Studio/Artist Exploration

Studio/Artist Exploration

Fantasy Interactive http://www.f-i.com/ is an internet design studio with offices in New York City as well as in Stockholm, Sweden. In its 11 year history, has amass a very impressive list of clients. Its clients are quite varied. The studio has produced works for auto makers such as Porsche, Ford, and Volvo; retailers such as Nordstrom and Electrolux; media companies as NBC, Disney, Fox, BBC and the History Channel among others.

http://www.fox.com/

http://www.history.com/interactives/civil-war-150#/home

Among the works in it vast portfolio, I found the revamping of the Fox Channel site and its most recent work for the History Channel most interesting. Since I was a frequent visitor to the Fox Channel website, I do notice it is much more intuitive to navigate.

The brand Identity is visible yet not overpowering. The navigation is simple but contents material is easily found within just a few clicks. The layout of the pages are much more slim lined, even with as much material as it need to fit in the website. Even though each show on the network can be found on the “Show” tab, I found the duplicate shortcuts on the bottom of the page helpful.

In addition to the top banner promoting the current shows, I think the show schedule is just as important. Its location just below the banner is perfect. Unlike the ones on other network, you are able to navigate by day, and have the choice to see the full schedule if you choose to.

The second website I thought was fascinating was the interactive site FI Studio created the History Channel. It was for the commemoration of the 150^th anniversary of the American Civil War.

On its opening page, you can select from various subjects from the menu bar which takes you to the corresponding pages with relevant facts and figure presented in very nice graphics. I like that if there is additional information available, they are presented in a small pop-up window if you choose to see it. The color scheme is very appropriate being red, white and blue, but in much darker shades, with some yellow as accent color.

I especially like the animated navigation in the homepage, and the individual bottoms with the different size fonts, and alternates on the different buttons. It is very nice looking.

In addition, it also includes “Most Popular Topic” links in the middle of the page, for topics relate to the Civil War. There are also the “Related Videos” and “Related Photo” sections that I think are very welcoming contents visitors would enjoy. This is another good example of a website that provides a ton of content, but doesn’t look cluttered or bog down.