Flash/ Site Design Mags?
Hello:
Got a resource question for you all.
Anyone know of any good magazines that target Flash/website design?
I read ID, Print Comm Arts, How, etc. but was wondering if anyone knew of any mags dedicated to flash design or interactive design?
Sorry if this is the wrong spot for this post (it sort of concerns flash development).
Any resources (printed) you know about-- or a pointer to the right forum on Kirupa to post this-- please let me know.
Thanks.
--jmac
___________
KirupaForum > Flash > Flash 8 (and earlier) > Flash MX
Posted on: 12-15-2003, 05:44 PM
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Flash/ Site Design Mags?
Hello:
Got a resource question for you all.
Anyone know of any good magazines that target Flash/website design?
I read ID, Print Comm Arts, How, etc. but was wondering if anyone knew of any mags dedicated to flash design or interactive design?
Sorry if this is the wrong spot for this post (it sort of concerns flash development).
Any resources (printed) you know about-- or a pointer to the right forum on Kirupa to post this-- please let me know.
Thanks.
--jmac
___________
Flash Design Methods, (what Is The Best Way To Design The Overall Site?)
Hey guys, i am new to flash and so far I have seen a couple ways that you can develop sites. one is to have a main timeline and load swfs into it. and the other is to put everything on the main timeline. I was searching for an article that would give me the advantages and disadvantages of both. anyone know about this?
Using Flash To Design A Web Site
hello all,
i'm trying to figure out how i can redo my web site using flash. it is pure html at the moment, approximately 10 pages in total.
should i....
(a) create 10 separate .swf files, one for each page on my site, or
(b) should i have the whole site (all 10 pages) be one single .swf movie that loads when someone types in my url??
if the right approach is (a), i guess each .swf file would be embedded in its own html page... and i guess when you click on a button in one .swf, it loads the relevant html document.... right??
if the right approach is (b), wouldn't the movie take forever to load?
sorry if i'm asking a really stupid question, but i just finished reading a beginner's guide that focused primarily on using flash to create short web-based animations. it made no mention of how i could use flash to design a web interface.
i'm probably way off base on both approaches! some advice would be greatly appreciated!
Flash Site Design ?
Yes I am definately a newbie to flash... I have a question.
I have a design idea for a site, but it was designed in Photoshop 7. I do have the latest version of Fireworks but I am a lot more comfortable in photoshop. What should I save my graphic in before I import it to the Flash MX canvas... .png?
Flash Site Design
I'd like to know everyone's favorite flash site that isn't on flashkit's featured list and why.
Flash Site Design?
do you know other SWF movies clips like this: http://www.flashkit.com/movies/Basic...9093/index.php
(I mean the way when you press the button in this site and then it shows some images and when you press the image it goes bigger)
Thank you!!
Flash Site Design - How To -
I've been learning flash for the last month or so and now I'm about to dig in. I need to create a site and slideshow that has animated borders around a slideshow like this:
http://www.gretchenadams.com/ (enter site)
With then entry lines looking as though they are drawn on should I be doing this by creating a movie clip of a drawn out border and then masking, fading and keyframing the borders in? Or should that be done with some actionscript trickery?
The actual resizing borders around the slideshow. Do I just create 3 or so different borders and then is there a way to write a script that recognizes the size of the photo and then adjusts the border automaticly so that I can load the photos from xml. I'm pretty sure that if I was creating a self contained slideshow I could animate this all myself without some crazy actionscripts (Aside from the basics) but since I need to load them from xml and I need it to adjust itself to the size I'm not quite sure which way I should be heading.
Thanks for your prompt attention : )
New To Web Design/making First Flash Site, Maybe
I am attempting to do a family site with slideshows and photo albums. I wish to have eight buttons, one for each family, that opens to their own tree. I have browsed this site for awhile, picked up several books and am having difficulty locating (or recognizing) the appropriate instructions for such a thing, which I do realize is a
riduculously basic technique. I did achieve some success as I got a button to open something, but then found that all of the buttons could open the same file. Oh, and the files I need to open are movies outside of the main movie, which will be the interface. The reason for this is that the host will not allow any single file larger than 265kb. I know what I want but I could use some help. I thank you in advance.
