Hello and welcome to my page about graphic design. Since I've been studying and doing this stuff for over a decade now, I tend to write down thoughts as I have them. I used to have several tips here, for all different software. But it just gets embarrasingly out-of-date too quickly. So I narrowed it down instead to some of the best links I've gathered over the years.
General links
- www.designshops.com - Covering the online design industry.
- www.planetphotoshop.com - Pretty self-explanatory, this site is awesome for Photoshop buffs.
- www.ditto.com - All-visual search engine.
- www.anybrowser.com - Test out your web page designs as they would look on other browsers.
- www.webpagesthatsuck.com - Learn good design by looking at bad design! Fun for the whole family!
- www.screamdesign.com - A huge resource of free web graphics, Flash goodies, and more!
- www.baddesigns.com - Examines bad design in everyday life. Targeted towards engineering more than art design, but very fun and informative.
Cool site examples
Since I've been in the promotion and marketing business, I've looked at a lot of agency web sites. Here are my favorites:
- www.publicisusa.com Superb Flash intro, neat navigational metaphor of seeing a folded piece of paper in different ways.
- www.einsonfreeman.com Excellent total package. Simple colored boxes design. More than anything else, a clear "voice" that is smart and funny shines through.Their site is whimsical yet comprehensive.
- www.zipatoni.com Cool design and neat ideas. Unfortunately, the neat design makes it too slow to load, but overall good.
- www.upshot.net Entire site done in Flash, which creates a totally immersive, colorful, animated environment. Not much content included on site, most links are off-site to reviews of the agency.
- www.Draftworldwide.com Very nice and striking Flash intro, Clean design, and very straightforward and paired-down directory structure. There are only three main divisions of the site, which are then broken down further. This is as simple and streamlined as it gets.
- www.rm-promo.com While it has a few bugs, the striking main graphic against a stark black background makes a great design. Very memorable.
Here are more sites that will blow you away with their design:
- www.sony.com/themessenger The site for the movie, The Messenger - spectacularly done.
- www.digitalasylum.com Excellent site for a San Diego design firm.
- www.nationalgeographic.com/outpost In Search of Human Origins - check it out!
- www.crownofafrica.com Unlocing the secrets of Mt. Kilimanjaro - The crown of Africa.
- www.foxhome.com/alienlegacy The site for the Alien movies, very comprehensive and cool..
- www.gga.com Great architecture firm's site.
Great Flash sites
- The Chopping Block - Wow this site is cool. And lots of fun, thanks to They Might Be Giants, the best band ever.
- www.globz.net/nosepilot/real.html - Amazingly long and convoluted nonsense story with really professional animation. You have to see this to believe it.
- Candlelight Vigil for Peace - A cool interactive feature on MoveOn.org featuring quotes and photos from around the world.
- Zentences - Fun mixed-up existential sentences that zoom around thanks to Flash.
- XiaoXiao #3 - Spectacularly funny - martial arts scene with stick figures. It sounds simple, but the figures are so fluid they seem real.
- Varazdin 2000 - A jump into the future possibilites of Flash and a more interactive web in general. Sure, Flash does cool animation, but is it useful? Here, it is - a highly engaging interactive map.
- Once-upon-a-forest.com - Lots of exciting examples of cutting-edge Flash with a great design sense, visuals, and color schemes.
- Flash to the Core - An interactive sketchbook by Joshua Davis.
- Flash Planet - As the name implies, this is a good resource for all things Flash. Lots of tutorials.
- Extreme Flash - Another good Flash portal.
- The Ganzfeld - This comics/humor/cartoon magazine group uses Flash to make a great interface for their site.
- Vector Park - The most fun Flash I've ever had.
- Balthasar - Akin to watching a music video, this slightly-self-righteous in-your-face movie-quality Flash site is home to a San Francisco-based multimedia firm.
- Banja - Got some time on your hands? Then play this incredibly immersive and intricate Flash online game, guided by a fun-loving little Rastafarian guy in a strange cartoon fantasy land.
- Zanpo - Another complex and fun Flash game. Like the rest, the best part is it makes you ask, "How'd they do that?"