A big chunk of Resn’s business comes from working with international brands, and plenty of that work has ended up winning international web design awards. That trend has continued after the website it built recently to help tell the tale of Subaru of America’s environmental legacy took out two site of the month awards.
The Financial Times, which has recently been sold to Nikkei, is at the forefront of economic and business journalism. But, just like The Economist’s well-regarded wit, this level of professionalism and seriousness doesn’t detract from its sense of humour, as evidenced by a recent development project on its website that tried to add some character to its error page.
Flash was a format that gave rise to the interactive web of today and the independent video games scene as we know it. But after security flaws have been exposed and the number of detractors has grown, its time has come, says Gladeye’s Eleanor Barker.
As Paul Catmur wrote last year, the marketing bit often seems to be forgotten in the world of digital marketing. But here are a few that combined the two and were deemed worthy of a place in the interactive marketing category at the Best Awards.
For sometime now the general consensus behind website design (and many other kinds of design) is that less is more. Web designers aim to make sites as easy to navigate as possible, rather than assaulting visitors with flashing green neon and trillions of different icons like early websites did in the late 90s. But like many things in life with a cyclical nature (fashion, music and food trends to name a few), perhaps websites are no different. And while we’re not sure if we can call it a trend, we have noticed a few more web designers and developers cramming more into their website designs, creating a retinal overload which is surprisingly pleasing. Digital agency Resn is one of them, making a name for itself by thinking a bit differently and capturing our attention through its creative, animated website designs.
Agencies have many ways of wooing clients. They wine and dine them. They try to win awards. They send out press releases to trade media. They try to destabilise the incumbents. They invest in fancy offices to create the perception of success should they visit. And they also show off their work, their strategy and their talent to online visitors. The agency website is basically a digital shopfront and it’s often seen as an indication of the type of work it might be able to do for clients. Many agencies are guilty of creating boring and/or unfunctional sites and regularly slipping into cliche. But there are some good ones out there. So here are a few of our local favourites.
Innovative data-sourcing site Wiki New Zealand launched in December 2012 as something of a test model to see what users wanted from the site and how it could run more efficiently. Two years on, the site has now been redesigned and chief executive Lillian Grace says feedback has been “overwhelmingly positive”.
Put on a stripy outfit, turn on your webcam and dance. New Zealand company Resn has teamed up with Gap to build an interactive website that allows users to play stripy clothes as an instrument.
The new Slingshot website, designed by Gladeye, has rocketed its online conversions by an extraordinary 250 percent. This month the site won Best in Class in the global Interactive Media Awards. Spacing out the site, paring back the content, and liberal splashes of baby-pink, hot-pink and blush are all part of the success story.
Hitting the big 4-0 is generally met with mixed emotions, with some celebrating the fact that they’ve made it that far and others feeling a sense of impending dread as their elderly body and mind shows signs of falling apart. Resn’s big 4-0 is all positive, but it’s not age-based, it’s the number of times the Wellington digital agency has won the FWA site of the day award.
If you are sick of “having your heart toyed with like a meaningless plaything” in the real world, you now have the opportunity to experience the very same thing in the digital realm, with Wellington/Amsterdam web savants Resn creating an interactive artwork to accompany the song ‘Look Away’ from SBTRKT’s soon to be released album, Wonder Where We Land.
Interacting with a government department is not something most normal humans look forward to. But a new website www.govt.nz hopes to make those interactions slightly less wrist-slitty.
The Warehouse Group, which includes Noel Leeming, Torpedo 7, pet.co.nz, Warehouse Stationery and the iconic Red Sheds, has announced the launch of a new online shopping site for Kiwis looking for health and beauty products – www.ilovebeauty.co.nz.
New Zealand companies looking for a slice of that sweet, sweet Kiwiana can now show off their Zillund-ness with a .kiwi internet domain name. For instance idealog.kiwi instead of idealog.co.nz. The generic top-level domain (gTLD) has been given approval by the world wide web naming authority ICANN.
MetService is launching a redesigned website this afternoon to bring more of its labyrinth of meteorological data up to the user level.
The new site also gives advertisers an interesting proposition: bid for ads next to different weather types.
Comments on the NZ Internet Awards story has prompted an investigation of the Onyas, the other web industry awards. The Onyas have 11 categories, focusing on web application as well as design and content. The awards are produced by the good folk at Webstock, who help people improve their websites …