For an upcoming post with the above title, I’m finally going to collect all the incredible websites I’ve stumbled upon and give them their well-deserved recognition. What makes a website good? Only about 1,000 things, but to name a few:
-Aesthetic (First impressions matter people)
-Navigation (Not only must this be easy to decipher, but doing it in a creative fashion scores bonus points)
-Content (Beauty without Brains is nothing. As illustrated beautifully in THIS commercial)
-Surprises (Who doesn’t love to be caught off guard with a lil something extra?)
BUT just to give you a little taste (and to calm my insatious excitement), let me give you a little preview with a website that is just TASTY
Seattle-based advertising agency HL2 has a beautifully simple site. Using animation that appears to be Flash, beautiful black and white line-art illustrations (a quality that almost always sells me on its own) animate when your mouse rolls over, and gentle ambient noises change as you navigate through the different areas of the site. This one is a true Gestalt with the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. While all the elements are somewhat subtle on their own, together they bring to life the beauty of illustration and graphic design with the purity of minimalism. LOVE IT. WISH IT WAS MINE. You have to visit to get the real feel, so go ahead: http://www.hl2.com
1 Comment
March 23, 2009 at 6:19 pm
While I agree it’s very cool and fancy and flashy and stylish – it “stuck” me. I couldn’t get back to your page – WHICH I EFFING HATE. I had to escape out of it and come back to your site. Also, it’s not very intuitive. If I was a client and coming there to find what I want fast I would have been impressed with the stylishness and graphics, but irritated that I couldn’t find what I wanted and fast.
Lastly, most people who could really benefit from a cool website – like artists – can’t afford a website like this. This site was, no doubt, thousands of dollars. Maybe even tens of thousands.
I like your simple blog style website. I use WordPress on my own server as well. I hope to have a nicely designed site that is functional. Very cool would be nice too. However, I will manage with my simple WordPress until then. I will also enjoy jumping from artist blog to artist blog – like this one – and enjoy them for content more than design!
Peace!