Google Chrome Ad

Cool ad!

Sod HTML, YouTube will do!

What a lovely idea this is, build your website in YouTube. This has been around for a while but I just rediscovered it and had to add it here as it's one of the most innovative uses of YouTube I've seen for ages. Boone Oakley created videos that are essentially their web pages and linked between them within YouTube using YouTube's annotations...which are basically hot spots overlaying the video.

There's some great touches within the videos like the loading bar at the beginning and the contact screen where the angry boss shoots the rabbit...a bit morbid but made me laugh.

Halloween 2 Website - From excellent to disappointing

This is an excellent web site where (as with so many movie sites) Flash is absolutely necessary to reflect the mood of the film.

There is a great 3d interface (I'm guessing done using Papervision3d) that doesn't feel like it was used for the sake of it as it genuinely adds to the feel of the site. There are some genuine attempts at making the user jump (check out the transition between download items) normally this is a cheap shot in horror films but to use it online seems quite fresh and fitting with the subject.

Disappointingly though if you view the site without Flash installed you get quite a different experience. It's is just a white page with the following message:

You need to upgrade your Flash Player

This is replaced by the Flash content.

The official site of Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN II. In theaters August 28th.

Not very helpful or engaging...a user without Flash would feel a little short changed to see this.

They have used swfObject (http://code.google.com/p/swfobject/) which if you don't know allows the browser to deliver Flash content if the user has Flash installed (this can also check for the correct version of Flash to match what you've published the swf as) or replace it with HTML. It means that for the user the switch from HTML to Flash is seamless, the browser delivers the correct content depending on the browsers capabilities. I can only guess that all the money was spent on the Flash site?

The issue of Flash has been a long debated one (ask Adobe and they will tell you that 99% of web enabled computers have the Flash player installed http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/). However, with the growth of smart phones (particularly the iPhone) trying to replicate the online experience on a mobile the delivery of content in different ways has become more important. Accessibility is the king, it's always worth remembering that people now access the web in a multitude of ways and we as web designers and developers have to account for this and deliver our content accordingly.

See the Halloween2 site for yourself here www.halloween2-movie.com

Puma Fuseproject Packaging

Puma spent 21 months coming up with more eco-friendly and sustainable packaging. They worked with Yves Béhar at FuseProject to develop the new packaging.

This is all quite cool but as a digital designer I am far more interested in the video they produced to promote this. I love the way the video tells the story of the 21 month design process. 21 months seems like a long time but the video shows the sheer number of concepts they went through and how thoroughly they investigated and exhausted every eventuality. It's a great example of using video to case study projects by telling the story of the project visually.

Lakai's Fully Flared

Yeah, I know, skateboard movies...man grinds down a rail, falls over! Well take a look at Lakai's Fully Flared directed by Ty Evans, Spike Jonze and Cory Weincheque. The ultra slow motion intro is really cool.