Spectra Interactive News Reader
0 Comments Published by David Kingsnorth on Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 6:45 AM.
By far my favourite design for a website that I've come across. Firstly there was almost no load time despite it having a massive amount of content. The layout is designed in a way that makes the most of all the space with virtually everything being collapsable, appearing and disappearing as needed in a way thats really smooth and efficient. You can add the news channels that your interested in to the menu at the bottom of the screen that also form part of a tornado of headlines that you can scroll through. The user has a lot of control over the content and the menus and you don't need to be familiar with the website to navigate very quickly.
I think the reason I like this site so much is a combination of the use of colour, subtle mouse over animations and the various gadgets and menus. It's a really unusal layout for a news site, which I think helps differeniate it. The website looks awesome but it's real strength is it's usability and efficient use of space.
Labels: Research
Publicis & Hal Riney are a company that specialise in publicity and branding for large companies and organisations. I found some of their approach really creative and they seem to be experts at generating publicity and awareness.
From what I could make out you can navigate their website using your hands via a webcam. Unfortunately I haven't got one but I'll definately try it out when I get a chance. The visual style of the site is really good and the navigation is less structured than usual so it encourages a small amount of exploration, while still being easy to find what you are looking for. My only problem with the site is that someone with less of an interest for smooth, interesting transitions might find the length of time you have to wait to view the next section frustrating. Interesting site though and some of their work is really clever.
This was my favourite piece from their website. Gets the message across brilliantly and got so much publicity and news coverage. A clever and shocking way of generating awarenss for earthquake prevention.
Labels: Research
I have been attempting to identify some current issues relating to multimedia that I can discuss in my SPP essay. As recommended in the brief, I looked up irixx.org and found it quite interesting because it is something I have had to consider recently. I have been flicking through flashden.net a lot and I have been using some open source software to create an ebook. Creative Commons Licensing is something I come across a lot but I was never sure how it worked.
To summarise as best I can, it's a web-based solution to licensing and it allows the author to specify the terms of use and can be used for visual art, writing, videography or music. At the moment it is written to conform to US law but Larry Lessig is leading a project to work within european law.
I think this sort of licenssing is essential now that such a vast amount of media is being shared over the internet. There is a lot of 'borrowing' going on and this appears to be a practical way of protecting the creator.
Labels: Research
Open Source Flash Based eBook
0 Comments Published by David Kingsnorth on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 6:10 AM.
I promised to do a few more odd jobs for my mates online fashion and lifestyle magazine project. I thought banging 50 pages in to flash and finding a tutorial to animate the turning of the pages would be pretty easy but as it turns out animating a page turning and gradually revealing the next page involves a lof of advanced actionscript. Luckily I came across an open source flash based ebook called Page flip v2 that was available for download at http://www.pageflip.hu/. I actually ended up using an updated version of this that was also available for free download that came with an XML file that made putting my pages in pretty easy.
I had some problems with the images at not displaying properly until we figured out they had saved half of them in RGB and the other half in CMYK. I aslo had to reduce the size of the images as they were like 7mb each. Once that was sorted I literally only had to create 50 pages in the XML file and edit the CSS file so that it was aligned and had a dark grey background.
I'm quite keen to get this and my second idents project on my blog but they're both made up of multiple files and saved as a html document, if anyone can help me out I'd appreciate it.
I had some problems with the images at not displaying properly until we figured out they had saved half of them in RGB and the other half in CMYK. I aslo had to reduce the size of the images as they were like 7mb each. Once that was sorted I literally only had to create 50 pages in the XML file and edit the CSS file so that it was aligned and had a dark grey background.
I'm quite keen to get this and my second idents project on my blog but they're both made up of multiple files and saved as a html document, if anyone can help me out I'd appreciate it.
Labels: Personal Study
I've been a fan of Guy Ritchie since Lock Stock came out ten years ago. He has a unique way of making the audience feel like they know characters on a personal level and in the latest Nike advert his use of the camera draws the audience in really well. There are a couple of places within the advert where it is almost filmed like a first person shooter with the shot from your perspective and only your hands in view. The constant swings, movements and jumping of the camera does a really good job of simulating where you would be running and the movements of your own body. This combined with the fast, sustained tempo and the continuous forward movement makes the avert feel like a short journey.
The viral impact of this advert has been amazing. Even my girl mates who have almost no interest in football have commented on how much they like this advert. It has clearly reached a much wider ausience as a result of it's individuality and the amount of awareness this ad has generated is deserved.
Labels: Review
I watched this documentary on SkyArts last night and despite the topic being debated to death already it's generated a lot of discussion on skyarts.com. There was an element of the old vandalism or art discussion which I find a bit tedious because anyone looking at it objectively would see that it's both. The part I found really interesting is how it has developed and the amount of commisioned work that goes on now. I found it interesting to learn that without the graffiti culture and the random tagging that goes with it, the pieces we now call 'street art' and buy prints of wouldn't exist.
Labels: Review
Seen are a creative design company. The work they do seems fairly broad but the majority of their work I saw were websites and cover designs. I really like the warehouse/noticeboard style of their site and I couldn't fault it for usability. Each page builds up from a bare warehouse style wall, with each component being pinned or taped up. All of the subtle animations work well together and are completed quickly enough that you don't feel like your sitting around waiting for the the content.
Charmingwall is a gallery based in New York that specialises in fine art prints. I came across this website the other day and was really impressed. The illustrations are amazing and the flash animation is really smooth. Theres a sense of character to each of the animations and the website is simple and functional. I am not familiar with the actual gallery but it seems as though this site really conveys what they are about and has it's own unique style.
One of my mates showed me this on youtube the other day. I'm not sure if they actually filmed a string puppet or whether it's CGI, I'd imagine it could combine both. It's a style of animation you don't see very often anymore and it follows a trend of re-introducing old television programmes as a way of appealing to audiences in a nostalgic sort of way.
Someone mentioned this site on a forum the other day so I thought I'd give it a look. A bit of a grim topic but very informative. It struck me straight away as a really great flash site. Easy to navigate but encourages exploration, the layout and the graphics look really good and it's quick and smooth. Perfectly done in my opinion.
Designated Graffiti Area
0 Comments Published by David Kingsnorth on Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 4:06 AM.
Just publishing this so that I can check the fonts display properly. This will be one of my 5 areas of my idents project. Hopefully There will be a tools bar as an alternative to the random color but it depends on how quickly I can get some other stuff finished
Labels: Identities
Why is every site that claims to host SWF files for free completely useless. First swfup.com and now imageaddicts.net. They just randomly disappear off the web and leave my blog blank. Then I have find a new site, upload all my files again and edit all of my posts.
Because of this and the fact I'm behind on my idents project I'm not going to post anything until next week when I'll have some time again.
Because of this and the fact I'm behind on my idents project I'm not going to post anything until next week when I'll have some time again.
Labels: Personal Study