Design Exploration Mercedes

This website does a good job of combining typical Flash elements, such as videos and details graphics, with the development portion of the website. The sketches combined with the images show the progress of how the cars move from the drawing board into post production. Also, the gallery is set up like a book and you can flip through the pages to check out the options and different available vehicles.

There is also an area on the site that allows you to build your own model. This allows the user to pick and choose different elements of the vehicle. The selections range from interior material and colors to what type of engine you would like in the vehicle.

Also a nice element is the way the navigational menu expands off of the previous menu. This allows all of the different menu items to be viewed at the same time, without taking much focus off of the main content on the page. The combination of very polished graphic elements and more "hand drawn" elements make for an interesting combination. It works to lead the viewer through the development of the vehicles. It takes the viewer from the literal drawing board to the showroom floor.

http://www.mercedes-amg.com/#/e63-overview

Artist Exporlation

Here is an artist website that I found that I thought was very interesting.

http://www.pelinakat.com/

I unfortunately was not able to get any screen shots to put up as the site is all flash. But if you go to her portfolio and look around you can see some of the cool things she designed using Flash. My favorites were under Flash Animation Banner and IStockphoto.  If you look there she has created some interesting designs that look pretty easy to design. Especially from all that we have learned so far in class.  My favorite under the IStockphoto was the Christmas greeting card, but really under the IStockphoto I really liked all of them. I hope you will look around as this is nice artist site.

MOUSE PARTY!!

I was looking through flash animation websites on the web and came across this interesting site called mouse party i think this is very interesting because its an interface that would be attractive to teenagers so they can learn about drugs..... this demonstrates one of the many ways that flash can be used to teach or show information in an appealing and interactive way.

another really cool website that i found was Japanese drums, i really like this because i can see how much time and effort was put in to synchronizing the audio with the video in this animation. i hope to one day be able to create animations as cool as this!

Design Exploration

http://www.bchydro.com
Hierarchy was present, making it very easy to fine what I thought was important. Everything was laid out in a logical manner. Anything having to do with Rebates was under that heading. With the most important information at the top and things of lesser importance following consecutively there after.
The site was consistently clean, with columns of text in the same place from page to page and the same with pictures.
The point of this site is not just one but several with the most important being conservation of power/water, this is implied as well as stated. To emphasize this they publicize contests and award prizes. They show examples of well known (in the area) people and tell what they have done to conserve. They even have a game of conservation, which is fun and gets the point across to kids. They even give the opportunity to build a team at work to enter and possibly win. Their prizes are tickets to local attractions and events. The call to action was obvious. Tell us what you will do, do it and document it. Then we will reward you!
The drop down menu at the left side of the main screen has the same titles as the tabs at the top the main screen, but the left menu does a further breakdown of the contents of each section with one click access. Very nice.

The only contrasting elements that I was able to find were the change in color between some of the pages. While most of them are green with some blue trim, there are a few that have no green. I found it interesting that these seemed to be pages that may not receive as much attention as the green and blue pages. The layout was still consistent.
All in all a very professional appearing site. It is well thought out and put together. I enjoyed going through it. Nicely designed site.

Resources and Exploration

I found several sites using google search engine that were valuable resources for a designer to stay current on trends, and technologies in the design field.

One site is http://www.flashkit.com/ it has tutorials on how to add things into your flash project. Some tutorials explain new aspects of CS5, while others tell how to add neat things like a animated ball circling a logo. Some are vidoes from youtube and others are step by step instructions. Most tutorials include all files needed to follow along and do what they do.

Incredible http://www.incredibletutorials.com/ is another good site to learn to do some of the newest things in flash. This site has one author that makes youtube vidoe tutorials. The tutorials often use the same character to show animation, so they are easy to understand.

An interesting resource for a lot of things to do with flash and web design is www.allwebdesignresources.com/webdesignblogs/graphics/flashalternatives-ultimate-list-of-flashlike-animation-software/ . This is a good site for web and graphic design resources. There are articles, blogs, forums, and job postings. There is a good article about all different programs that can be used to create flash animation.

Another good site to find current information about flash designing is http://www.levitated.net/ . It has information about upcoming exhibitions, publications, and has an open source area to post designs. On the site there are interactive flash design for you to see and interact with. There are also links to flash conventions all over the world, and published books and works of art.

Machete & Jay-Z Hits Collection - Design Exploration

1. Machete (http://www.vivamachete.com/)
The promotional site for the movie Machete is a nice example of Flash design that is simple yet effective. First of all, the color of the whole design scheme is very cool, with lots of hot colors and high contrasts. The text effectively conveys the dirty, gritty, stoic nature of Machete, and the title text also implies the kind of tongue-in-cheek action movies that this is a throwback to.
I really like the way the site is a grid of images of the different characters, with very nice rollover effects and easy visual access to the links to the Story, Video, and Gallery.