Flash Site Design Tutorial
Does anyone know of a really good Flash Site Design tutorial? One that uses AS2, with possibly XML, button classes, etc? Thanks, Dvl
Flash Site Design Tips
I'm looking to build a flash portfolio site. Basically the picture I have in my mind of this site is that its going to be very......elegant. I don't know how to put it in words. Its going to be called Sophistication, and will be a black website with very very mild transtitions. It will have aptly have a calming Mozart song as the background.
What I want to know is, at the Loading screen I would like to design it such a way that when the site is loaded, the "L" "A" "D" "I" "N" and "G" disappear, but the "O" stays and it sort of goes up and gently comes down like a comet and explodes to reveal a blinding light and the main site content appears.
Can someone give me a few tips or pointers on how to do this? I have a very clear idea in mind of what to do , just that I don't know how to do this in flash.
Flash Site Timeline Design
Hi all,
I am going to start a flash site but when I am looking at the timeline and the animation that I am going to do, my timeline might stretch to a few thousands. As my site is totally flash and that there are different sections to it, my timeline tends to be very long and I might have many layers. Is that common and that we can't avoid?
Some animations need a few long frames and different sections of the site would have different sections in the timeline. Is there a way to minimise the length of timeline when creating a flash site?
Edited: 09/30/2007 at 10:00:40 PM by xfiles_wolvie
FLV FILES IN FLASH SITE DESIGN
Can anyone give me some suggestions, I am using a flash template that has 7 separate flash files (1.fla; 2.fla;3fla; etc.) that feed into the 1.fla/1.swf/1.index.html flash page. I have incorporated a small movie with no sound into the swf.1 file and then the rest of the files have simple text but in the 6.swf file I utilized another template by Dan Carr which he put up on this site that has an flv movie player with 5 flv files. I have no problem with this template it works wonderfully, the problem is it opens and play independently but it is 6.swf and when I open my 1.swf/1.index.html file the voice from the first movie in my 6.swf file plays. The movie sound that plays from my 6.swf file is the first flv movie on that page which has 4 other flv movie files. I don't understand why the sound track for that flv file is playing in my homepage or 1.swf file. Expermenting, I took the voice out of that first flv movie player and with the voice/soundtrack out of the first flv/movie in 6.swf then no other sounds carry forward to the homepage or the 1.swf/1.html page. But I want to keep all 5 movies in my 6.swf file/movie player and not start that file with a blank flv spot and then 4 other movies. I would appreciate any suggestions.
SueSue
Plans To Design Flash Site
Ok, well I am pretty new to flash but have been playing around with it for about a week or two.
My current site, http://mike.avalanchestudios.net, is made in HTML and I was advised by people who visited it, to make a flash version.
So, I toyed with the idea, scribbled down a few of my thoughts and decided to give it a shot...but...
I have a few questions:
1. Should I try to recreate a similar layout to the HTML version, then tweak it as time goes on, or should I make a completely different layout? Another possibility I thought of was to add flash features to the current site(i.e. the navigation menu) and eventually develop it into a flash site.
2. If I did make a flash site, should I have a HTML version(with a splash page first to direct a visitor to the right version for them) for those who don't use/like flash sites?
3. I planned to use dynamic text boxes to display content, is this the best way?
It's nothing big, just something to give me a little jump start.
Thanks.
Plans To Design Flash Site
Ok, well I am pretty new to flash but have been playing around with it for about a week or two.
My current site, http://mike.avalanchestudios.net, is made in HTML and I was advised by people who visited it, to make a flash version.
So, I toyed with the idea, scribbled down a few of my thoughts and decided to give it a shot...but...
I have a few questions:
1. Should I try to recreate a similar layout to the HTML version, then tweak it as time goes on, or should I make a completely different layout? Another possibility I thought of was to add flash features to the current site(i.e. the navigation menu) and eventually develop it into a flash site.
