BrainFuel

Adobe finally revamps its web site. I thought the old black background was getting a bit old and this new one appears simpler and less constrained.

I spoke with Sue at Andora Gallery today, they’ve got an awesome web site. I told her that. It’s just cool. I think it’s fine that the site is built with frames, but please tell me why??? why was this site built with frames? It doesn’t need to be that way. A solid winner.

Santaluz. This site just “works,” the copy is written with style and there is plenty of spacing between lines. The colors all match and there are some big pictures. Cool.

Lots of fun stuff at Bearskin Rug.

Airy. Breezy. Exciting. We’re ripping these guys off for our studio’s next site redesign. You can’t copyright a grid!
(I especially like the scroller mechanism for the news section. On most flash sites, this is a usability problem!)

You probably already know about 2advanced, likely the leading Flash design studio in the world. But did you know they’re so crazy they made a website introducing a huge party for the release of their revamped company site?

Thanks to their marketing director, here’s a Key West – based design firm with a unique approach to their portfolio site…

Also check out their site for http://www.discovereronline.com, the web home for an 80-foot research vessel. I like the feeling of maritime timelessness present in the intro, although it doesn’t really flow through to the rest of the site.

A couple criticisms: don’t do flash sites that fill the browser window to 100%. It puts your aspect ratio at the mercy of the browser window and can easily make all your work look crude, stretched and distorted. Also, I spent an awful long time in the preload. The only reason for this seems to be cd-quality music clips, over which I had no volume or mute control. I play what I want to on my computer speakers, thank you very much. Give me my ears back!

I can see that either their focus is more on marketing and less on effective web design, or they’re taking advantage of their proximity to the ocean! I know I would be.

A smooth commercial site, just like their smooth titanium-frame bendy indestructible super-expensive sunglasses. Not sure about the aqua buttons though.

Sony Ericsson is introducing the T610, a phone that seems to have some extra effort put into the design. On a related note, Samsung is producing a limited number of the phone seen in the Matrix Reloaded.

More cunningly designed new wonder phones: the miniature jewel: Siemens SL55. Another with a slide-open keyboard: Nokia 7650.