www.akqa.com
Designer: AKQA, San Francisco
Source: 2009 How Design Annual, p163
The more you delve into this site, the more you appreciate its "bone structure". The site is solid in its foundation. It's set up like a t.v. with everything anchored and surrounded by a frame. Each click changes the inside information but the very diminutive buttons are permanently placed.
The site starts with a different splash page every time you enter the site. Each is quite unique — from a still shot of a cartoon with an annoying laugh to a video to a slide show.
The information is presented in a very minimalistic style with lots of white space and small, clean black type in close proximity. An unexpected element is a hand drawing on the other side of the screen introducing many of the pages by drawing a "play diagram" with a pencil leading the viewer to the title of the page. I found the contrast between the sketchy pencil and the clean white slate of structured type to be visually stimulating. The site looks sterile when it's dormant, but press a link and it always a surprise.
The contact page had a nice visual with a shadow of each city that the company had an office in located on the bottom of the page. By clicking either the city name or its corresponding shadow, the office location and information popped up. It makes you wonder if they choose a city to put an office in based on whether it has a recognizable skyline? Hmmm...
2 comments:
Cathy -- This is a cool site. Nice write up on it's many notable features...the animation is just right (unique but not overdone). It's interesting how they managed to keep a mostly text-oriented site (at least the sections I breezed through) moving. Thanks for the research! Laura
These are great! fun to look at and also to interact with. Beautiful!
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