HL2
The new website for the design firm HL2 in Seattle opens simply enough: It shows a white field with a simple line drawing of a human heart. Go a step deeper, however, and things get a little more fantastic. Click on CREATIVE and an animated globe populated with strange flora and a buzzing spaceman appears; click on DISCOVER and you find an underwater garden; PROCESS takes you to a contraption made of moving gears, tracks, hooks and levers. “We wanted to make sure that our website showed rather than told our capabilities,” says creative director Rob Dalton. “With this site, you can enjoy the process of finding out who we are, and this felt like an essential part of what we do.”

Also essential to representing the firm was letting everyone in the office play a part in developing the site. “We began by asking our top creatives to brainstorm pie-in-the-sky ideas,” Dalton explains. “The heart, that simple trope, really rang a big gong with us. Then we settled on the three motifs for the different areas, and it got really fun. Everyone in the shop, from the intern and office manager to partners, got involved in creating the animations. The individual icons leapt from the minds of those involved.” However unusual the images, they all reflect an intentional organic sensibility that maintains cohesion within the firm. “People today are longing for a connection to the natural world and to each other that technology only gives in bursts,” Dalton says. “The more we can infuse our work with something natural, the more comfortable it will be and the more likely it is to create a connection that feels intuitive.”

This human-to-human connection is made deeper and richer by a series of self-deprecating videos that precede each of three case histories under the PROCESS tab; they poke fun at the overly serious brand strategy discussions so common among design firms. For example, click on Microsoft, and you find a vice president offering a mock-serious explication of his professional background while people run in penguin suits behind him; the camera pans back to reveal he’s wearing only boxer shorts beneath his button-down shirt and tie and is in the midst of a Twister game. Eventually, the real project is profiled, in a style of highly contrasting clarity and simplicity. “When we sat down to define our process, we thought about coming up with a talking head, but we knew people would just yawn,” Dalton says. “Truthfully, the process is different for every client and has to be malleable. So we had a few beers and found a way to break out of the box. And these silly videos are a kind of litmus test. If someone has a sense of whimsy and the absurd, then they’ll get the videos. If someone looks at them and says, ‘What’s with the penguin?’ … well, we probably don’t want to work with them.” Laurel Saville

HL2 | CREATIVE/ART DIRECTOR: SHAWN HERRON | ANIMATORS: NATHAN AVILA, MARGARET NAUSS, MATTHEW FORDHAM, MICHAEL LEAVITT, NATE JONES DESIGNERS: JEFF DEROSHIA, ERICK HUYNH, JOHN SMALLMAN, DAVID ESTEP, STEVE MALMIN | WRITERS: ROB DALTON, NOAH TANNEN, SUSIE HAN | COPY EDITOR: JOE EHRBAR | PROGRAMMERS: BRENT LA MOTTE, JC VIETH, MICHAEL LEAVITT, MATTHEW FORDHAM | WWW.HL2.COM