Bow Tie

Plaid on one side, camo on the other. A fantastic handmade gift from Rath and Bruce.

Where The Wild Things Are

I'm really looking forward to this.

Just Start Typing

When I was first hired on as a designer for the then named, Hornall Anderson Design Works, the first thing I really wanted to do was redo the old website. It was tired and dated in that it did not at all represent what the interactive team has become over the past couple of years, in terms if aesthetics, user experience, technologically, nor did it meet the very necessary requirement of easy update-ability for a design firm as large as us (100+ people now!). It also did a poor job of representing the most well-known segment of our business, identity development.

A little more than 6 months ago, with those challenges in mind, we set out to provide ourselves a framework to show off the integrated branding firm—print, interactive, strategy—that Hornall Anderson is today. We finally launched the site a few days ago, and I think we achieved our goals. There's plenty of room for it to grow, as the company continues to grow in size and capability. So check it out and tell me what you think. When you get there, just start typing!

Perf Toebox and Zoom Air

So I had to get them.

Happy New Years!

Happy New Years, originally uploaded by Nathan Young.

Better late then never.

FWA People's Choice Award

Be sure to get your vote in for the 2007 FWA People's Choice Award.

I spent sometime going through each of the nominees to determine my vote for Site of the Year, and noticed that many of the sites are absolutely gorgeous, have high production value, and make heavy use of 3D and video. But really, they're just a big movie. It's pre-rendered cut scene, click a button, pre-rendered cut scene, click a button, so on and so forth. There isn't a real distinction between the interactive models used across many of the SOTM nominees.

Some websites, such as the Get the Glass done by North Kingdom and Goodby, Silverstein & Parters, add an extra layer of richness through the board game metaphor, doing a much better job of disguising the scripted user path. Others, not so much.

Therefore my votes (the judges get to pick their top 3) tended to lean towards the more app like sites, that enable people to do what something that they might have been difficult or impossible to do before. I'm curious to see what the results will be for the next round of voting.