2. If I did make a flash site, should I have a HTML version(with a splash page first to direct a visitor to the right version for them) for those who don't use/like flash sites?
3. I planned to use dynamic text boxes to display content, is this the best way?
It's nothing big, just something to give me a little jump start.
Thanks.
Flash Site Design Question? URGENT
hi!! im having a little problem.. I have a site that is completly flash. The main page with the interface has 6 links on it to differnt sections of my site all in flash. im trying to figure out how to preload each page with the main interface still on the screen to make the transitions smooth. I have tried putting each section in a new scene but cant figure out how to get it to work.. Please if anyone knows of a tutorial or has a suggestion i would greatly appreciate it. If you have no idea what im talking about or want to see what im trying to explain this site is a perfect example.... http://www.2advanced.com... thanks in advance!!!!!!!!
Flash Site Design Question? URGENT
hi!! im having a little problem.. I have a site that is completly flash. The main page with the interface has 6 links on it to differnt sections of my site all in flash. im trying to figure out how to preload each page with the main interface still on the screen to make the transitions smooth. I have tried putting each section in a new scene but cant figure out how to get it to work.. Please if anyone knows of a tutorial or has a suggestion i would greatly appreciate it. If you have no idea what im talking about or want to see what im trying to explain this site is a perfect example.... http://www.2advanced.com thanks in advance!!!!!!!!
[Edited by VintedVooDoo on 07-14-2001 at 02:44 PM]
Flash Virtual/Build It Site Design
I have recently been approached about doing a site that looks and functions a lot like the http://www.vwfeatures.com site. Can anyone tell me, because I am not a that good of a flash developer and will probably have to have someone else do the work, what kind of time a site like this would take? I will have someone providing all of he graphics to me, I would just need to create the actual site. Also, would anyone know what kind of money something like this would normally run? They asked me to quote them but I don't know how long it would take nor have I done something like this before to know what it should run for.
Thanks for your help!
NEWBIE . . Wanting To Design Small Site Entirely With Flash
Im new to internet flash and i have several questions as to how i would go about designing and publishing a site completely out of flash. Bascially what i want is one homepage with several interactive buttons on it. I would like for those buttons to load up text when pushed. i dont want the text to load up in new browser boxes though. I want it to all stay within the one page. I would like for them to appear on the page with small arrows beside them that gives the user the ability to scroll up and down. There is a website i go to often called vector lounge. If check that out you will see what im talking about. once you enter the page and click on the main buttons like PRESS PARTNERS and CONCEPT, etc. the displayed text appears there on the page and you can scroll up and down automatically with the arrows. Thats pretty much what i would like.
I also dont know how to size up my flash page so that it would fit into a web-browser correctly. I want the flash page to fit into the web-browser with no white borders or anything around it. AND, last but not least, I dont know how i publish the site to the web. I have dreamweaver. but how would i go about doing it through that?
Im very sorry that my questions are so elementary. Im just having a hard time figuring how to incorporate flash to the internet. Im familiar with making movies in flash and the graphic aspect of the whole thing, I just dont know how to create webpages, let alone create them out of flash entirely and publish them to the web. Please help if you can. it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Design Of Site
Just wondering how complex sites are developed. Here is what I mean:
If you can imagine a complete website designed in flash for a company. The company wants sections like: about us, products, etc. When a user clicks on a section "about us" are flash sites developed using gotoandplay() to a certain frame or do they load movie clips that overlap underlying content? You can see some interesting work out there and just trying to see how it is done.
thanks for any help.
wd
New Site Design Help? This Is What I Have....
here is the new site im working on for my fiance. it's the hardest yet, because all she has is poems on her site. so a design had to be something a little different. i choose flash because 1) i need to learn it, and 2) i think it looks cool.
i have run into a few problems so far and im not sure where to go.
1) when you hover your cursor over the "Poetry" & "Writings" buttons, you see a small thin black line at the top of the table. that is due to the invisble button for the menu.
