cehannon

posted by cehannon @ 8:29 PM 1 comments

www.thefishcansing.com

This is the site for the business THEFISHCANSING. They are international advertisers with a pretty slick site. Not from what it presents, but how it presents it. They keep their page very clean, and at first glance, strictly typographic. However, after a little exploring, a potential client interested in seeing some work, can actually do so. From the home page, you are redirected towards the six links along the bottom: about us, clients, services, people, press, and contacts. As each are clicked the corresponding information scrolls up into view, and as each successive link is clicked more info scrolls in and out of view. But the neat little feature they added essentially acts as a back button (there is none because the site is entirely flash) as someone can scroll up or down through all their previously viewed content. Plus, each section is color coded which helps establish a little variety, however minimal it may be. But like I said before, their work. Where is there work? Well, under the services link, it should bring up all the fields they dabble in as well as a section of current or archived case studies. Clicking on either will bring up a straight-forward list of campaigns, and its corresponding work. Hiding their work (more or less) seemed to have made the site focused more so on its clients, its people, and their methodology, which is refreshing.

posted by cehannon @ 8:34 PM 0 comments

The clover has been appropriated countless times, and each time it takes on a new connotation, as its context derives its meaning; whether that meaning be luck, beer, cereal, football, or even a symbolic representation of Irish ethnicity itself.

posted by cehannon @ 1:20 PM 0 comments

www.quiresiste.com

This is a site of what appears to be a group of French designers (they never really say explicitly, but it comes with accessibility for both English and French speaking patrons). It is quite contemporary, not only in its exhibited graphic design but in its structural simplicity. The site is broken up into a very visible grid wherein there lies four distinct columns. The one on the far left acts as the main navigational guide as it colorfully seperates the sections of the site: in progress, works, who which what, links, and a language toggle. The other three act as the containers for the content. This structure is carried throughtout the site, which creates a nice sense of rythym and stability, yet it never gets stale. And there seems to be a nice balance of work to be viewed as well. Ranging from magazine publications, book covers, type development, video, and motion graphics (especially the "peursdunoir" link from the works in progress). If you like what you see, check out the links section as most of their friends and affiliates also have pretty cool sites.

posted by cehannon @ 10:10 AM 0 comments

For our peer site review I looked at Gina's site more closely. She depicts the narrative Ellis Island and the countless immigrants that passed through its halls, through the use of simple layouts, contemporary imagery (relative to the 1900s), and hotspot links, like in her first project. And I still really liked the idea of exploring the page and finding your way in the narrative through observation. And in this instance I believe it is more successful, especially in regards to creating non-linearity. Overall, the site's atmopshere, pacing, and narration is good. The several paths that were constructed take the viewer from a rather general to a more focused and specific perspective. This aids in creating a more believable narrative so it doesn't feel just like a slideshow. Now the images themselves feel authentic and appropriate, but the lack of text diminishes their overall effectiveness. I feel that there is a more personal narrative hidden underneath that a textual component could remedy. Because as is, the narrative is focused on the Chinese immigration of that time, which I myself am not familiar with, but I would have liked to learn.

posted by cehannon @ 8:15 PM 1 comments

posted by cehannon @ 5:51 PM 0 comments

http://www.flight404.com/version8/index.html

Not something I was expecting to see in the "community" section with all the experimental audio/visual (live action or animation) projects, but interesting nonetheless. Each individual study comes with several images, a project description, reference links, and if its available, an animation built into the page. The site itself is easily navigable through the use of an expandable column of differing colors, each corresponding to their own project. It also keeps the content and means of navigation seperate via a subtle difference in background color, which isn't necessary but helps the site in developing its gridded and structural atmosphere throughout the page(s).

posted by cehannon @ 4:23 PM 0 comments

Question of the Week 3/13

The site I found in regards to the Stefan Wray article, "On Electronic Civil Disobedience", is not so much an article but rather a journal documenting accounts of ecd by the political group Why War?. http://www.why-war.com/features/2003/10/diebold.html. It is the record of the groups actions targeting Diebold Election Systems. "[Their company], which counts the votes in 37 states, knowingly created an electronic system which allows anyone with access to the machines to add and delete votes without detection."

posted by cehannon @ 3:23 PM 0 comments

Question of the Week 3/6

Appropriation, especially that contained within "wider popular culture" cannot be discussed without mentioning some of the first contemporary artists to do such like Warhol and Duchamp. While they are considered innovative today, back when they practiced they made the public question whether or not their work could still be considered art or not. I also consider a lot of shows on Adult Swim as appropriation, as they tend to use characters or even complete shows out of context. Like fenslerfilms.com showed us PSAs with Sealab 2021, the show is actually a spoof of the 70s original, but with an incompetent staff and hilarious situations. And Space Ghost Ghost: Coast to Coast also uses Hanna-Barbera's 60s creation in a completely new setting.

posted by cehannon @ 8:24 PM 1 comments

netflag.guggenheim.org

Another overwhelmingly simple site. There are only a handful of links away from the first, as well as central, page which offer a little information on what is going on. And while it may not be the most aesthetically pleasing, given the background and flat typography, it is goal-oriented as far as getting visitors to "explore the flag as an emblem of territorial identity by appropriating the visual language of international flags." I found this interesting after our discussion of appropriation on Wednesday. Flags were not something that initially came to mind as a possible medium. However, the creators of netflag have made it possible for people to arrange aspects of countless flags from shapes/colors to symbolic objects and design their own appropriated flag to reflect their own views. It even keeps stats of how many times a certian country's flag or meaning was used in the creation of each and every submission. Simple and interesting.

posted by cehannon @ 7:52 PM 0 comments

http://www.twoxfour.net

This site is a "multidisciplinary studio focusing on design for art, architecture, fashion and cultural clients worldwide", or so they say. It seems the main focus of this site is very portfolio driven. The work itself is the focus as the website itself is quite simple and barren given its structure and black and white color scheme. However when expanded it gets hard to distinguish between sections because of that lack of color. Perhaps color coding the sections would improve it and the overal aesthetic of the page? Navigation is very simple as everything is layed out before you from the beginning. Main categories of the site are in list form and the viewer has a choice to expand and contract aspects of each category to obtain the information they want and hide the stuff they don't. It keeps everything very well organized. And even when someone expands a brand new category it automatically closes the previous one to prevent someone from opening every category and creating a very messy, mega-long page. It gets the job done.

posted by cehannon @ 7:06 PM 1 comments