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Article in Under the Hood category.
Our Top Sites for Design Inspiration: Issue 41
Fueled's London-based lead designer Rob Palmer shares a handful of inspirational websites.
Every week at Fueled, our London-based lead designer, Rob Palmer, shares a handful of inspirational websites with our teams in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. This weekly email acts as a virtual water cooler, encouraging us to congregate across time zones and discuss what brands and blogs are doing to push new trends in web design.
Dream Team
Katarzyna Konkowska is a stage and exhibition designer who is largely influenced by abstraction and futurism. Her style carries over into elements of her company’s webpage, which was created by Bright Media. This site’s hero image is actually a (draw dropping) illustrated animation that continues and re-loads on every page. The fade in and hover-over effects provide perfect transitions into her remarkable stage design portfolio. Dynamic soft music is embedded in the site and activates when you click around, then fades out when you’ve become idle.
Apparatus Studio
Apparatus is a New York based design studio that works with vintage lighting components to create some really unique products. Some of the feature images on this homepage are cleverly cropped and zoomed in, luring viewers to click around to find out more. The minimalism in this site is truly effective, allowing the pieces to speak for themselves. More hover-over elements can be seen in this site, as well as some bounce scroll features and fade in transitions. The site exudes a kind of vintage elegance, paired perfect with a modern NYC flare.
McCann Moscow
McCann Moscow is an advertising agency, based in Russia, with a unique and eye catching website. The loading spinner includes some beautifully animated type and we were especially impressed with the moving still feature image of the homepage. It creates an informative and attractive first impression. With 3D ice and combusting objects floating in the air, we couldn't wait to scroll down and see what else this site had to offer our eyes. Make sure to catch a glimpse of the fullscreen video background featuring their work for Coca-Cola.
Freese Coffee Co.
Here at Fueled, we really love coffee; but then again who doesn’t? Well even if coffee isn’t your cup of tea, you’re guaranteed to enjoy this page because of its exciting scroll techniques and interesting illustration patterns. Freese Coffee shop is located in Finland but if you want to find out more, just follow the coffee bean on its journey as you scroll down the page. These awesome graphics tell a step-by-step visual story and teach you how to brew the best coffee ever.
Creations Namale
Namale, comes from the Fijian language meaning “unique jewelry." Creations Namale is a jewelry brand with a spectacular product site and some beautiful handmade pieces. Since loading icons are a huge trend right now, we had to point out this one in particular, which is interactive and somewhat addicting. You can break up the bubbles around the “N” as they move around to avoid your mouse. The scroll activated image transitions on the homepage are really nice touch as well.
Les Jardins De La Poudrière
Les Jardins De La Poudrière is a property development located in Switzerland. The website was designed by Superhuit and recently won them a CSS design award for their work. Right off the bat, this site shows us another great example of the animated loading emblem trend. By far the most impressive part of this website is the real-time drawn line graphics, which add life and animation to each page. We also love the small detail in the lively menu icon, located in the fixed navigation bar up top. The cohesive branding makes this site stand out and gives the company a strong visual identity. The large scale illustrations of the property take up most of the monitor and are exquisitely rendered.
Think Blink
Think Blink is a creative digital agency specializing in marketing, web design, and branding. Their site is sharp and informative - giving us clear examples of what they’re all about. Their work is showcased in beautifully put together pages complete with large photos, effective icons, bold text, and interactive design elements. This one is a must see.
Truth Labs
Truth Labs is a Chicago based digital design studio. This site has serious cool factor. Case in point, when hovering over each of the first four words on the homepage, the animations in the background change accordingly (This technique is implemented differently on other pages of the site as well). These line illustrations are fluidly moving and quite mesmerizing. We appreciate the mix of simplistic design with attention-seeking motion transitions. This one is definitely worth a look.