**got the tut from macromedia on how to make that.
2) If you hover over the "Writings" button, and scroll down, then scroll back to the "Writings" button, the movie reloads itself... why? i copied the tut to the letter. i have tried making this a few times, and get the same result everytime. all my action script are as in the tut, except i have a few more sub menue then the tut.
3) and the biggest problem... each button, "About Me", all the poems and writings and "Links" are supposed to open in a new window. here's the kicker... i dont want it to open in a new browser window. but a window made to matchthe rest of the movie. i have no idea how to code this. i have searched macromedia, flashkit, ultrashock, and nothing. it can be done, because i have seen it.
anyone know how to do this? and what im not sure is where to place the codes for these. the layers look like this in flash..
Layer5-Actions
Layer4-Top Menu
Layer3-Sub Menu
Layer2-Invis Button
Layer1-Background
where would i code the pop up at?
and yes i did make the background images. i used bryce 5 and a few hours. with a little photoshop added for the title.
any and all comments are welcomed.
Inner Visions
How I Design Web Site?
hi ..
if i designed flash games ...how i design my first web site by flash5 program , and put these games in this site!!!!!!!!!!
Site Design
Ok, here's the poop. I've read Phillip Kerman's Teach yourself Flash MX in 24 hours. Most, ok nearly most of the book I understood. There were several exercises that I completed but had the most difficulty with scripting. I want to design a site for myself. I'm a photographer who really is kind of anal about letting other's do work for me. These are my dilemmas:
1) I plan on designing 3-4 animations that have photographs fade in and out and that are linked with music (MP3). Should I design one long timeline with preloaders between the animations? Or, do I create all movies seperately in a single folder? Also, I plan on having a seperate portfolio page with photographs accessible through thumbnails or again having them automatically fade in and out. Does this go in my orginal timeline? Does every subsection go in the main timeline with "goto" buttons.
2) What framerate is best to start with? I was planning on starting with 24fps. Incidently, my intro page will have a html link to my old site as well as a link to my flash site for high speed users.
3) All important! I always like the option of changing photographs in the future. What is the best way to plan my site so that this will not be a huge problem.
Any help from anyone with ideas or advice would be most appreciated
Thanks in advance (the more the better)
Rusty
RE : Site Design
Hi there,
I was just wondering if someone could give me a heads up as to how a certain site got the flash into the page the way they did.
The site is http://www.mikimoto.com/index_f_en.html
The Flash file fills the whole screen with no borders and I am pretty sure that they must be using the new stage resize function as when you resize the page the bottom part of the flash sets itself flush to the bottom of the area showing. Also if you download the .swf file to your hard drive and then open it in the Flash Player it resizes very cleverly too!!
If anyone can help me to achieve the same kind of effect then I would be very greatful.
Regards,
Mark Bowen
New Site Design
Alright, I am designing a site which has a similar layout as: http://www.evansfruitco.com/product/index.html
Do you think I should make it a frameset or 6 diffrent pages?
Help On A New Site Design
Hi, Im not great at actionscript but use flash alot, I have seen a really good menu system on a website
wavestudios.co.uk
can anybody help me with the code to do something similar??? or point me to a movie on site that uses similar coding?
I bascially want to do the same but it will be within a HTML page as a 760x300px header with 6 links and new images behind..... when the page loads next page the text links will just reset back to middle of page
thanks for any help
3d Site Design
I want to know where would I start, to design a 3d site in flash. I understand that I may have to use a 3rd party program like maya. But I'm afraid maya may make the flash swf to large to a host on the internet. Are there alternatives if I am correct in my assessment?
Web Site Design
hi, i want some cool site(bussiness) having cool graphical
representation specially home page.
Site Design Question...
Hey,
I've noticed a number of websites creating a home page/menu that looks similar to http://www.bluegelmedia.com (nice looking site by the way). Anyway, I've seen a few like this and I was wondering how they were created... were they from scratch, or just shapes layered? I'm sorry to be so ignorant, but I have very little Flash experience, and I'm looking for a way to learn much more.
