My absolute favorite, most often visited website is TheFWA.com, which stands for "The Favourite Website Awards". This site gives awards to designers who create top-notch and cutting edge web material. On the home page you can find a list of all recent winners with info and links to the sites that they created (which are incredible!). A new site is awarded every day of the week, and users can search and view every award since the site's debut in June of 2000. This website is clearly geared towards professional designers and anybody with an interest in innovative web design. As for TheFWA's own design and navigation, it's pretty simple and tech-y looking... which is why I'm quite surprised that it was created with Flash. It seems that the developers could have easily created the same site with XHTML and CSS (aside from the fading page transitions - which are really subtle anyways). I've always felt that Flash should only be used for projects that demand it's capabilities... much like the slick sites awarded by the FWA. Overall, it's a fantastic site. Checking out the winners really motivates me to aim high with my own projects...
Since I'm talking about the FWA winners... here is my current favorite! U Pleat is a Korean based design firm with a spectacular portfolio... and a more spectacular website! Upleat.com does the one thing that a Flash site should - exploit the program's capabilities! (With purpose, of course, and without interfering with the function of the site) The navigation system is completely amazing (with a great z-axis 3-D effect) and the central emphasis on typography is really cool. I also give it big points for the quick load time and the fact that it's a full-screen scalable Flash project, unlike most of the "framed" Flash sites out there that look dwarf-y on monitors set to high resolution. Slight criticism: When viewing the projects, the back button could be a bit more noticeable, but it's really not that hard to figure out. One more great thing: I love how they shift from a black background intro to the bright white site. It's blinding! This design would lose all of the innovation if it were a print project. Interactivity is key!
Good god! This is by far the worst website I have ever seen. I mean, c'mon! Do i really need to talk about what is wrong with it? Look at it! It's self explanatory. Blecch! Check out some of the page URLs! They used spaces in the file name! And the design? It's abysmal! The typeface is atrocious and the background image will induce severe vomiting with prolonged exposure, I'm quite sure of it. If you happen to visit the "sightings" page, the links don't work because they're connected to the designer's local computer files instead of the server's path. If I type in fredfrap.com, I can't even enter the site beyond the intro page. To make things worse, the text is all over the place! The concert listings have no order or alignment and the "imaginary friends" list looks like the dog's dinner. I could go on and on... but frankly, my fingers are fatigued from this digital ranting. I was starting to think that this was a joke until I searched "Fred Frap" and found that he is an established member of the Florida music scene. I hope that none of you know Fred or the designer... y'know... because I'm not trying to be a hater or anything...
I've decided to research one of my many loves: MOVIE TITLES! To many, that may sound quite bland, but I don't think there is anything cooler than a well designed title sequence. Aw heck, sometimes I think that's why I go to the movies at all. So I'll start my next three reviews with this specific section of SubmarineChannel.com. This site hosts a great collection of professional title sequences that users can view in quick loading FLV media players. NOTE: the site appears to under construction, as the most important links are not currently working. So as of now, one can only view work by rifling through the 'News' pages. There is nothing super interesting about the design of the site, other than the (at least I think) Saul Bass inspired background graphic. However, I dig the content! I enjoy being able to find a nice collection of this type of work at one location. (I've spent hours trying to find decent stuff at YouTube, which is usually hit or miss). So that's the content! The target audience seems to be anyone who enjoys excellent title sequences (fans and designers alike). The material is quite webby, as printed volumes only show screenshots and obviously not video. The nav is pretty simple, although like I said, some links are currently non-functional. Overall --- pretty unique!
Speaking of Saul Bass (often named "the father of film titles"), here is a pretty cool fan-site showcasing some of Saul's greatest work. Users can view posters designed by Bass as well as title sequences he created. Although limited, it's a good representation of everything Saul. This site targets fans of ol' SB and it outdoes print by incorporating motion and multi-media. The navigation is straight forward in most cases, although the "back" buttons take a little guess work. I have a little beef with the size of the posters, as well. I really wish I could click on them to see an enlarged version. Other than that - a nice homage!
This is probably the best resource out of the last three sites I have listed. Whereas the last two websites were geared towards fans, Motionographer.com was definitely made for professional designers. First and foremost, the site provides a list of cutting-edge motion graphic design studios and reels of their work. In addition, Motionographer also gives credit to individual artists rising to prominence in the field. It's a great place to view new film title work as well as visual effects/animation in television and advertising. Like the other two sites, Motionographer also utilizes the web's multi-media capabilities. The posted links are very organized and easy to scan. And best of all - it's chock full of content!