Google subtly roll out some elegant refinements
Posted on 01/07/11.
Over the last week we’ve been watching the Google search results page subtly evolve into something quite elegant. They have managed to retain their essential google-ness (rich blue text links, plenty of whitespace) but have introduced some new styling to page elements that make the whole google experience feel more aesthetically considered.
The different Google services are now presented in a black bar across the top of the screen; previously these were blue link text on white. Underneath these, the Google branding and search box are now in a lightly tinted strip instead of floating on white. Finally, the search refinement options on the left are now grey text on white, with brick-red headings. All in all, the page feels more structured, and more pleasant to look at (and use).
So, hats off to the Google design team who have quietly made some great visual improvements to the search.
Link: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bellamy+studio
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Web type is coming of age
Posted on 02/06/11.
This week Typekit have announce that Paul Renner’s classic geometric typeface Futura is now available as a web font. It looks like a lot of time has been spent on getting this just right, and to many designers it will represent a real milestone in the advancement of designing for the web.
Link: http://blog.typekit.com/2011/06/01/futura/
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Creative Choices
Posted on 04/04/11.
After several months of planning, designing, user-testing and building, our largest web-project to date went live on Friday! Several hundred articles and 20,000 members have now been re-homed in a totally new site, running on a publishing system that makes it easy for the editorial team to keep the site up to date.
We worked with the brilliant team at Creative & Cultural Skills to totally re-think, redesign and and rebuild the Creative Choices website, which is aimed at helping anyone in the creative industries to further their career or develop their business. It’s been a fantastic project and we’ll be enhancing the site as time goes on.
Link: http://www.creative-choices.co.uk
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Sea Gems launch
Posted on 08/02/11.
This week saw the launch of a big project we’ve been working on for Sea Gems, a local silver jewellery wholesaler. We’ve built them an online catalogue from the ground up, allowing their customers unlimited access to view and order from their complete product range.
This was a complex build, migrating their customer database and importing 1000s of product lines into a site that will hopefully make a huge difference to their business.
We built the site using Expression Engine and employed the fantastic Cartthrob module to handle the shopping basket functionality.
Link: http://seagems.co.uk
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Arcade Fire promo showcases some HTML5 potential
Posted on 17/01/11.
The impressive online promo for The Wilderness Downtown has just won an FWA (Favourite Website Award). Multiple windows show off video, beautiful canvas animations of a flock of birds (at one point laid over moving google maps), all over a great song. The video has been brilliantly shot without any location-specific footage, so the surrounding visuals (your home town) complete the picture. Good work Chris Milk, Aaron Koblin and B-Reel!
Link: http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/
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Rumpetroll!
Posted on 05/10/10.
Rumpetroll‘s literal translation from Norwegian to English is Ass Troll. But the Rumpetroll website is an impressive (and quite exciting, if you’re geeks like us) demo of what can be achieved with the HTML5 canvas, javascript and css, and it’s the first application of websockets that we’ve seen. It’s an instant-loading, smooth looking and innovative chat room, put together by some extremely clever Norwegians.
Link: http://rumpetroll.com/
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UKLA website update
Posted on 13/04/10.
Today we launched a new community-focussed website for the UKLA. We’ve added lots of features - now every member can contribute to their blog and access downloadable resources. We’ve also added an ‘In your area’ map that displays local information and given the president a blog so that he can keep members up to date with the direction of the association. All in all we’re hoping it will be a fantastic community tool for members of the organisation.
Link: http://www.ukla.org
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