Thanks!!
Lee
New Site Design Idea
hey guys, what's up? i just registered as a new member, and i'm just starting to pick up flash. i really want to get into it and learn how to really use it, because i have seen some of the awesome stuff other people have done with it. i want to redesign my site, so that it is done in flash. i've been looking around at various sites on http://www.coolhomepages.com and http://www.cwd.dk, and i think i want to go wirh a more abstract and futuristic design, like http://www.topfloor.to. i understand that this site's animation may be pretty complex, and that's why i'm willing to create a simplied variation of the site. do you guys know how i can go about making a site like this? or do you know of any series of tutorials that will teach me how to do it? anything you guys can tell me would be great! thanks!
Site Design Help And Opinions
Hello.
I have a few questions about designing a whole site. It's really hard to find full flash movies/sites to determine how to build a full flash site. I'm new. Anyway, right now I'm just putting a keyframe on about every 5 frames (1,5,10,15,..) with frame labels news, portfolio, about,..... . My main nav buttons have this code built in.
on(release){
gotoAndPlay("news");
}
on that keyframe on my actionscript layer I have loadMovie comands to load external.swfs for different sections of the site.
Is this a good way to design, or do any of you have suggestions.
thanks
mattt
Searching For A Particular Design Co. Site
I am hoping someone will recognize the company I am looking for from my description and be able to tell me the address.
The design company I am looking for has been featured on a lot of sites as an example of excellent flash and swish 3d work. They have a very futuristic looking site. Very silver, grey and blue oriented. They use a lot of dynamic perspective with 3d cubes a lot. They also have a link to a number of their experimental sites which include a lot of animated 3d shapes.
If you recognize this site - please send me a link to graphics@scfilmvideo.com
Thanks !
Site Design Question
I'm wanting to design a site that begins with an enlarged map zooming in to a closer view of the map. Then I want a static map to have interactive buttons, linking as a home site. But when the viewer returns home, I don't want him to have to go through the zooming map animation again. Is the best way to design this is to have the "map zoom" as a movie clip? And I don't want it to loop, just play one time. Or is my "zoom map" better off as a preloader? Thanks!
Site Design + Setup
Hi there-
I've been using Flash for awhile, mostly for simple Intro's, games or very basic sites.
I'm now moving in to the world of creating more complex Flash based sites and I was wondering if there were any guides out there on how to tackle web design in Flash. Specifically I am loss on how to set things up. If it would be easier to make a bunch of seperate files for each part. ie: menu and main block of text. I'm also a little lost on how to use levels effectively since I have heard using Scenes is not always the best idea.
My goal is to come up with a process to make more complex and a somewhat easily updatable flash site.
If anyone has a paticular book or tutorial they read that was helpful in their learning that would be great. I have a lot of expierence with HTML site design if that makes any difference, just trying to figure out how to adjust my thinking to Flash.
Thanks
Site Review Please 3D Design
I put this in the site review section but no one is there.
www.cruxdigital.com
This is the site im working on fr my business and im just looking for opinions on the functionality and general look. As content goes, I havnt loaded most of it on so its pretty bare... thats all to come.
Thanks in advance for the constructive critisism.
Menu/site Design Help
Hello everyone!
I found FK a little while ago and have been eating up all the resources available here.
I was just posting to see if anyone would be kind enough to help me through designing a site im making.
I'm not a total newbie to flash, but ive never used it for full on websites before. and i am taking java in school, so i know enough to make sense of actionscript easily.
Ok, the first thing, my menu.
CLICK HERE to preview my current menu.
right now i'm trying to create a two-stage menu. The first menu to load would have three buttons, and each of those buttons, when clicked, would launch a new menu with buttons specific to each. So forex, the first menu could have a button called "leaders" and then when clicked, the eexisting menu would slide out, then a new menu would slide in, with leader-specific links on it.
how would i go about this?
thanks for any and all replies!
