are handled through an integrated third-party system, enabling over 200 judges from leading organisations such as the Dallas Mavericks, TikTok, AWS, Meta, Cannon and others to review and select winning work efficiently.
Performance at Scale
Handling high-resolution photography at scale required a considered approach to performance.
Images across the platform were optimised and served in modern formats to reduce load times, ensuring a fast and responsive experience despite the volume of content.
For more complex views - such as the yearly shortlist spanning multiple categories, a third-party solution was integrated to manage and display large image sets efficiently without compromising performance. Sometimes someone else has the best solution and you have to use it.
Brand & Identity
The brand was designed to put photography at the forefront - using a minimalist visual system that allows the imagery to take centre stage.
I designed a title reveal animation that became a core brand element, extending across the website, social media, and promotional materials - creating a consistent and recognisable identity for the awards.
Outcome
The platform has scaled alongside the growth of the awards, supporting an increasing volume of submissions and content year after year.
Monthly traffic grew from around 8,000 users in May 2022 to over 90,000 in January 2026, reflecting the increasing visibility and recognition of the platform.
The awards have also gained coverage across major media outlets, including BBC, VICE, The Times, and The Guardian, further establishing their global presence.
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