More ad banners in support of some important industry awards won by this prominent automotive search engine optimization technology company.  These are slated for heavy rotation on Automotive Industry News’s site and newsletter, which limits ads to a strict, tiny 20k limit, making these an exercice in creative jpeg compression.

A tidy portfolio website for television/film art designer Curtis A. Schnell, who has had a long career creating visual eye candy ranging from nuclear blast sites to crashed aircraft to revolving alien restaurants.  No set is too huge or too elaborate for him to take on, even if it means building an entire baseball stadium in the middle of nowhere in less than a month (including growing all the grass for the field).

The site gives easy access to galleries of photos and information on some of Curtis’ more notable projects, so we had an opportunity to try out several new javascript slideshow approaches which include upgraded cross fading, variable opacity, custom controls, easing effects that allow for a gentle “bouncing” effect on moving slideshows, and more.

The site opens with a vertically tiled slideshow highlighting some of his more interesting projects, and any tile that is clicked on takes the visitor straight to a gallery for that film.  Each project has a description of awards won, subject matter, design notes and more, with tons of pictures in handy slideshows.  A full credits and contact page are also provided.

Curtis has made a specialty of design in a deco style, including sets that paid homage to Frank Lloyd Wright, so we took two colors and built out a design that has a classy, somewhat deco look with reddish browns and mustardy yellows, like a comfortable old leather chair.

In true Schnell tradition, this site was built from initial conception to rollout in only three days to allow its launch before an important studio meeting.  It required some herculean efforts and lost sleep on the part of our programmers, but the results were worth it.

A video-heavy website built for Six14 Productions, a high quality Los Angeles production company that does everything from classy documentaries (Unconquered with Val Kilmer) to broadcast commercials (AM/PM, Comcast, Fedex, SpikeTV) to industrial films (GMC) to eye-popping music videos (Prom Kings, Breal, Bloodsugar). The company is helmed by the Sloggatt brothers, Justin and Bill, who take a personal approach to every film they make.

This site puts their work front and center, with a powerful, high quality video interface that automatically customizes its feed to the bandwidth of the viewer’s connection.  Handy tabs along the top allow viewers to select a channel of interest, and then side list navigation allows them to choose a film they’d like to see.  Full screen video is just a click away, where a media list of films is also seen so the viewer doesn’t have to click back and forth between full screen and small screen to browse.

In addition to contact and services descriptions, the site also has a full featured blog system that allows the company to put up news with images and video without needing any fancy programming.  A simple backend admin system (available securely over any browser) is always available so the blog can be updated anywhere they might be in the world.

The look is deliberately neutral in color to allow the video to truly pop out colorwise, with a top and bottom navigation bars that have the look of brushed aluminum and a slight 3d feel.  The company logo pops out of the top navigation like a camera lens pointed straight at the visitor.

On a side note, we are particularly proud of these little icons created to spice up their service description page.  Please endulge our designers by giving them a closer look:

If you are in the market for high quality, creative, and competitive cost video/film production services in Los Angeles, delivered with a family touch, look no further than Six14 Productions.

A straightforward portfolio site for Los Angeles hairstylist Scott Riffe, describing his background and showing off his work in a series of slideshows.

In talking with Scott, we kept coming back to his treasured scissors as a metaphor for the precision and training that is reflected in his results.  I had no idea that Japanese-made professional shears cost upwards of $1000 a pair!  We decided to use a shot of his shears on his opening page to set the tone of the site, which is otherwise quite neutral with a splash of blue to reflect the color of his shirt in his headshot.

A set of static banner ads for a site that does not accept animated ones.  These ads were originally designed as multi-frame animated ads, so there is a lot of information to compress into a small space!

Two animated ads created for an automotive industry technology vendor, as seen in Dealer Management Weekly’s email newsletter. There’s a long banner at top, and a rectangular one at middle bottom.

(This is a sample only showing the placement, so these versions are frozen static).

A new fully featured website for The Steve Alexander Group, a powerful San Diego-based communications company that provides a full range of services to both the public and private sector.

The site harnesses compelling animation, the latest blogging and social media strategy, as well as classic capability descriptions to showcase the Group’s unique vision and strengths.