Opinions About Site Design
Hi everyone,
i have a site that i'm putting together in flash MX 2004. the site is going to contain a large amount of construction site photos that will be updated on a weekly basis. i am wondering if i should break the pictures into individual swf's and have them loaded into an empty MC on the stage, or put about 10 together in a swf and load that into a MC with buttons to navigate it. any opinions would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
_DK
[F8] Need To Design Interactive Site
Hi fellas,
I am trying to build a e-commerce site. The site is for the sale of football uniforms. The owner wants the buyer to be able to design custom jerseys, pants, and the lettering by being able to to click a drop down menu and making a selection. example:
http://www.donalleson.com/uniform/football/index.php
I'm sure it's pretty simple, but if someone could point me in the right direction it would be a big help.
Thanks
Design Software Or Web Site
hi guys need to know if there is program that i can use to create characters like the attachment , ie be able to choose eyes , nose mouth ect without having to design them myself from scratch or is there a website that has pics like this of individual characters i could use , a flash designers resource if one exists thanks in advance, i am studying action script for an interactive game and i need to design the characters , the attachment is from a company who quoted me on them building the website, toooooo much money so im gonna try and learn myself.
Help With Fonts On Site Design
I need help with the fonts. For my menu i used a pixel font (so no anti-alias enabled). When i test my site and click on the links, the pixel font turns into and anti-alias font and it makes everything look ugly. How can i fix this??
heres my .swf file. Click on portfolio link then webdesign and see what i mean
http://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=siteyl9.swf&width=800
Newbie Site Design
I am fairly new to Flash but learning tons as I go. Here's my dilemma. I have an animated 5 second swf that I plan to use as my start page. It's 5 seconds at 30 frames per second i.e. 150 frames. When the animation reaches 3 seconds (90 frames) I can stop the play (stop();) and have my buttons show up. When a user clicks a button I can have the movie continue and fade out by going to frame 91 and playing to frame 150 and then stopping. My problem is how do I make another swf start at frame 150 per each button one swf for portfolio, one for about me, and one for contact? Say I have 3 buttons and a user clicks the portfolio_btn I basically have an on release of the portfolio_btn in my actions layer saying go to frame 91 and play. Which works fine to fade the main animated swf or lead into the new one but for the life of me I can't grasp how to bring the new page in. So, at this point I have a little animation leading in, then buttons fade in, you can click a button and the animation plays out. I am just unsure how to load a new swf. I am reading about loading into new levels and that may be a solution. But it anyone has a better method I would love to hear it! Like I said i am pretty new to Flash but loving it all the same.
Edited: 04/26/2008 at 03:16:35 PM by Slave8
Site Design / Coding Help :)
Hey there.
I've been browsing around here at Kirupa.com for a while now and have found it incredibly helpful, now I'm just hoping that someone here can help me bring my site design to life!
I want to design a site which essentially is a horizontal scrolling set of pages. In the example below, I have split it up into 4 "pages"
[img src="www.themadcapsulemarkets.co.uk/misc/site/diag1.gif"]
In the above, the user can only see "page 1", the other "pages" are off screen and not in sight.
Now, the bit that I am having trouble working out how to do is this, when the user clicks a link, say, for example, for "page 3", the user will see "page 1" slide off to the left, watch "page 2" zip past and then it will come to rest on "page 3"
[img src="www.themadcapsulemarkets.co.uk/misc/site/diag2.gif"]
Now, I know I could do this with a motion-tween fairly easily, but there is also going to be content on the pages (text-boxes, slide shows, etc - each page different).
Does anyone have any ideas or examples for how this can be implemented before I start working on it?
Any replies will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
jonny.
Site Design / Coding Help :)
Hey there.
I've been browsing around here at Kirupa.com for a while now and have found it incredibly helpful, now I'm just hoping that someone here can help me bring my site design to life!
I want to design a site which essentially is a horizontal scrolling set of pages. In the example below, I have split it up into 4 "pages"
In the above, the user can only see "page 1", the other "pages" are off screen and not in sight.
