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.

I’ve been searching lately for a good example of clean, fresh design that really perfects the simplicity and complexity of whitespace.  Believe it or not, this is a very hard balance to achieve.  Although I wouldn’t call Healdsburg’s new tourist information site perfect, it does represent this style I’ve fallen in love with lately. I’d like to call it "modern basics".

I know, I know…"modern basics" sounds like a bedding line at K-Mart (in fact, now that I think about it - it very well might be).  But, it really encompasses that look of beautiful typography and crisp open pages.  It combines that feeling of the old school basics with some modern touches.  You have to really take a look at the entire site up close.  This small image doesn’t do it justice.