Adobe recenlty redesigned their site to be faster and cleaner than ever before. It sets high standards for clarity and content that is both beautiful and informative. Consistency of type, imagery and layout stregthens users' identification with this magnificently large site. The site houses a wealth of great design content including stock photography, software tips and tricks and Adobe's typefaces. In 1999 Adobe embarked on providing detailed portfolio samples and articles on leading-edge web designers, illustrators and new media greats. These interviews are usually very informative and very worth checking out.... Read more
The new Adobe Studio boasts a sleek, vibrant design, and promises to become a worthy resource as a flexible online collaboration environment for creative professionals. The site is quite appealing, providing a breath of fresh air and space amidst tight icon and navigation development. The information and direction of the site is clear, and one can even follow the track of design by hillman curtis inc. in a type of showcase that focuses on iterations in page and icon design. The tool itself is now in beta. Check it out.... Read more
Andersen's site provides a bold and distinguised graphical interface which combines many elements of color, imagery and contrast that provide an overall sensation of cohesiveness. Redesigned since this review was posted. Anderson's consistent navigation hierarchy was enhanced by colors that differentiated individual sections with subtle shadings that neatly encapsulated information within each page. This site has since been redesigned.... Read more
Art Center College of Design's site is the cream of the crop of intelligently constructed sites. Never has it been easier to locate the information you need than here. Art Center's site is characterized by its utilitarian navigation; the pull-down menus are implemented to perfection. It is clean. It is fast. It is one subtly powerful site.... Read more
Blue Marlin sells hand- stiched baseball caps from bygone eras. This is a sharp, appropriate and instantly classic site design. Blue is beatifully branded, following a unique and picturesque design throughout the site and navigation. Blue's inner pages are thoughtfull, clean and easy to use. The products really shine on this site.... Read more
'Buy' provides a classic fusion of illustration, type and parody that brands this online store for diamonds and engagement rings with a decidely retro style. Features several Flash animations and interactions. The retro design style in this great Flash powered presence is flawlessly executed and appropriately finessed into a modern shopping ground for expensive stones. The navigation is intuitive and comforting, letting you sink into the sensation of romatic memories of classic holiday re-runs by the family fireplace. Check out all the branded areas from 'Pop the Question' to the Flash 'Holy Matri-movie' or choose to learn all about diamonds in 'Buyarock101'.... Read more
A very cool navigational work, merging great interface work with strong design. Their premium quality products get nothing less than a premium web site architecture - with its nooks and crannies filled to the brim with tasty nuggets of information. Notice the excellent frame work, and the meta- navigational system that plays off the letters in "Champion". No Link (Champion bought by Int'l Paper) Precision Digital... Read more
Part creative fun, part commercial endeavor and all really well constructed, Cubicle Cooties is a funny Flash mini-site about avoiding the cold and flu bug from your cubicle mates. Learn a bit about your work environment and maybe even save yourself from your next germ-induced vacation this winter.... Read more
When you represent over a half-million union workers in Canada, you have a lot of information to disseminate and a lot people to inform. So when CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) turned to Happy Cog, the design firm arm of A List Apart, to redesign their hulking site, it became a showcase in how to manage information sprawl. CUPE's new design displays an expertise in information architecture, graphic and type design, and web standards. The results turn the intimidating into the friendly and approachable, and simultaneously provides a public relations trump card for this workers association. While we're not big fans of standardized employee policies that pay you while you strike, we are certainly huge fans of beautiful, standardized... Read more
The new D&G Time web site for watches features a truly advanced navigaton concept, beautiful design and original sound. Designed and developed by Koinema, the site operates like clockwork precision, allowing you to either narrow down these luxury wrist watches by color, type and styling, or simply spin the wheel and let D&G pick a random watch for you to view. Built entirely in Flash, the circular navigation is actually a powerful sorting device... yet unlike a straight database list, it is more like a Rolodex (not a Rolex) of watches that is fun to use and explore.... Read more
The Desktop application and efficiency tool helps you keep your many disparate forms of information in synchronicity. Their online software provides a 'corner of the web' where you can store your site passwords, bookmarks, and even retrieve web content you want and need. To enable this, Desktop provides a growing list of online apps located at 'desktop' urls and 10Mbs free storage to start. The design is bold and effective, providing large and easy to understand iconographics set within a bold, although un-original, file-tab folder design that is very nice and effectively impresses upon the user the fact that the site doubles as an application and usable tool.... Read more
A clean Flash-driven corporate site with great navigational tidbits, and subtle shading in this uniquely shaped site that all comes together to create a nicely refined feel for this site. A promotional corporate site from Motorola for their Digital DNA product. Each page presents a new graphic nugget of goodness. Especially check out some cool features like the DigiCrawler, an interactive walking 'stick-creature' that you can modulate and control through environmental variables. Inside Look: Soda (UK) produced and liscenced a branded version of their sodaconstructor called DigiCrawler to Motorola as part of their promotion of the DigitalDNA brand.... Read more
