LOVE

http://www.lovecreative.com/

I found this website when researching different design companies around the North West. LOVE is one of the most famous design agencies in the UK, with clients such as Playstation, Nike, Nandos, Microsoft and Yorkshire Tea. You would expect a company such as this to have a well developed website, which they do, but it's not what I expected. The first thing you will see is a note sayin that it's a website created in power point, which you notice throughout with the sounds and transitions. It's funny because when designing a presentation people tell you to avoid such things, but it seems to really work here.

The home page is very simple as you can see from the top picture, with only a few words and it's also an easy site to navigate through, but that's definitely a good thing. There's nothing I hate more than not understanding a website and having to really search for something.

Generally I just love the fresh simple feeling this website portrays. It's different and fun which I think, by the look of their work, reflects the company well.

Revels

www.revels.co.uk

I recently bought a packet of revels and wondered whether or not they were still doing their clever advertising flavour evictions. On entering the site I was surprised that I had to enter my d.o.b. apparently it's for over 12's only, which I don't really understand as there's nothing harmful on there. In fact, theres games on this website which I would have thought too easy and boring for the 12's +. But nevertheless, I really enjoyed this website. I liked the way you could interact with the space, by pressing on different chocolates lead you through to a different destination. You twist and whirl around this stripy box you seem to be in, which I found to look reasonably simple, but kept me amused for a while. Overall a fun little site, shame that the eviction was over, I would have liked to kick out orange. I was disappointed also to see that even though people have voted out coffee, it's somehow made it's way back again.

2012

http://www.whowillsurvive2012.com/

You're probably getting fed up of hearing this, but when I was in New York I saw a lot of massive posters on the sides of buildings etc, saying simply 'WE WERE WARNED' in large red writing. It certainly caught my attention and I think I immediately understood what it was for. Basically there is a film coming out in October 2009 called 2012, which I think is a lot like the Day After Tomorrow but much worse. For some reason, I seem to be attracted to these big disaster films, they fascinate me and I love all the special effects, hopefully this one won't disappoint.

This post is actually about the website however. When first hearing about 2012, I quickly clicked onto the official website to see what it was about. The ordinary features are there, for example you can learn about the film, cast, crew etc, but I was surprised by all the extras. You can download a free app to your iphone, which is basically a test to see if you could survive in a disaster. There's also a competition which involves you watching the trailer and answering a question. A clever tactic as you might have to watch it over and over again. There's also a voting campaign for your 'next world leader,' which involves you watching the candidate's video's, some of which are very funny.

Overall I was impressed with this website, it kept me busy for a long time, all the time thinking about the film, which was no doubt their intentions. It's not particularly visually interesting, but that's not the reason I chose to write about it. Sometimes it's more about the content rather than how it looks.

K.space for K.swiss

http://kspace.kswiss.com

I can't remember exactly how I found this website, but I remember liking the way you could navigate through it. You begin by being transported to this space full of celebrities and interesting people all in a line. Not only can you click through each one, but you can use the directional buttons on the keyboard also. For some reason I was particularly impressed by this, it's quite a simple application, but I enjoyed being able to zoom in and out using the up and down keys. When you have selected your person of choice, I chose Ed Westwick, who most will recognise as Chuck from Gossip Girl, you can watch a video in which they talk about themselves, their styles, future ambitions and obviously the k. swiss classics. There's also an image gallery if you fancy seeing the the shoes stationary for a while. I did like each of the films, but there's not that much more to it. However, in saying this, the website definitely had a nice flow to it and you could tell that it was well thought out.

The Eco Zoo

http://ecodazoo.com

In an article I read in my Arts Projects magazine, a designer mentioned this website. He sounded very enthusiastic about it, so I thought I should take a look for myself. It was surprising, I wasn't expecting anything like this. I'm pretty sure this is a website for children, but I seemed to stay on it for a while. Eco Zoo is a website made up of different characters all living in a cardboard tree. You can explore with an impressive 360 degrees perspective and learn about being more environmentally friendly, or having more of a positive attitude. It has an adult message behind it, but with quite a childish facade.

No matter who you are, you can't deny that this is an impressive website. The way you can maneuver your way around is so interesting, I don't think I've seen anything like it before. There's also the way you can interact with the characters, flipping through their pop up books and hearing their stories. It's also quite cute and looks really good, giving you a positive attitude on leaving the site.