Now, the bit that I am having trouble working out how to do is this, when the user clicks a link, say, for example, for "page 3", the user will see "page 1" slide off to the left, watch "page 2" zip past and then it will come to rest on "page 3"
Now, I know I could do this with a motion-tween fairly easily, but there is also going to be content on the pages (text-boxes, slide shows, etc - each page different).
Does anyone have any ideas or examples for how this can be implemented before I start working on it?
Any replies will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
jonny.
Site Design / Coding Help :)
Hey there.
I've been browsing around here at Kirupa.com for a while now and have found it incredibly helpful, now I'm just hoping that someone here can help me bring my site design to life!
I want to design a site which essentially is a horizontal scrolling set of pages. In the example below, I have split it up into 4 "pages"
In the above, the user can only see "page 1", the other "pages" are off screen and not in sight.
Now, the bit that I am having trouble working out how to do is this, when the user clicks a link, say, for example, for "page 3", the user will see "page 1" slide off to the left, watch "page 2" zip past and then it will come to rest on "page 3"
Now, I know I could do this with a motion-tween fairly easily, but there is also going to be content on the pages (text-boxes, slide shows, etc - each page different).
Does anyone have any ideas or examples for how this can be implemented before I start working on it?
Any replies will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
jonny.
How To Copy This Site's Design?
Hi, we'd like to have the scrolling image effect on our site as well. Kind of like iphone scrolling image affect for pictures.
The scrolling image we liked is in accesshollywood.com (right hand side, top side).
Can anyone please point to a script that works exactly like that in accesshollywood? Thanks,
Regards,
Diggy
Behind The New Crumpler Web Site Design
Notice: This is a discussion thread for comments about the article, Crumpling Conventions, first published in Issue 246 of Desktop Magazine.
__________
When Melbourne-based bag manufacturers Crumpler engaged the team from Reactive to redesign their web presence from scratch, neither the client nor the agency had any real concept of what the end result would look like. That’s not to say that there wasn’t any preparation put into the project, or that the final product is one that lacks vision—quite the opposite. But the brief for Crumpler’s web site was largely shaped by the company’s brand values—and those values are just a little hard to pin down.
As Reactive’s account manager, Bradley Grinlinton, puts it, “Crumpler said to us, ‘We don’t really have a brand, other than this little logo—the guy.’"
Armed with a vague brief for a site that “looks cool, is fun, gets people talking, and sells bags” the team set about an extensive visual research process to pin down what it was that captured the essence of the Crumpler brand. The result? A sprawling canvas of “machines” knitted together in a Frankenstein-like manner, melding retro sci-fi imagery with Japanese street vending machines, pop culture and fart jokes. This chaotic collection of levers, coin slots and interactive irreverence forms a compelling world that one could spend hours exploring.
Of course, the primary machine is the ecommerce store—the site primarily exists to sell bags, after all—but there are roughly twenty other parts of the site where the users can lose themselves. Some of these machines are useful, like the Global Store Finder or the “fine-printisizer”. Others, however, simply exist to give the user a laugh, cause them to scratch their head in confusion, or perhaps just look pretty.
“What we were trying to do was avoid those typical Internet devices—things like scrollbars and dropdown menus,” explains Reactive’s creative director, Tim Kotsiakos. “We spent a lot of time trying to make it as real as possible, whilst avoiding the cliché of a vending machine in the street where you just put your money in and choose a product.”
The eclectic combination of different visual styles is not completely random, however. “We spent a couple of weeks trying to really understand the client,” reveals Kotsiakos. “We ended up realising that they’re just spontaneous. They just need to be a bit risky and a little bit fun, and that’s their brand. It really was the ultimate creative brief, but with that freedom came so much responsibility.”
For so many diverse aesthetics to co-exist peacefully, the design team needed to establish a loose thread that pulled everything together. “It’s subtle, but it came down to the lighting,” reflects Kotsiakos. “Throughout the whole project I was thinking about Blade Runner—those kind of dark movies, in the rain, where you’re on a street and the lighting is dim and artificial. That bluish tone pulls it all together.”
