tigerprint Website

Although Im not too sure about the products made by this company (they supply cards and gifts to Marks&Spencer), I do love their website. It has lots of nice moving bits and the menu is found by hovering the mouse over the spots on the various sized circles. The black and white colour scheme (with the odd bit of red) allows the childlike colours in the images to stand out, and I like the calligraphic logo. This is a high-tech but very friendly site which reflects the design of the company's products.

Credit to Cal, whose blog I found this site on!

Hellmann's Squeezy

www.hellmannssqueezy.com

I saw this advert on TV and was intrigued by the idea of a website. Do people really use things like this? I realised that it is actually a competition, so given the incentive, there are plenty of people willing to take part and upload clips of their skills.

The two men in the TV advert (and featured in the website demonstrating different tricks) are professional flairers who have transferred their skills from cocktails to sandwiches. I found the site amusing and I like the brand identity given to this product. It appears youthful and trendy- quite a feat for a brand of mayonnaise! While the packaging isn't particularly youthful, the website uses the bright yellow and blue to full effect, adding some funkier typography (Im a big fan of 'Hellmanns Squeezy' written across the top in mayonnaise).

Overall, I think this is a successful attempt to make Hellmanns squeezy trendy. Why buy any mayonnaise when you can buy a cool mayonnaise?

Fourtet Website

I love the colours and typography used in this website. The sugary shades of the letters contrast well with the bold, block serif typeface to give this band a playful visual personality. The band name is written at the bottom of an image that refreshes with a new image layed down strip by strip. The images are all colourful and intriguing, but without any people in- I think this works well given that the band uses no vocals in their music. Over the top of these photographs are random letters that fade in and fly across the image before fading out again. If the mouse pointer touches the letter, they turn white and fade out. I found this interactive element fun and slightly mesmerizing!

Zara Home Website

www.zarahome.com

I came across a nice little piece of interactive web design on this site. When browsing the catalogue, the corners of the image fold over like a real page when you hover the mouse over it. Depending where you put your mouse, the page folds over more or at different angles. It is quite realistic, but the page doesn't turn until you click, so you can't accidently progress to the next image just by moving the mouse. Pretty and practical!

Dove Campaign for Real Beauty- Evolution Film

A fascinating short film showing the transition from 'normal woman' to model.

A woman sits down in front of the camera, then the sped up process of her transformation is shown, with lighting, make up artists and hair stylists, followed by the airbrushing using computer software. This is to promote the self-esteem fund and encourage girls to feel beautiful in their own skin. The message here is simple, backed up by this simple concept. Some feminine, curved typography completes the video, and is in keeping with the overall simplicity, using white lettering on a black background.

As advertisers, I recommend any student have a look at this, purely to see what is expected of us technically, whether or not you support the message.