Human centered design and innovation seems to be the obvious direction to take for a planet filled with humans... Right? At U PLEAT, in Korea, designers focus on usability and innovation together, creating artistic and commercial experiences, with a focus on "Human Love". They certainly spared no expense to develop fantastic, professional (production level) portfolio site. A very interesting design agency from Korea, and one to watch.... More
Okay, you have to admit that Burger King's Subservient Chicken website is a riot. You know the one—the psuedo live video feed of a guy in a chicken suit who will do anything you want? It's hilarious and brilliant (and got over one billion hits), which is why we are excited to learn that barbarian group was the firm behind it. Their entire modus operandi, while exceedingly professional, is to create unique and surprising online advertising. Visit their website. You'll find links to a host of large projects, and not just games... but Flash specialty marketing, hotsites, and online advertising... but also a whole slew of cool online games. Marketing made fun.... More
Square Circle is a full service creative multimedia agency with a staff of visual artists, developers and producers who interact to create award winning solutions for internet, broadcast, CD/DVD and print. They have one of the slicker 'zooming' flash sites out there, which lets you pan across a virtual work-table of goodies that you can interact with to discover all about the company. Definitely cutting close to the edge of what can be done in high-end web design.... More
Red Interactive Agency is an agency with a singular focus... to push the interactive technology of today to its limits to craft the most immersive experiences possible for their clients. For now, what this philosophy boils down to is heavily awarded visual advertising campaigns and marketing sites for several clients in the entertainment industry. But if their projects weren't proof enough, this company with two offices (Studio City, CA and Salt Lake, UT) in the USA, has transformed their portfolio site into a showcase for some of their abilities — it's a living chat room with customizable avatars that can run, punch and fly through a small virtual world with other users. Pretty neat suff... practically useless, yes... but a fine demonstration of what this firm can do, and ultimately a solid calling card.... More
Through a very slick online presentation, we quickly discover that Rareview is a progressive interactive design and development company that fuses creativity and mechanics to produce design-heavy and technically-advanced web experiences. They specialize in creating interactive data-driven websites and complex rich media applications, primarily built with Flash.... More
These guys have been playing the digital branding game since 1992. They use words like "segmentation," "methodology," and (our favorite) "solutions," and talk about things like "work flow" and "implementation"... but what it all boils down to is that they are a very technology savvy firm. They have a winning roster of corporate websites and advertising campaigns, for clients ranging from IBM to Bed, Bath And Beyond. If you dig a little deeper into their site, you'll learn that before they got into online material, they pioneered motion graphic technology for films like Superman and Alien. Currently, their showcase work (and largest exclusive client) is the interactive Nike+ site for runners.... More
POKE creates some pretty innovative, and beautiful Flash interactive work from their humble studio on Bond Street, NYC. Just a year old, this 'studio' turned into a 'firm' rapidly, based on some solid design work for BBC, Luxottica, and Dell. Great interface work, original ideas, and a creative push for invention that defines what a young web firm should be all about. Just cool.... More
What do you get when creativity and marketing are blended, watered, nurtured and harvested at its prime? At odopod – a strong Flash design and UI innovation studio in the San Francisco area – the product is highly artistic, merging illustration, animation and clean interface design to create a perfect modern mash-up of storytelling and functional usability. Working mostly in Flash, their bread and butter is a slew of work for Nike, creating many of their "yo-factor" sports websites. Hip, current, media and technology savvy—the sky's the limit for this medium-sized firm.... More
Get ready to have a wallpaper seizure! If are photo-light sensitive, then be warned, you may need to find a dark corner after checking out this fractal-inspired Flash site of Japanese artist and designer, Taro Kudo. Of course, this is more than a wallpaper site... it's about art, experimentation, and creating a mood. A bit difficult to navigate, sure... but certainly unique! Straight from Tokyo, Japan.... More
MindSmack is a full-service agency providing everything from comprehensive web design, to Flash interaction, programming and technical support. In their polished, metallic portfolio site, they unveil a number of bold and animated design projects—from a promo site for a popular illusionist, to promotional Flash designs for CitiGroup. Overall, an interactive firm with a strong penchant for the moving image and Flash.... More
When you're doing work for the premiere graphic design/multimedia software companies, you gotta have the skills to push their software to the limits... so it's no surprise that Method has top of their class portfolio that includes a variety of big names in addition to Adobe and Macromedia. Their other clients range from the artistic (Lincoln Film Society) to the corporate (Merril Lynch), and they cover everything from website design and branding to printing and user research. One-stop shopping, right here.... More
Somewhere between gritty rock tatoos and little pink butterflies exists the detailed Flash design of Martin Wolfinger a.k.a. Matt Spanky. Martin's designs focus on posters, cd packaging and "in your face" Flash websites where he creates a sexy, dark and intense feel—but also likes to apply a healthy dose of fuscia!... More