The main site is coded entirely in Flash, but an HTML version of the ecommerce store exists for those users who have a slow connection, no Flash plugin, or who simply want to purchase a bag and are uninterested in the surrounding junkyard of machines. The data in the HTML site connects to the same database used by the main site, so the functionality is identical, albeit without much of the personality that pervades the user experience. Kotsiakos insists: “98% of your visitors might have Flash. But if you’ve got tens of thousands of people coming to your web site each week, that 2 or 3% is still a lot of people—plus Google is able to index it more easily.”
A hugely ambitious project, the Crumpler site isn’t just gorgeous to look at—it’s also impressive under the hood. Multi-lingual requirements, as well as differences between payment gateways in each country meant the resulting system was unavoidably complex. Considerable effort also went into making the site modular, so that different machines could be switched in and out at a future date. Additionally, the data feeding the product inventory and every machine is entirely content-managed, so that client staff can update it themselves.
Reactive’s co-founder, Tim Fouhy, adds, “We wanted to make it completely secure, too. We’d just crafted everything to be such a beautiful experience—the last thing we wanted was to pop up another window, just to open a secure connection for the checkout process. Right from the start one of our goals was to get the site to load as quickly as possible under a secure connection, so you could have a seamless experience and not be interrupted right at the end.”
While they challenged some user interface conventions, the Reactive team were also very conscious that the site’s usability should not be sacrificed for it to succeed. Critical parts of the site, such as the checkout screen, received a more conservative visual treatment than the machines that housed games or interactive demos. “We like to be able to sit down with our clients six months later and agree that the project was a success, not just because it looks cool but because it met its business objectives,” stresses Grinlinton.
One thing’s for certain—the Crumpler web site is unlike any ecommerce site that has been built before it. Kotsiakos concurs: “When you’re designing a web site, you usually make one rule and stick to it, whether that be always placing an arrow next to the navigation, or always positioning your navigation on the left hand side.”
And the rule for the Crumpler site? Kotsiakos laughs: “The rule was: ‘there are no rules!’”
Useful Links
Crumpler: http://www.crumpler.com.au/
Reactive: http://www.reactive.com/
Site Design Pricing
A friend and I are starting a web design company. We just got our domain and hosting. Together we are skilled in Flash, PHP, mySQL, HTML, ASP, Java, and hopefully XML soon. I was wondering what we should charge our clients to make their sites. Any other advice that would help us along the way would also be greatly appriciated. Thanks for all your help.
How Much To Charge For A Site Design Project?
Hello Board!!
I've been into web site design since a long time ago(around 5 years), but I've worked mostly with in-house projects at the bank I worked on.
Recently a good friend, who owns a chain of sports stores(8 stores) asked me if I could design their corporate and consumer web sites. I answered yes and we scheduled a meeting for the weekend to talk about the requirements and scope of the project.
Now the problem is... I don't have an idea of how much I can charge him for the project. I don't know how much one of the local web design shops or freelance designers would charge him, so I don't have any reference. For the meeting I must give him at least an estimated price, because he wants to know if it adjusts to his current budget.
I know that establishing the cost of a web project is a difficult task, but any help, reference, method, etc. would be very helpful for me.
I'm aware that most of you consider this kind of information private so in case you don't want to post the info in public you can write me at: palmdrac@yahoo.com
BTW.... I work mostly with Macromedia tools: Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash, and when coding is needed I work with Asp or Asp.net
Although I don't have much information for the project right now I can tell you that it will be a mixed HTML-FLASH project, probably mostly HTML with a Flash consumer-oriented intro. It will have a products showcase for their 10 most important products lines, shops directory, and corporate and contact info.
If you want to mention an estimated average price it would be very helpful. Of course it will be even more helpful to know how to obtain that estimated average price.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Drac
palmdrac@yahoo.com
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