Please note: Our format changed as of 10/18/07 – see the front page and full archives for more recent listings. Thanks.
play / create 6/20/02 Description:
a collection of Shockwave interactive art
Comments:
At first, the "clock" looks like a simple thing, showing the time with a small, slow-moving animation in the background. Then, I figured out that you can get that 3D box goin' with a little mouse magic – before I know it, the thing is spinning real fast, leaving faint, fading trails of its movement behind – very cool! I'm not sure you could pull this one off in Flash – today's pick uses Shockwave and there's 8 pieces of interactive art. I particularly liked "new flowers" – not to be confused with "(foreplay) flowers" which is just as good! – the intensity of the colors and the 3D movement are astounding – very organic. The piece I liked the most, though, is called "(foreplay) pop" – drag the mouse to one of the corners of the window and keep dragging and holding it in various spots and watch what it does – cool soundtrack, too. The name of the site is right on the money...
Private and Public 6/18/02 Description:
Portraits of pedestrians at Marble Arch, London (Flash)
Comments:
Today's pick is a unique project from photographer Simon Høegsberg – most of the pictures were "taken from the same spot" and they span a period of 1 full year. Four seasons of portraits, all "snapshots of pedestrians who happened to walk into the frame of the camera." Jesper Elg, who wrote the "Notes" talks about the project in terms of "intimacy vs. surveillance" – a most interesting read – "...people carry their feeling visibly and how often you tend not to notice it, especially in crowded surroundings and in the transit of everyday life." Presented via Flash, the content is excellent and as far as design goes, excellent as well. Rune Høegsberg (Simon's brother, perhaps?) is the site's designer. Simon discovered his interest in photography in 1995 and left his home in Denmark in 1998 to study photography in London – he graduated this year. I love people photos and Simon's work is most satisfying – the portraits seem so real...
For The Masses 6/16/02 Description:
design to survive - promoting the finest in New Zealand online culture to a global audience
Comments:
Something I really like about the web is the chance to learn more about places around the world, sometimes through the eyes of photographers, and other times, through alternative portals which focus on sites in specific geographical areas. Whether those portals are design-related or not, I appreciate the service they provide to web surfers interested in learning more about places they might never actually visit in their lifetimes. Today's pick is a window to a specific locale. 14 designers and developers, all Kiwis (they're from New Zealand, that is), have banded to together to promote the "online culture" of New Zealand. The site design is as good as it gets, IMHO, and the graphics are superb. I love the art in the "Panels" section and the screenshots in the "Links" section. "Profiles" (with similar tasty graphics) has some interesting interviews of Kiwi designers. Great site!
Virtual Plastic 6/11/02 Description:
..surgery for Windows. Collected tweaks and links to change the look.
Comments:
Let's switch gears today to the realm of resources on the web. Got Windows? Chances are you do. Like the way everything looks? Chances are you don't. It might be the "Start" button that you find annoying or maybe you've always wished you could "skin" the windows. Perhaps being able to add a folder of shortcuts (an embedded "submenu") to the systray would be useful to you. Enter today's pick, a repository of sorts for information and tools related to changing the look of Windows – there's also tons of useful information if you just want to get a grip on some "basics" of using Windows. My impression is that most of the software tools are designed for more advanced users and you might hear that little voice within saying "don't try this at home" now and then. I've noticed in some of the posts that they make it a point to specify if the software tool is friendly to beginners or not. I like the look and feel of today's pick – nice navigation (love the expanding menu) and the search engine works well. The site has been online for over 3 years and is updated frequently – the "Site Info" menu on the sidebar is a good place to start...
sadee 6/7/02 Description:
independent projects - design and process (Flash)
Comments:
There's a neat little list of women designers (with links to their sites) that I recently discovered – if you're a woman designer, you may wanna swing by there and see if you're listed. Anyway, I've been checking out some of the listed sites I wasn't already familiar with and today's pick is one that really impressed me. Milena Sadee's Flash interface uses what looks like little contact sheets, overlapped and horizontally scrollable along the bottom of the work area – very smooth – the icon sized thumbs are clear and inviting. In addition to a section of Flash experiments, there's also sections of images from Mexico and Belize that I really liked – image #05 in the Belize section is really artsy and #08 in the Mexico section left me feeling a little sorry for the poor bull. Another section called "halou" has some interesting multiframe series – check out #05. I like the way Milena's fit the site perfectly for 1024x768 – this is an excellent design with great visual content...