writing » net notables
Warp 10 Technologies, out of Toronto, has set up an advertising portfolio space whose mandate is to “make creative professionals and agencies more effective in promoting their capabilities worldwide by offering them a free on-line repository where they can present their advertising portfolios for the world to see”.
The site just got up and running, but already there is a fair amount of web and traditional creative to browse through. It is completely free for agencies to post their work, and the international approach is ambitious and laudable. Definitely worth a bookmark.
Innovative marketing alert: idealab!, a web site concept development company is offering consumers a free Compaq personal computer, free Internet access and e-mail if they agree to receive targeted advertising on the desktop.
During the trial of the concept (which was launched mid February), it will ship 10,000 computers to customers. Consumers can sign up on the site, and if they pass through the demographics filter, will receive a free home computer.
“This is now possible because of the explosion of e-commerce, and the opportunities for interactivity and targeting that the computer allows. Merchants will pay to reach you, so they essentially will subsidize the cost of the PC”, explained idealab!'s founder and self-proclaimed Internet visionary Bill Gross. Ads will be drawn from a collection stored on the hard drive that ships with the PC, allowing rich media and interactive ads to be displayed quickly. The advertisement database will be updated when the user is online.
Web designers and new media professionals should have a look at the InternetList, which bills itself as the “ultimate Internet directory”. You can use the site to find a design firm, locate an Internet Service Provider, and search and compare web hosting services.
Designers can post their resumes for free, and visitors can browse them. The burning web issues of the day, and web tips and info are also available in fairly useful editorial sections. Users can subscribe to several web design newsletters on the site as well.
Volkswagen's New Beetle for the United Kingdom
site, created by Deepend Design, is a
whimsical and entertaining piece of brochureware, using
some of the latest Web design platforms. As a marketing
vehicle, pardon the pun, this site is top notch. For some
reason, the best pure marketing web sites come from the
automotive companies.
The site design plays off of the curves of the New Beetle, there are no hard corners anywhere on this site, and all the navigational elements are in sweeping ellipses and rounded swooshes. The pages are constructed in Shockwave, Macromedia's vector based animation platform, that allows designers rigid control on layout, font choice, and lets them incorporate motion and sound into their pages while still keeping file size low.
Navigational buttons leap out of the screen when the mouse
passes over them, and play sound files (which actually gets
a little annoying). There is plenty of solid animation, as
images morph and shift on screen.
A good deal of whitespace
is forced on these pages which lend a clean and clinical
feel to them, nicely offsetting the humorous elements and
copy.
Play the “Flashing Lights” game, where you drive the Beetle, and are rewarded for flashing your lights at any oncoming Volkswagens, an homage to the fraternal tip-of-the-hat Beetle drivers have long engaged in. A word of advice though, don't flash the cops.
All in all the site handles smoothly, has good byte mileage, and offers peak performance on the infobahn, well done Deepend.
Net Notables appears several times a year in Applied Arts, Canada's premiere graphic design magazine
