Hello everybody.

Here are a few sites which have some nice "parts." I have looked for
sites that I think are "relatively" good for the internet, not that fit
ICE from a content direction. I have compiled another list which has a
lot of flash and quicktime which I will send later.  This should at
least give us some fodder for discussion. When looking at the internet
I'm constantly reminded of our guiding rule in graphic design when
teaching this new technology. It is summed up in one word, RESTRAINT!

It has occurred to me recently that cars covered with window and bumper
stickers are similar visually to most internet sites.  You take
something well designed ( that's a stretch in itself for many cars) and
cover it with visually unrelated flotsam.

Outdoor Christmas tree lights are another analogy. There generally
doesn't seem to be a plan, heaven forbid a design. Most people just hang
them on whatever is there, gutters, bushes, handrails, etc. starting at
some arbitrarily selected point and going as far as the lights will
reach.  The more stuff you have the better. It doesn't matter that other
than being lights that there is no visual reason to the placement of
anything.  Think about that when you serf the net. Just because we can,
doesn't mean we should.

Most of these sites will require additional plugins. If you don't have
them, generally speaking, the site will show you how to down load them.
Good luck, and if you are surfing at 28.800, God bless you.
Lanny




http://www.hbo.com/gordonparks/  -  really nice site with music and
portfolio sections done by HBO, a warning, lots of the good stuff is
missing on the low bandwidth site
http://www.theadm.com/intro.html  -  this is the site of the group that
did the above site

http://www.risd.edu/   -  Road Island School of Design, Nice job. “There
is an eye-candy element to the site in the form of moving squares in the
upper right hand corner. While not very useful as a navigation aid (no
matter what square is clicked the end location is the same), for some
reason it’s successful at providing movement for the more static areas
of the site.”
Just as an indication of what it took personnel wise here is a list I
found of the "primary" participants.
Sasha Kurtz/Rei Inamoto, art directors

Dan Harvey/Max Kazemzadeh, interaction designers
Tom Freudenheim, technical team leader
George Matthes, lead programmer
Charoonkit Thahong/Michael Roufa, programmers
Kohsuke Yamada/David Alcorn, Flash designers
Lesli Karavil, senior visual designer
Jeff Bossardet/Jesse Mcgowan/John Reis, visual designers
Elizabeth Rankich, senior producer
Lee Passavia, associate producer
Michael Baumgart/Davie Eng/Mary Doyle/Helen Kim, production artists
Sunny Nan, quality assurance tester


http://www.fondazioneprada.org  - Fondazione Prada is the outcome of a
restructuring of  the PradaMilanArte project—a contemporary art
foundation created in 1993, by Patrizio Bertelli and
Miuccia Prada.    -  really nice exhibition site, click welcome, the
last room of the hall has an upside down mushroom exhibition with a
quicktime panorama, nice application

 http://www.winstar.com  -  a really nice flash site of an interactive
annual report - limited color, color hierarchy is an important aspect  a
monochromatic palette was used for the background while a bright accent
color is used to make important contextual points.

 http://www.vssassoon.com  -  well done has good slide show options. bad
hair designs. includes QuickTime videos of runway shows and current hair
style trends presented in slide show presentations created in Flash 4.0
that are accompanied by original, unique audio tracks.

http://www.ushmm.org/doyourememberwhen  -  very unusual interesting and
different, online exhibit by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

http://www.jawfactory.com  -  nicely done German site created to present
JAW, a German band, technically strong in its  simplicity, with great
memory usage and low-contrast images that compress well.

http://www.u-571.com  -  movie promo site for U-571, nice rollovers once
you are in the site, “The highlight of this site is definitely the
sound. The two-minute trailer—presented in streaming QuickTime video—has
great sound compression.”

 http://www.kc-reaction.com  -  clothing site for reaction clothes,
sound over annoying, intro slow but interesting, loaded slowly for me
but  a clean interactive site

http://www.luhringaugustine.com   -   although I don’t care for the
orange, this is a clean simple gallery site that loads pretty well even
on a 28,800. This site was reviewed by CA magazine which said ” Just
when we were beginning to get information overload, this site came to
our attention. In an arena of sites that contain every conceivable piece
of information this one stands out by providing just the right amount.
In addition, this restrained group of designers also completely
avoided—in the best interest of their visitors—the use of irrelevant,
arbitrary animations. “ BRAVO!

http://www.soulflare.com/  -  really worth a look.  an on line gallery
for electronic art. very clean interface. a good format to show the work
off well.