The Lungs of Good Design

It’s just as well Northen Kingdom are from Sweden, the home of IKEA. Handy for picking up a new awards cabinet every other day. One of the many great examples of work is the the Teamgeist. To create a buzz about the new German football team’s strip they create an interactive game. The look and feel of the film used would not look out of place in any Hollywood movie. We could blab on about them but best to let them tell us what they do. It’s quite inspiring:

“Storytelling is our trade. We provide unique interactive communication. Connecting brands with people. Creating emotional bonds and experiences that make people feel, reflect and discuss. We work methodically and are always excited about new ideas. When we work with you, we’re a focused and passionate team. From the wildest concepts to the finest details, passion, perfection and innovation are at the heart of everything we do. If you want to break boundaries with your project, working with us is a good start.”
And please, please, please check out their amazing showreel on Vimeo.

This movie showing the known universe created by the American Museum of Natural History really makes us feel a little small.

After seeing Avatar and being quite blown away by it’s amazing CGI I came across Alex Roman’s The Third & The Seventh. This got me thinking. In true Harry Hill TV Burp style who’d win in a fight? I mean, don’t get me wrong, Pandora is pretty cool but I’m not sure I ever felt like I was fully transported into the world. It felt a little like being in spectacular animation. An amazing animation (especially the glowing forest foliage – wow) but an animation nonetheless. Alex Roman’s abstract piece left me in true awe. And I’ll bet it cost a fraction of the big Hollywood budget.

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Poke recently redesigned the Man City website. It looks sweet but what of the other 19 teams? As the premiership season is now in full swing, who is the champions when it comes to football teams websites? And who will be fighting the design relegation battle? To be honest after reviewing all 20 there pretty much all the bloomin’ same.

01 Man City
The clear winner. The website has gelled well with lots of top superstar elements. Nice big images. Slick design, everywhere. Actually quite simple but has a perfect balance of images and text. Really interesting content including videos with highlights, flickr images, twitter feed and nice links to fan sites. Also the only site not to have a splash page.

02 Chelsea
At first glance this site seems to be like the rest but it features a nice section called ‘The Shed’ which host fan polls, twitter feeds, a rumour mill, etc. Not quite executed all that well but at least they’re trying something a bit different.

03 Sunderland
The north-east’s only representitive comes up trumps. Ok so it’s pretty standard in term of content but the design has got a nice sophisticated depth to it. And a nice interactive peice with the team profiles.

04 Portsmouth
Nicely designed. Breaks the mould for the standard layout of other team website. Has a nice depth to it. A little hard to read.

Portsmouth FC homepage

05 Hull City
Yet another splash page. There a theme running here. Maybe the worst splash page so far. Could even find my way off it. The website itself goes dark, which is pretty nice. Early contender for a champions league spot.

Hull FC homepage

06 Man Utd
The premiership champions are definitely the losers in the website stakes when compared to their city rivals. Quite boxy although the information is quite easy to digest. Not exactly the field of dreams.

07 Arsenal
Why do they need a splash page? I mean c’mon. Rest of it is pretty standard fair. Again quite boxy and nothing really that inspirational.

08 West ham
Standard layout as many of the rest but has got a little Italian style sleekness. Must be the Zola factor

09 Everton
There is a lot of content on the Everton site and whilst it is a little messy it has a lot to offer it’s fans. Also includes a really nice youth development site called The Everton Way.

10 Liverpool
Splash page alert. Annoying. The site is very crammed with info. Not sure where to look.

11 Tottenham
Another splash page. Grr! Another standard style website. Pretty easy to navigate.

12 Burnley
Punching above their weight both on field and on the website.

13 Wolves
I swear there is like one company that does all these website. They’re all the same.

14 Stoke
Standard mid-table mediocracy.

15 Wigan
Same as all the rest syndrome

16 Bolton
Same design as most of the other mid tablers. Although this one is a nice deep violet colour. Pretty!

17 Blackburn
Same design as most of the other mid tablers. Although this one is an ugly blue colour. Yuch!

18 Aston Villa
Splash page with a cheeky animation. Site itself is pretty flat.

19 Fulham
Info heavy. Not very exciting

20 Birmingham
Whoa. Shocking! Looks cheap. Everything is a really ugly blue colour

Amazing new flash website showing off the new cinema screen from Phillips. Similar to the Ikea advert a couple of years ago. Trying to dissect how they have done this. Making our head hurt!

Fantastic portfolio site from independent Art Director and Graphic Designer Pierrick Calvez. Excellent attention to detail really caught our collecive design eyes. From the columns to the type every detail is perfect! Nice work ranging from Le coq Sportif to fashion designer Clara Collins and Aichi.

Love this limited edition Michael Jackson print by César Moreno to celebrate the life of the King of Pop. And now can’t wait until we get the Princess Diana style commemorative plates. You can purchase one here.

Another great example of illustration from Digmeout collection of artists – Igu. Her illustration characters are sweet and happy, reminds me the characters from the Western picture books.

You won’t believe your eyes when you look at Ben Thomas curiously amazing photographs. You may well believe you are looking at an intricate model city but in fact these are shots of the full 100% to scale versions made to look small. Why? Why not? They give new spin on our normal everyday lives.

Charlie