The portfolio of a contemporary Viennese photographer Alexandra Hager. Her portraiture is a bizarre mix of Victorian era clothing, haunting settings, and some modern stylistic mash-ups. Often times, her subjects appear surreal and doll-like in their frozen stillness. Great editorial, and advertising work for European clients. Nice simple Flash site.... More
Although it looks like a Swedish version of The Gap, Martin + Osa is actually an American Eagle Outfitters company. The name comes from a pair of early 20th century naturalists, photographers and safari adventurers from Kansas, named Martin and Osa Johnson. We really liked the site's simplicity, and we found the 'Layer Your Own Look' feature to be a pretty slick idea for stimulating multiple purchases.... More
Five solid series of designs bringing together the various sections of the Converse sneakers site for the German market. From history, to clothing & campaigns, the design style is unified by a consistent navigation style and appearance. The true highlight is the "Katalog" section, where you can zoom into a large star arrangement which is made up of hundreds of converse sneaker designs. On the flip-side, the site features an annoying video host, who pops up and acts bored every time you don't click something immediately.... More
A great use of Flash zoom with tasty photo-realistic illustrations strikes the right note, and makes this professional photography portfolio a real treat to explore. A perfect, gritty little site for a very interesting photographer who captures the beauty, sadness, and humor, of the briefest of passing moments.... More
Part design, part stylist, part artist, Chris Benz believes in the marriage of fashion with style, as one sophisticated artistic whole. His style emphasizes layers and an innovative color palette, which is reflected beautifully in this patchwork scrapbook-style website design.... More
Started in New York City in 1997, Theory is a fashion line that was spun out of great fitting pants. In the last ten years, Theory has established a modern, line of comfortable clothes for both men and women, while also involving themselves in projects that elevate and inspire, such as the The Theory Icon Project. Overall, Theory has a smart brand site, with widgets, a customizable home page, interactive map, visual search tools, large video and other features. Also check out the create-your-own look section. A well-rounded design production.... More
Revamped and refreshed, the new Stella McCartney site invites users to explore this already iconic, yet always fun and flirty brand. Dynamic content landing pages, user-controlled runway videos, and a new Stella’s World section with behind the scenes Stella flicks complete this site redesign. We liked how the staggered grid design in a minimal, peach-toned setting creates a pleasing, "sticky" site. Plus, there are some nice contemporary typographic choices. Fully-transactional online boutique coming in 2008.... More
This three person photo production company located in Spain has a great minimal site with nice blocked out type and very simple functionality. It's a great way to peruse the work of these three artists and lends itself well to the overall cohesion of the site. Overall, the site bridges the gap between styles, and brings the fashion and advertising works – which already have a certain raw and edgy similarity – even closer together.... More
Leave it to a Berlin-based photographer to get his online photo portfolio done right... Well, at least 99% percent right! There's only a couple things we would change to make this site perfect. But first, we liked the way the interface gave you a complete visual overview of each area—using a sepia-toned slice of each campaign. Second, we loved the way the flipping through the pages required no "back/previous" button schema. And third, we even liked the photography! So what's the 1% problem? Well, who really cares... close enough!... More
Does the world need another sports clothing company? Absolutely—when that company such as nau sets forth with a new business paradigm... a company that puts design and functionality first in both their business philosophy and the development of their products. With the goal in mind to create something other than a business with "profit" as their bottom line, nau is unique. It is a company looking to profit from the ways they can share and sustain beauty, and positively change the conditions of conventional commerce. When companies take action like this, we all profit! Simply an amazing grid-based design, fabulous functionality, photography, and excellent interface design.... More
An interesting take on the fashion catwalk, Clara Collins (France) uses Flash and creative photography to present several digital "flip-books" of their womens line of clothing. Each flip book has two sides, and can be reversed and animated by using a minimal control panel. While we found the (excellent) photographs are a bit on the small side for viewing the actual clothes, the entire collection in each "book" tells a nice story with stop-motion photography that does, by itself, enhance the brand attributes of the label. Very well executed, and high marks for originality in combining traditional photography with Flash to create something more than your standard online interaction.... More