Clicking on any of the characters will load in an on-demand high-resolution image of the character that fills the screen. This is all one page in Flash; clicking on anything won't take you to another web page, but just load in on-demand content.

Down at the bottom corners you have a couple of links for social networking sharing.

Rolling over any of the buttons also has a sound effect, but there is no background music for the whole site.

This site really appeals to me because of its simple yet visually rich and clear layout & design, and Flash works well here to make it happen.

2. Jay-Z Hits Collection (http://www.jayzhitscollection.com/)

Found this site through the FWA; it's really neat. It's for Jay-Z's Hits Collection, and kind of shows the history of his music career, and has photos of him. The site uses Flash very nicely, with lots of cool rollover effects (i.e. having the years 1989-1998 pop up underneath "The Beginning", the cool effect with the water when you roll over it).

The transitions when you go from one page to the next are short clips of video in New York with an overlay quote by Jay-Z. The whole site feels extremely classy and legit, and lends to Jay-Z's image as a mature rapper.

The black and white color scheme and corporate, expensive feeling text also adds to this image.

Furthermore, you have background audio - clips from various Jay-Z songs, that really help the website feel more (inter)active, with controls for volume.

Studio Exploration: Trollbäck + Company (Sharon DeCaro)

Trollbäck + Company is a creative studio that weaves compelling narratives using motion graphics and live-action. This firm creates innovative campaigns for the advertising, broadcast and entertainment industries and is led by creative directors, Jakob Trollbäck and Joe Wright. Their beliefs are that the viewer should be immersed in storytelling and an idea that is focused with a compelling message is essential for successful communication. Past and present clients include HBO, CBS, DSPN, Nike, TED, AIGA and The New York Times Magazine. The goal of Trollbäck + Company is to sustain their dynamic blend of high-profile, commercial projects as well as its more avant-garde collaborations with emerging and established talents in film, music, architecture, magazines and fashion.

Last year, I got the opportunity of attending a presentation given by Jakob Trollbäck, who was a speaker at San Diego AIGA's Y15 Conference. I found his work to be compelling and cutting-edge.  I was mesmerized by his presentation of sound and visual media. I was also inspired by his firm's use of motion graphics, design and sound. Watching his presentation and reviewing his website etched a memorable mark in my brain.  Here are a few of my favorite examples of their  client work and their own work, such as their advertising and branding work montages:

TED2010

 ThingsIThinkAboutBeforeSleep

CookingChannelMontage

 




CBS Re-branding

Trollback's Advertising Montage 07

I've included a few more links to their client work, which, I think, is aesthetically and technically amazing:
Visual Acoustics - History of Modernism, Pop!Tech05-Open, TravelChannel-AmericanJourney, HBO-Mid-WinterImageSpot, HBO-Revolution.

Studio Exploration-Devin Cox

The studio that I found to make high quality flash websites is a company called Blue Fountain Media.  I found them off Google after I viewed previous results.  It was the first site that had taken time to make sure their business was well represented with a professional website.  There is nothing special to it besides it doesn't look like junk.  They were recognized as being in the top 10 flash development companies.  I know the main point of the blog was to review the studio's site itself.  But If I were to do that, it wouldn't be a great example.  I think It's easier to design somebody elses website for them to design a website for yourself.  With that in mind I want to review 2 Blue Fountain Medias projects.
The First is Nike:
What's really cool is the opening page has a video you can watch embedded in flash.  Right from the outset It is an eye appealing website, with a fitting background image fitting Nike's reputation. Their Nike Logo turns into a drop down menu which has categories for all of Nike products.  I thought that was a real nice feature.  An added navigation to places that would normally be found inside of another page.  Here you are able to skip a step by using that menu. There is a cool feature on the Nike Id page where it shows one of their popular shoe models and you can scroll over a color icon and when you click on it, the picture stays the same but the shoe turns to be the color you selected.

The Second Website is Kaplan College: 
The main page is very vivid. Strong colors, high resolution images.  It has the colors that fit Kaplan colleges logo.  There is a frame with pictures of people and their story or their goals and it shuffles between images.  That looks real nice with this website.  The navigation bar is neat too. When you click on an option the headings move up and down to default alignment but the heading you clicked on is still an available feature with all the subheadings displayed.   When you go to click on one of those subheadings, it directs you to a non flash section of the website.  But I think the most important thing is that it has your attention from the start, and it just looks professional.