Focus :: Graphic Design Studio Websites

t should come as no surprise that some of the best designed and looking websites are those of design studios themselves. Untrammeled by meddlesome clients making design-threatening requests and free to divert the necessary time and budgets into things, studios are able to focus their designers’ collaborative energies into producing —often— groundbreaking sites. We’ve generated video clips of each design studio website I thought really distinctive, both from the masses and each other. Happy perusing!

Build

Build’s newly designed website features pleasing collapsible/cascading functions operated through the Mac’s arrow keys which makes for an intuitive browsing experience. A handy index is also included as a further navigation tool.

Meta Design

Germany’s famous Meta Design has crafted a predictably, though pleasingly, Swiss affair for their studio website. Vertical sub-menus exist to guide the browser through the site’s architecture and rolling news headlines running along the bottom of the screen lend seriousness to things.

Madethought

The easing functions on the website of Madethought are difficult to beat, the rising and falling of the sub-menus an addictive joy for the peruser. These are housed at the bottom of the screen within an understated black design which showcases some great work.

Effektive

Scotland-based Effektive has created a gorgeous-looking website with a colour scheme of matte greys and a single dynamic blue. Sub-menus become endowed with a blue bar as the cursor hovers over them and animated files whizz past in displays of individual projects.

Bunch

Bunch, of London, has also got it right on the easing of its sub-menus. Four thick black slabs open to reveal an abundance of links, and while lots of quick animation is present, it never becomes overbearing or detracts from the work on show. Also worthy of note is their excellent search facility where viewers can search for a project based on year, type, media & technique and application.

North

For sheer confidence and originality, North warrants an entry. The designers there have elected to show a single page of logotypes they have designed, which, as I wrote elsewhere, segue randomly from grey to colour in a delicate array of cadences. Tantalizing, restrained brilliance.

Frost

Australia’s Frost have gone for a concept based around Apple’s coverflow fascia. Viewers are presented on the homepage with a vast collection of project icons and invited to speed through them coverflow-fashion. Once clicked on and perused, navigating your way back to the thumbnails or next project is simplicity itself with the large cursor icons at hand.