The header for the site uses an animation of a light bulb with a spinning Earth overlay, out of which various trademarked slogans emerge to highlight the major points of each page.

The home page allows visitors to jump quickly to service offerings, or to browse recent blog postings either as a list of headlines or as an excerpted version of the latest post.  Once the visitor clicks deeper into the site, the sidebar changes to a list of headlines.  A handy link below allows a visitor to subscribe to the blog;  they can choose either to receive instant emails alerting them to new posts or receive summaries in a weekly digest form.

The blog itself has all the bells and whistles a reader could want — simple indexed navigation to major content areas, easy two-click sharing to any social media site (Twitter, Facebook, Digg, etc), and moderated discussion and commenting.  It greatly boosts the search engine profile of the site, as it keeps content fresh and continually adds new keyword-rich pages to the site, providing plenty of new fodder every time the site is indexed by Google, Bing, or Yahoo.  From the contributor side, adding new posts with text, images, video, etc. is a simple process using the secure backstage area that can be accessed from any browser (even via PDA or cell phone).  As recognized thought leaders in communications strategy, this area will be heavily used by the company and be a key educational tool for current and prospective clients.

The site design sits in a subtly 3D looking frame that seems to float slightly above the page, with corners turned down to touch at bottom right and left.  Colors feature blue (signifying dependability, reliability, and calm) balanced by a secondary orange tone (which radiates vitality, action, stimulation, etc).  The combination gives a highly professional look without distracting from the main content delivery.

A handy tab at top left allows visitors to bookmark the site for easy access in the future.

A very fun website, chock full of animated goodies, built for/with the band Superchimp.

The band’s leader is also a crack animator who has created a very interesting visual look for the band.  Not content to assault the band’s fans with punk-influenced rock with a message, he has also painstakingly created old school animated videos and single sheet comics as well.

This site pays homage to all that art and music by giving the visitor lots to explore, poke, and play with.  We created popping balloon NAV, peeling bananas, steaming coffee, and much much more.  More is planned, but the first run through is plenty engrossing and lots of fun.

There’s a fully featured blog that allows the band to post news, gigs, music, and the latest comics and films easily.  There’s also a random “?” area where a piece of something interesting is always on display (often a cutting room floor item that is too good to let sit on the floor).

Fans of mindbending, subversive culture, check out the video for “Pop Your Balloon.”!

A new portfolio website for the company of Rick Barrio Dill, a noted rock/rap producer and bass player who divides his time between Los Angeles and Nashville.

The site opens with a splash page with music from some of Rick’s projects and an animation of a VU meter needle that goes from -20 all the way to “badass.”  Inside is found plentiful information on Rick, links to his projects, his recording articles (for Recording Magazine), a voice over demo, and much more.  The animated VU meter is also seen at top left throughout the site.

The background is intended as an homage to the look of the woody walls found in many great sounding, old school recording studios.  Rick is up to date with all the latest studio tools and technology, but his heart and soul are firmly rooted in “old school” skills and attitude, which shows in everything he puts his hand to.  Including this site.

Famed British film producer and actress Julia Verdin came to Los Angeles originally as part of a trio with friends Hugh Grant and Elizabeth Hurley… together they created their own little mini British invasion into the film industry.  She quickly established herself in the Hollywood firmament producing a steady stream of films with a virtual who’s who of actors, including Al Pacino, Ralph Fiennes, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Ford, Jamie Harris, and many many more.  Her career truly broke out with the South African action drama Stander with Tom Ford (fans of Ocean’s Eleven and 70s crime films, take note), which entertained while also showing vividly the injustice of living under apartheid.   Today, her Hollywood office for her company Rough Diamond Productions is humming with activity, and this new site will help get out the word about what’s new while showcasing past work.

This new website replaces a stark black informational site with one that has more feminine character.  It clearly lays out Julia’s body of work (both past and ongoing) and the attention it has received in the international press.  It is packed with biographical information, pictures of her on the red carpet and on set with many stellar actors, in depth info and posters from dozens of projects, plus numerous film reviews.  A video player delivers a demo reel that self adjusts its quality to the bandwidth of the visitor’s connection.

We’ll add more information about this site soon — in the meantime, check it out!