What is it with me and watercolor styled websites?  Agami Creative is yet another self-reminder that I just can’t get enough of them.  Maybe it’s because it fulfills my craving for just the right amount of texture online.  Or maybe it’s because the combination of the natural paint strokes and website grids appears so fluid but stays within the constraints of a template.  Or maybe it’s simply because I’m down right envious of anyone who got blessed with the painting skills that I lack.  Whatever the reason may be – I’m really digging this painted online portfolio. 

First things first.  I love the homepage!  I love the color combo.  I love how they mixed rough edges with hard ones.  I love the button treatment (though I wish they had a rollover state).  I love the font choices.  And I love the VERY simple divider between the two rows of content underneath the main banner.  It’s very discrete, but very appreciated!  But we all know the homepage isn’t everything, so here are my comments after taking a look at the inside pages - I promise I won’t say the word “love” anymore.

I’ll start with the header – since it’s the first thing that caught my eye.  My favorite thing about the header is the big brown paint stroke containing each section title.  Some may argue that it’s too big and too dark…but I think it works wonderfully as a base for the organic painting above and as an anchor to the mainly text section below.  I like how they included a quote pertaining to each individual section to give you a better feel for what they’re all about without having to read deep into the main content.  One thing I wish they would’ve put more thought into though is the navigation on top.  I feel like those brown rollover highlights contrast too much with the rest of the page’s feel.  A simple tweak they could do to take away some of the harshness from those boxes would be to make them slightly transparent.  Which leads me to my next component…

…the transparent bar that contains the right rail content.  This slight bar adds some crisp lines in an interesting way and is a nice divider of content.  I also like how it is connected to the header and footer on every page. 

One thing that really bothers me is the black section of the footer at the very bottom of the page.  It doesn’t really match with anything they’ve got going on above.  I wish they’d leave that to be the light tan canvas from the main page above. 

Overall, I think Agami Creative did a very nice job at designing a unique layout that really screams what they’re all about (in a soft beautiful way of course!) 
 

Yes, it’s true. I have officially added Oregon to my list of “daydreaming quality” destinations around the globe. And I owe it all to the beautifully designed website released by the Oregon Coast Visitors Association. They’ve really captured the natural, pristine, and virtually untouched beauty of this public land along Oregon’s coast, which, up until today, I didn’t know existed.

My favorite graphic elements include (in no particular order):

  • The creative navigation treatment using the actual map image serving as a double purpose

  • The color scheme and type treatment work wonderfully to represent these fresh, earthy ocean cities and towns while giving it a nostalgic historic feel.  It reminds me of an old 1950’s Navy ship coming back from overseas full of young sailors waiting to greet their families.

  • The page layout itself is unique.  They captivate their users by having a strikingly raw photo take up majority of the space above the fold.  There is no doubting that scenery is their bait.  They know once we’ve seen enough of these photos we’re hooked and immediately checking out Orbitz for flight fares.

  • The treatment around the photos and buttons makes me feel like I’m looking at an old treasure map.  This treatment is then layered with opacity layers and nice graphics and type to give it just the right amount of modernism.
 

Nicely done OCVA!  I will definately "Share My Story" on your site when I return from my first big adventure along The People’s Coast.

It’s more than just the name - which, if you ask me, is enough on it’s own. It’s the cunning design, witty content, and unique user experience implemented on the Chicago building’s website, www.thepeshtigo.com that really got me inspired.

Let’s start with the footer (yes, weird place to start – I know). I’m really loving the slanted neon yellow line. It was actually the first thing that drew me in to explore more. That line adds SO much to the overall feel of the site by creating some “un-perfectness” to the collection of straight-edged walls and precisely angled buildings.  Each page would definately be lacking something without it. I’ve noticed that line in other odd places that carry that little extra touch – like the loading bars, photos, and submit buttons.  It’s a very clever execution of a faint theme throughout the pages. 

I like their use of opacity and treatments to the photos throughout the site.  I’ve been noticing the opacity technique being used a lot lately as an interesting way to lay text over a photo. They also do a good job of mixing classic black and white photography with a contemporary style of font choices and neon colors.

I love how once a tab is selected, the dotted lines are drawn ramdomly (but intentionally), around the page.  Granite – it’s done in Flash – but you could create something similar in HTML. 

And last and least: What is up with their logo?  Why would they spend all of this time and money designing this brilliant website and then stick a half (excuse my French) ass logo up at the top?  Hmmm…