TRANSISTOR STUDIOS | http://clients.transistorstudios.com/three/downloads/COKE_INSPIRATION0.mov
Zooming through a series of old-fashioned dolls and Rube Goldberg-esque inventions, Transistor Studios director James Price’s motion graphics piece, Inspiration, follows a Twilight Zone path through the imagination. Set to the song “Bootprints” by King Creosote, the Wieden + Kennedy/Amsterdam spot for Coca- Cola portrays a wild journey through the mind of an artist. Inspiration was created as a hip way to kick off the “Coke Side of Life” campaign.

“The piece is about what it is that makes you think the way that you do,” says Price. “It’s about the weird impulses that go into any thought process—the dark recesses of the human consciousness. And it’s about rabbits in high-heeled boots.” The look of the spot was inspired by Price’s fascination with screen-printed posters and the raw artistic feeling that medium invokes. His team created a lot of the brightly colored artwork on paper and converted it to digital files, helping to give the spot the authentic feeling of ideas being expressed quickly, with minimal tools.
Terry Lee Stone

MANIC DESIGN | www.dparchitects.com
Things never seem to stop moving on the DP Architects site. Project beauty shots tile and un-tile across the pages, while text boxes and menus enter and exit on command from either side of the screen. “All that motion actually helps us keep the navigation unobtrusive,” says Karen Huang, cofounder of Manic Design in Singapore. “Things are always sliding in and out. When you need the navigation, it slides in. When you don’t, you can slide it away.” The user can simply click the mouse on small arrows to make these text blocks disappear and let the beauty shots command full screen.

And that was the goal all along: The design team wanted to feature the project images as large as possible without making it dif- ficult for users to move around the site. “Their body of work is extremely large and impressive, and we knew we had to let their works speak for them—and convincingly,” Huang says. There is a wealth of projects on the site, organized by building type, location and year of completion, but a handy bookmarking tool makes it easy to revisit your favorites. Since in some cases the images were shot decades apart, the tiling affect helps unify a diverse collection of photography. This approach also eases the page loading process.
Michelle Taute

MANIC DESIGN | www.sfc.org.sg
Nearly every page on the Singapore Film Commission website makes you feel like you’ve been dropped into the middle of a movie. “What better way to showcase cinema than to design the website as cinematically as possible?” asks Karen Huang, cofounder of Manic Design.

As you explore the site, you’ll be drawn in by the full-size movie stills that serve as the backdrop for the entire experience. These compelling images change from page to page, but a constant toolbar in the lower right-hand corner tells you what film a given still is from, and allows you to play the soundtrack or watch a clip. From early in the project, the design team realized they needed to make these film trailers readily accessible from anywhere on the site. This immersive approach turns the most enticing images into focal points and creates a stickier experience than if you had to drill down for the film content. With stills on every page, you’re likely to be drawn in by several films—even if you originally stopped by the site to explore one particular movie. “I find it very addictive,” Huang says. “I bet you can’t stop at just one.” Especially after she issues this challenge: See if you can spot Harvey Keitel on the site.
Michelle Taute

ELLEN BRUSS DESIGN | www.zidenver.com
With such a tremendous amount of residential development springing up all over downtown Denver, from a design standpoint a loft website must be completely unique. From a business standpoint, it must have all the stuff of a successful sales tool. “The site emulates the experience of living at Zi—a Zen existence in a sophisticated, meditative retreat with an urban energy,” says creative director Ellen Bruss.

Designer Jorge Lamora explains that the Zi branding was inspired by the history of the development’s location, which once upon a time was Denver’s Chinatown. “This led to Asian references,” he says, “including haiku-influenced copy, an intense color palette and image transitions that mimic shoji sliding screens.” He calls it “mid-century Modernism with a Zen attitude,” in keeping with the firm’s mantra of “communication without clutter.”

“The biggest challenge with a new residential project,” says Bruss, “is that you start the design process before anything exists. We overcome this by developing a clear and distinct vision of the brand.” The site proved as enticing as a paper dragon to draw buyers to the fireworks. “The feeling you get is one of creativity, quality and sophistication,” says Bruss, “and that is what Zi is all about.”
Dana Rouse

VRONTIKIS DESIGN OFFICE | www.35K.com
The first thing you notice about the Vrontikis Design Office website is, well, that there are no flashing, spinning or twirling things to notice. “We don’t do kitschy animations for our clients,” says Petrula Vrontikis, “so there’s no need to do them in our site.”

It opens clean and simple—like cracking a new book—with a gray, white and black color scheme and a spine down the center. Colored tabs organize the navigation with a confident directness. “This line is continuous through the site, separating the pages, adding depth and contrast,” Vrontikis says. “It breaks typical website navigation rules in a way that is dynamic and functional.” Tabs expand and multiply on the portfolio pages, offering context and explanation. “I wanted to show the work the same way we would in a personal portfolio review,” she explains. The site is surprisingly full of text, including articles by and about Vrontikis and the studio. “We love the experience of turning pages,” Vrontikis notes, “and we were trying to emulate that tactile feeling. A client can learn a lot about our creative approach and point of view by reading the articles. They can get a sense of our commitment to messaging and understand that we take putting words and pictures together seriously.”
Laurel Saville