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Our Top Sites for Design Inspiration
Our Top Sites for Design Inspiration: Issue 47
Every week at Fueled, our London-based Creative Director, 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.
Volkswagen Esprit Cox
This Volkswagen website is exquisite in its logo presentation but humble in its landing page video. Entering the site, you’ll be greeted by the unique typography of “Esprit Cox” writing itself onto the screen. The when site is finished loading, the logo remains dormant at the center while video footage detailing a sketch artist sitting down to work on the very same art plays automatically and loops so long as you remain on the page. It’s a cool paradox if you come to notice it. Click deeper into the site and you can play fill-in-the-box with an array of photos. Fill in 5 boxes by approving 5 images tinder-style and you’ll be taken to a page with a broken collage of photos and VW cars in the background.
Feedmusic
This website is the epitome of sci-fi awesomeness. The landing page features what seems like an exotic deep ocean organism or some alien lifeform in the abyss of space. The object animation rotates while the camera slowly covers everything, rising from bottom to top before looping.. It’s epic. The rest of the experience is riddled with stunning transitions and wildly intricate and complex animations.
Giampiero Bodino
Giampiero Bodino embroiders its website with the wealth of Italian tradition through centuries old art. By strategically hinging jewelry off branches, placing them in the palm of flowers and tattering them in the background, it elegantly promotes their bling while giving viewers a serene intake. And you don’t have to be stuck in a box. The site gives you the power to drag with your mouse to maneuver along the art panel. There also happens to be 4 links on the bottom. Clicking on them will auto drag you to their spot on the page, but you can also manually drag to meet each headline. A simple yet exquisite site to get lost in.
Concours-Crecarte
The first thing that might come across your mind when you see a vast pink screen with French words is “this website is for pansies.” You’ve been warned not to judge books by their cover. It’s about time you paid the same heed to websites. Well, at least this one. Concours is a site that looks so simple it makes you wonder if it had been purged by a hacker. With the click of a mouse you can draw out the ultimate personal design to glorify the background of your credit/debit card. Customization is a 3-step process that allows for rotating, shifting, zooming, coloring, and shading of your desired touch before it slips into your wallet. Don’t let the bland pink lull you to sleep or drive you away. This is one site that takes creativity to another level.
Interactive Haiku
Interactive Haiku’s website uses colorful shapes amidst a black background to highlight sensitivity and creativity while holding a stern reminder that it’s not all child’s play. The site features 12 “Haikus,” each giving you a unique experience. Haiku’s colorful scheme is what distinguishes it from other sites. When loading or transitioning from one page to another, bursts of color emitted from the scattering figures warrant welcome and excitement reminiscent of fiestas. Heck, even the red triangle in the heading remind me of a dorito chip. If you’re one who attends every party and is never late to the newest apps, Interactive Haiku will have you dancing in your seat for hours.
Panic
Panic is an animation studio that incorporates quirky enactments on their website. If you’re a fan of animations that make little sense and entire looping sequences with no recognizable synergy between cuts, Panic is for you. This is not to say that the animation on this site is mundane, vulgar, or intrusive. It just stands out with stark incoherence. From top to bottom, the home page is segmented in diagonal rows that alternate between teal and pink until you reach the serious black “reach us” section at the bottom. If you get fed up with the animation there’s always the play button at the center which will bring you to a video. Last but not least, if you liked Grease (1978), then the “Panic” logo that writes itself while loading and on top of the home page is sure to give you fond memories.
