World Baking Day! FUN Website!

PLEDGE TO BAKE! What a clever website this is! I absolutely love the illustrations and the animation. The colors are great, and the games are so cute and fun to play. Very easy to navigate, enjoyable to use, and a great way to get some good recipes besides. You have to check it out and play some of the games (go to one of the stories about who so-and-so is baking for on World Baking Day). http://worldbakingday.com/us/


Nicely designed home page. I love the hands holding up the pieces of cake!

Nicely responsive.

Pledge to bake.

Recipe page:

This is the best part! Check out the game that was created for each person. The game has to do with the reason the person has pledged to bake for someone special in their life.

Play the game!

Then you can check out the person's recipe.

source: http://www.awwwards.com/

DARIOUSH—A WINERY WEBSITE TO EXPERIENCE!

I came across the Commarts.com web pick of the day from 10.9.14, and it was the photography of the fruits on the home page that grabbed my attention. Since I've been working on my website for Project 2, I've really appreciated wonderful, high quality photography of food (and other things), and I find it to be one of the most appealing features of many websites.

This website is for Darioush Winery, located in Napa Valley. The logo uses a decorative and rather regal looking typeface and has a crown over the O, so right away you get the idea that this is a top notch, high end winery. The entire site is filled with excellent photography. It's organized very well, and one of the things I like the most is the little square menu button that is ever present and moves around to accommodate the browser size. The site is completely responsive and a pleasure to navigate. I'm not by any means a wine connoisseur; I rarely drink it. However, it was still really fun to read about the history of winemaking culture and the company, everything accompanied by wonderful photographs and poignant quotes from various sources.

I definitely recommend looking at the site. It's really quite something.




Home page:

Smaller browser:

Interesting illustration:

Example of wine description:

More great photography:

Menu that is always accessible:

Rumi quote with cool photo:

Persian proverb with photo:

From Commarts.com: "Darioush’s fully responsive website combines ancient wine tradition, the owner’s personal story and Napa Valley style. Traditional touches meet modern imagery to welcome visitors into a rich cultural experience."

Source: http://www.commarts.com/webpicks

C is for COOKIE... MMMMMMMMMMMinimalism

OK...it's late at night and I'm hungry. I suppose that partially explains why this website caught my eye. Actually I found it while I was looking through a website called minimal sites which I had bookmarked a long time ago; I forget who told me about it. Anyway, I came across the website for früute, a Los Angeles cookie company that hand makes and sells all natural gourmet cookies (and tarts). The simplicity of the site is beautiful. The minimalism of the design and easy navigation allows you to focus on the important thing: the images of the beautiful, delicious-looking cookies (so that you will be enchanted enough to click the "shop cookies" button and order a bunch of them).

I especially like the light background, the grid style layout, the use of just one very calming color amidst the soft black or dark gray of the majority of the text (most of which is lower case), and the excellent photography of the products. And the cookies, tarts, giftbaskets—all gorgeous and unique! These are some of the the most beautiful, unusual cookies I've ever seen! One cool thing is that when you hover over an item, it changes from top view to side view. The cookies and tarts are like pieces of art. The photography is amazing!

It really is a beautifully designed site. The typography is perfect, and everything is easy to find and use. The only criticism I have is that it isn't responsive. Maybe that's coming next.

Check it out:
https://www.fruute.com/tarts

source:  http://www.minimalsites.com/

Get In The Loop!

This interesting and quirky website was named WEBPICK OF THE DAY (March 18, 2013) by commarts.com http://www.weareintheloop.com/#/home

I came across this fun and interesting portfolio website for a website design company on the commarts.com website. It's called "In the Loop" and it's an extremely interactive, funny, and entertaining site! Definitely visit the site!

The blurb below describes it well. The gaming interface is really cool.

We Are In The Loop

www.weareintheloop.com

FWA SOTD 2013.02.12 > www.thefwa.com/site/we-are-in-the-loop

We wanted to show our portfolio in an interactive and funny way. That being said we come up with the idea to play with black clay which gives some emotions as we played with it during our childhood.

We thought it would be different from other portfolio website, to kind of having a gaming interface. Because throughout the navigation we unlock some funny bonus to interact with. And every pages is a new atmosphere. We wanted something that fits to our vision and demonstrate our capabilities.

Of course it’s made with Flash but it was for us an homage to this language as we are having more and more interests in HTML5. Mobile side, we will have soon a nice version.

In the Loop

Art/Creative, Business

Creative studio In the Loop plays with black clay and a gaming interface in their portfolio site. Through your visit, you unlock a funny bonus to interact with. A tribute to old flash websites."

www.behance.net/nekodesign   www.guitouxx.com
http://www.commarts.com/web-sites/loop.html