Website for Californian wine company Jax, designed by Nicholas Macias.

Lately, I’ve been planning to build myself a portfolio site, and have been spending alot of time honing my HTML/CSS skills and looking for inspiration. I found quite an interesting article over at Smashing Magazine, featuring a variety of jQuery and CSS techniques that could be very useful when developping my website. Not only does it give tutorials on how to use the techniques, but it also features an example for each, with this website for Jax being used to demonstrate a jQuery full-page slider.

The slider is a very nice touch and enables the designer to make optimal use of the excellent product photos, using white space and large type to give the site a clean and contemporary feel.

Print ad for Honda by London design company Wieden+Kennedy.

I remember seeing this advert in the Times Magazine when it was first printed in 2002 and it still remains one of the most memorable pieces of advertising I’ve come across. The copy reads:

“Have you ever written on a banana in biro? Its crazy but it works like a dream. You wish all writing could be this way. It flows. It’s smooth. It’s sensual. You get the urge to write poems; sonnets; odes to lilies. A strongly worded letter of complaint is impossible. It makes you realise that everything can be improved. That even the familiar can be looked at in a new light. And that imagination is more powerful than knowledge. Do you believe in the power of dreams?”

The stark simplicity of the single banana on the page instantly sparks curiosity and draws you in to read the copy. I’ve always liked Honda for their creative adverts and this is no different, the idea astounded me even at a young age, and I fully commend the copywriter or designer who came up with such a crazy concept.

This website by Parisian design studio Les84 is a great example of a Flash site done well. Although I’m not usually a fan of Flash-heavy websites this one particularly caught my eye with its creative transitions and painterly animation effects. A lot of the features may be superfluous but I feel that that ties in well with the nature of the art world, and the shininess doesn’t compromise too much on functionality. Ironically, the weakest part of the website is the interface used for the Gallery page – which is unfortunate considering the main goal of the site is to showcase Monet’s work – though the site redeems itself when viewing the pieces through the slideshow view, especially with it’s useful zoom feature.

A series of spot illustrations by Maxwell Holyoke-Hirsch for the Nature Magazine.

This illustrator’s quirky style works really well with small editorial pieces, his playful illustrations help soften up the content and the bright colours are great visual aids to guide the reader through the body copy.

It’s very interesting to see how visual content can be used to accompany the articles, especially when enhancing the copy with elements of wit or humour. His spot illustrations, although appearing simple, often have an underlying layer of meaning which makes for a rewarding read whilst still appearing polished.

I really like this short two-minute animation by Nexus productions (directed by Johny Kelly), having found it a year ago during the initial “boom” of papercraft stop-motion animations that have unfortunately been somewhat overdone lately. However the thing that sets this apart from other imitators within the trend is the original music by irish artist Jape, which really compliments the journey of the seed throughout the animation.

The animation combines 2D drawn animation with brightly coloured paper stop-motion to set a playful tone which is particularly effective when combined with the papery sound effects. There is also a “Making Of” video showing a collection of trial movies and storyboards that track the creative process throughout the project, which is also really interesting to watch.

Monster Friends poster series by Familytree design.

This great set of silkscreen posters playfully reimagines a series of four legendary monsters, and shows them in a new – much friendlier – light. Although they are a little too cute for my own tastes, they’re rendered beautifully and would make great additions to a child’s bedroom. The technique of overlapping the two screens to create a second darker hue of red in a couple of the pieces really adds depth, and I particularly like the use of halftones in the Loch Ness Monster rendition.

The posters all fit surprisingly well together, considering they were each done by a different illustrator, which designer Alex Pearson puts down to the strong communication between the four individuals throughout the creative process:

The purpose was really just to create something cool. I had created a “friendly” Giant Squid illustration for a friend last year, and thought it could easily turn into a series. Instead of doing all the art myself, I found three other great illustrators to collaborate with (two fresh out of college). We used Basecamp to send sketches and ideas back and forth, which really helped me to set a tone for the series, and all of us to be inspired by each other.

(found via For Print Only.)

I love this tee design “Not so Happy” by Lora Zombie, aka Bananca. The design was awarded last month’s ‘bestee’ ( the best tee of the month award) at Threadless.com on Monday. So far it has garnered mixed reactions with it’s blatant humour at the expense of a certain multinational burger company and although controversial, possibly viewed to some as vulgar, I think it makes for a great, attention-grabbing design that looks fantastic on the tshirt.