James Polits » Inspiration

Grid-To-The-Max Web Design

James — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:00:56 +0000

Finding inspiration for great web design is always fun. There are some stinking creative designers out there. Recently, I’ve been searching for sites that have spent a lot of time thinking through their information architecture.

The problem is that most of the sites you find in galleries or design blogs are simple sites. Their navigation isn’t too extensive and they tend to be light on content (aside from the blog element). So, instead of going to the normal galleries of well designed websites, I went searching for the big corporations who likely spent thousands upon thousands working out their IA systems.

In my search I stumbled upon Refresh Everything by Pepsi. The site is a marketing attempt to bring attention to their Pepsi Throwback product. With heavy social media integration, they spent tons developing this intricate site. What inspired me was not the expensive marketing campaign, but the super grid based design. Each of the pages focuses on a different topic and the layout changes to reflect the various content types.

When I’ve seen grid-based web sites, it’s apparent that they some grid frame work to layout the content. But I’ve never seen a site that so literally uses a grid to place the content. To me, it’s a fun way to display the interactive media content.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Marriage Advice: Refine Us

James — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:20:35 +0000

Being a young man who values his marriage, this refineus.org is gold! Refine Us is a blog by a couple who seperated and almost divorce a few years ago. They were a couple in ministry who had been married 10 years and had 3 kids. They were the couple you would least expect to have these issues.

In the blog, they walk through the 8 Things That Destroyed Our Marriage and then the 8 Things That Restored Our Marriage. Even if you’re not married yet, this is some great advice.

Serene Inspiration

James — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 05:53:58 +0000

Produced by Onesize, this music video by The American Dollar is super tranquil. The further you get into the video, the point becomes very clear. But I won’t spoil it for you.

[ Anything You Synthesize by The American Dollar ]

The Wisdom Project

James — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:00:33 +0000

Recently, I stumbled upon an inspiring project by photographer and filmmaker Andrew Zuckerman. The Wisdom Project is a one hour documentary and book featuring wisdom from 51 artists, authors, and leaders over age 65 from around the world. Interviewed in this project are the likes of Madeleine Albright, Chuck Close, Clint Eastwood, and Desmond Tutu.

This would have been a dream project to work on. For a writeup on the project, as well as higher quality videos, check it out Apple’s feature on Andrew Zuckerman.

[ link ]

Motionographer

James — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:40:30 +0000

A couple weeks ago I came across an awesome site for motion graphics and animation. Motionographer is a blog that posts videos from studios, freelancers and students. If you are looking for some inspiration, you need to check it out! There are some incredibly talented designers and animators that Motionographer highlights.