Dave Werner, an okay guy

So I stumbled upon this site while roaming through Delicious' tag clouds (not sure if I'm using the right lingo) and thought I should share it with all of you.

This portfolio site seemed to be right on target with last weeks lecture by Tak. Here's a guy who really sees the future and understands the importance of process and ideation. He's also not afraid share his process with us! By using multimedia like video, illustration, text, and sound he really has created an experience for his audience. The kicker is, he's like 28 years old! 

The home page is a nice collage of images, that when you roll over light up. You can click on these images to navigate through the site, or simply use the navigation tool bar at the bottom of the page.

When you click on a piece of work you get a short video of Dave explaining his concepts, and on the flip side of the page, images of the project.

On Dave's logo design page you are able to see a collection logos but upon roll over the image changes into what I imagine his sketch book to look like. Very cool, and a neat way to show process.

Just thought I'd share that find with you hope you go and check it out for yourself:

okaydave

Sour Sally non-fat frozen yogurt YUM YUM!

So I just really thought this site was so cute and the illustration is absolutely beautiful. This is a fun website with quirky music and a really cute character named Sally. 

The user gets to embark on an adventure with Sally and discover what is SourSally Frozen Yogurt. A helium balloon will take you up into the beautiful swirly clouds and collect ingredients like nuts and kiwi. There is a prize for any one patient enough to collect them all! Pop Sally's balloon and she will fall down to the ground but don't worry because there are fun bouncy chairs to propel you back up to the sky, or simply wait long enough and Sally puts out a think cloud with a balloon in it, and a hand slides in to the screen and gives you another balloon. Horraah!

There are two ways to discover about SourSally as a company. A very conventional pop up menu on the side, or just drop Sally into one of the floating tea cups. A window pops up with lots of goodies about yummy frozen yogurt.

The music combined with illustration and quirky characters like a monkey rag doll and Sally, This really sets a tone for the company. They are a small business, fun, and quirky. The website was easy to navigate through and was interesting. I didn't find myself getting bored. Plus the free wallpaper is worth the effort!! Soo cute!

the url:

www.hellosoursally.com

Crumpler

This web site caught my eye on the fwa site. First of all let me just start out by saying what an experience I had going through each winner on the fwa web site! There is some amazing work out there, and the possibilities seem to be endless. 

Before visiting this site I had never heard of the company called Crumpler. I had however seen some of their bags on shoulders of trendy bike riders around town. So I was pleased to find the website to be just as trendy and cool as those colourful bags.

Why I think this site works is because the navigation through it is like nothing I've ever seen before. Yet it is still very easy to find what you need. The first page is fairly straight forward with product shots of bags on a very cool conveyor belt that moves when you go to the next page of bags.

Everything at first glance seems straight forward, you can choose a bag and learn more about that particular bag. You can view it in different colours and also read reviews by other customers who have purchased that same product. But what I liked was the aesthetic used to display the products. Everything feels like an old, retro vending machine. Right down to the tacky vinyl wood details and push buttons.

This creates a fun environment for people to navigate through. When moving the mouse a small arrow pops up and encourages you to click on it. The "machine" then moves to a new section. There are a number of quirky games and nonsense video clips to entertain you. I found my self laughing out loud at some of them. This really speaks to the personality of the Crumpler company. They are a fun bunch of people with a good sense of humor. 

All in all I think they hit their target market right on the nose. Some suggestions I would make to the designers are;

• what if the product shots moved upon "roll over", rather than having to click on a button to get another view of the bag. And show the top and bottom views too!

 ps.   here is the url:

www.crumpler.com.au/flash/flash.aspx#/english/products.html