Conclusion: "What the flock?" Campaign

I think this was a smart campaign but it does have a few faults:
- the online survey "dragging" selection didn't work so i could only choose 1%...- the poll for where you found out about What the Flock? only let you choose one answer...
- the Research section was "coming soon...", how many people will actually visit the website again to find out the research?
However it has definitely proved to be a successful campaign and it was great to see a completely new approach to getting students talking about a boring/embarrassing/taboo subject.

Fashion Websites Trends

The great thing about fashion websites is that they have a licence to do pretty much whatever they want. They are about getting the visitor to experience the band, not to give them ease of navigation through to masses of pages. This article on SmashingMagazine.com highlights the current trends.

Tim Burton's Official Website

Tim Burton's website is really fantastic. To navigate through the site you have to use your arrow keys to walk "Stain Boy" around mysterious rooms and corridors. You are given the option of walking into either the Public Gallery or the Private Gallery, where you have to enter your email address to get in. A smart move that really works, even if most of us have a "spam email account".

Although navigation with arrow keys is nothing new, it worked really well in this case as it gives the user a real sense of walking around a gallery in a mysterious, Alice in Wonderland style building.

What the flock? (...by Magpie?)

Walking through Hyde Park to uni on (I think) monday, I was inundated with black, corriflute sheep hanging from trees, standing in flocks and painted on the floor with the strap line, "What the flock?" Although I thought it was pretty cool, I also thought it was a bit of a wasted opportunity as by the time I had waded my way through all the "flocking" sheep everywhere I was pretty ready to hear what it was all about...nothing.

Well I walked into uni again on tuesday at about 5pm and there where 3 students holding a giant banner saying that this "What the flock?" thing would be launch on 10.10.10.

A few minutes ago I was wasting time on facebook... and I saw one of my friends was following this "what the flock" campaign, intrigued, I checked it out. This then lead my curiosity to click on the website link http://www.whattheflock.org.uk/.


I watched the little video which features students' reactions to a mystery question with the answer of "17".

Still intrigued to find out who was behind all of this, and being a bit of web geek, I checked out the source code of the site...

< name="author" content="Magpie Comms">

The agency we are about to receive a brief from, Magpie, seem to be involved in this crazy sheep campaign... well the brief is on the 8th Oct so we shall see what happens...!

About the website, I really like the design, it's very cute and appropriate for students. Students can share their impatience to find out what the flock it is all about on the message board and of course connect online through facebook and twitter. The only thing it lacks to me is a little favicon...but that's not a massive issue.

Gorillaz.com

I have just finished reading an article about the redesign of the band Gorillaz' website and although I'm impressed with the site, all the games you can play, features etc etc I can't help but feel that the website homepage doesn't have a "Gorillaz feel". It's a bit too "websitey". Gorillaz to me is hand drawn, telling a story about the characters, if you look at the header bar (in white at the top) it's just boring and manufactured.


The homepage is pretty good aside from the header bar, however as you navigate through the rest of the site there's next to nothing hand drawn. Maybe it's a good thing as it gives a bit of space and tidiness from the characters, I can't make up my mind! Any thoughts?


Links: Gorillaz website, Mike Robinson, Ben Sims

Design Society Website

I have been working on the new Leed University, Design Society website recently and I'm interested to hear what people think of it. The target audience is of course the School of Design students but also the tutors and potential employers of Leeds Uni graduates/students.

There are a few aims for the site:
- to give advice to School of Design students, advice written by students, not lecturers.
- to let our members (and non-members) know about what's going on in the society, socials etc.
- to help put University of Leeds design graduates firmly on the employee wish-list!

So please let me know what you think!

Mia's Website

I've been keeping an eye out for truly original website designs and I've definately found one.

Mia's website is mad. I don't think I have ever seen so many animated gifs at one time! I do however really love it. I felt like a hacker using the site, it feels like you have access to a personal computer and that you shouldn't really be using it.


Mia is well known for her political views. Recently she released "Born Free" which was accompanied by a video/short film directed by Romain Gavras which I know realise was acually working as a trailer for a film to be released in September this year, "Nortre Jour Viendra" or "Our Day Will Come".

Links :
miauk.com
dailymotion.com/
notrejourviendra.com/

Sleepeater interactive music vid

Love this music vid! My guess is don't bother using it if your internet connection isn't great however. It's always good to see stuff done a bit different!

It's worth stepping outside of your comfort zone once in a while...

I was asked to design and build a site in the style of Parasol Group's website. This was a high standard to compete with and obviously I didn't want to copy it. So, I designed my first website in Illustrator which was wierd! I'm not really an illustrator either so it was not playing to my strong points at all. I persevered and actually suprised myself, I'm super pleased with the site =)

CMW Website

Check out Advertising/Digital Agency CMW's website. Only problem is that you can spend aaaages waiting for it to load...

New Website Design...take four!

I don't think a web designer can ever really be 100% happy with their personal website, so I designed it again!

Have You Ever Considered - Designing for the Colourblind

Check out this really handy website.

What The?!

Check out the background for this blog.

Life without the internet

It has so far been a struggle, living life without the world wide web - no emails, no iPlayer, no Facebook (not that gutted about that one though...), no anything useful! But luckily I came across this postcard that will allow me to search google without the need for an internet connection.

My New Website Design www.stephburningham.com

I have just finished redesigning my website - woo! I originally had a one page layout but it wasn't working for me. I've now got a multiple page, fully validated website that I've translated into french as well. Bring on Paris!!

Mum's the word

Advertising agency Mother's website is dead simple but pretty sweet! The website just displays a video in the centre except if you scrol over the header then it will reveal the company logo, address and phone number. The video player flicks between what I would guess is a live webcam and other strange videos including one of a rabbit and some of skateboards being let to run wild in their studio. Wierd but I like it!

How To Use *Any* Font on a Website

I came across this article recommended to me by a friend. It's a method using JavaScript that allows you to render text in any font, not just the web safe ones. I'm assuming that it also means that unlike using images or Flash, search engines can still "read" your site which of course is best for Search Engine Optimisation (always good).

So I guess I could add in a word of warning for you graphic designers making fully Flash sites.
1. Search Engines can't read your site so you probably won't show on Google etc.
2. Not everyone has flash player.

To be fair though my first site was all flash!

CSS3 Awesome...?

"46% of Internet users* won’t see these features, so don’t use them as a crucial part of the design of your website" (*Internet Explorer users)

Kind of says it all really.

Check out this article if your becoming a web geek like me =)

CSS3 basically means that you can build html/css website without having to use loads of images to make different effects such as rounded corners, shadows and transparency. This sounds great but considering the above statistic, is it really worth bothering with?

Heavenly Web Design

I came across this great website for creative agency RKCR/Y&R the other day and had to share it with you!

The website was created by Saint who have an equally brilliant website and a sparkling portfolio of work.

Online Outdoors

If you're thinking of making your site look a bit more "organic", this is the trend for you!

I really like the idea of transforming a website into an outside space, it's as if the site has another dimension and invites you in. I think we'll see a lot more of this use of background images becoming 3D perhaps involving new settings, not just outdoors.