I'm pleased to announce we now have a full-time, bona fide designer on our team: Jin Yang.
I worked with Jin a bit in constructing the Super User design last year, but he was absolutely instrumental in putting together our amazing Area 51 design and the equally impressive 'sketchy' design for the current Web Applications site proposal private beta.
(click through for fuller sized screenshots)
update: now in public beta, visit webapps.stackexchange.com to see the design live!
If you committed to Web Apps, you should be on the private beta whitelist to visit the site and see the design for yourself. Otherwise, Web Apps will move into public beta on the 7th, and you can check it out then. More private betas of Area 51 sites which have reached the private beta threshold are forthcoming. If there's a site proposal you'd like to see exist, be sure you commit to it on Area 51 -- and share the proposal link with anyone else who might be interested!
I think the excellence of Jin's design work speaks for itself. He also has a strong background as a web developer (yes, he can code -- I can testify to that, as I met him in a previous job 7 years ago) and he's one of the most pragmatic designers I've ever had the pleasure of working with. You can check out more of his work, and his outstanding blog, at 8164.org. Keep an eye open for new blog entries covering the specifics of the work he did on Area 51!