Tuesday, January 29, 2013

5 Artistic Websites




This website featuring the band Rekkiabilly is well crafted, has a sensible layout, and is visually interesting. One of my more favorite aspects of the site is the “X” icon that is used, the skull, when viewing photos or other pop-up windows. This icon is reused throughout the website, both within the banner at the top separating the different links and as bullets under “Latest News.” Reusing material is always a smart idea, especially when tackling large projects such as building a website. It has a rustic, gritty look to it, something I believe probably relates to the band and the music they play, so I’d say the website delivers the band’s image successfully.



While the artistic style is very cartoony and focused more towards a younger audience, it works for this site as it shows the strong points of the Meomi group. Being designers for children’s books and television shows, this style is represented clearly when first opening up the page. This is an important aspect to convey when laying out a website. Does the viewer understand what the website is when they first open it up? Hopefully, the answer is yes. In particular, I really enjoy all of the roll-over animations that have been included around the content area of the pages. It gives the website some extra flavor for those who like to explore.



Two reasons I included this website: first, I really enjoy the hand-drawn, chalkboard feel going on; second, it promotes artists globally and gets them in connection with other business both large (LEGO) and small. While there are some areas I would improve upon (such as the cluttered feeling and lack of division between the lower sections on the home page), I think the concept is strong. I like that directly on the front page you can see who the more popular artists are, some of the clients that have used BootB, and some of the open projects currently available for artists to tackle.



This is a pretty interesting site for a private school in California. While there are a lot of graphics and is visually intensive, I think it is done in such a way that keeps everything organized and understandable. I liked the Student blog sections on the website and how each blog was associated with an image of the student and a small biography about them. The previous and next buttons do not take you to a new page, rather the visual rotates and pans to each new student. Clicking on their person takes you to the blog. Breaking the traditional mold of simply traversing from one page to the next gives the website a lot more interest and excitement.



I think this website is a good example how something simple can be very elegant and still retain strong artistic qualities. The fading in and out of backgrounds when navigating from one page to the next, the gradient fade applied on her graphics, and its shear simplicity makes the website easy to understand while also being enjoyable to view. The links are laid out in a clear and readily identifiable way such that it makes it easy for me as the viewer to know where I am going and how to get there. The roll-over effects are subtle, a simple shift of the link and a bolding of its letters. This simplicity and elegance is also mirrored in her website signature and logo displayed at the top of each page.

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