Two of my favorite things, mid-century modern architecture & furniture and great web design. The scrolling on this web timeline for designers Charles and Ray Eames is fantastic.

• DSST
• The Catholic High School of Baltimore
• A Rubbermaid Commercial Products Microsite
• Post Prohibition
• LINQ360
• Sports with Coleman
• 2 eLearning sites: 1 for Armstrong & 1 for LENOX

We branded 3 companies:

• LINQ360
• Post Prohibition
• Sports with Coleman

We increased our workload in the audio/video field with:

• A song & a video for Rubbermaid Commercial Product’s Trade Show
• Webisodes for Post Prohibition
• eLearning Videos for Armstrong

And all the eLearning courses we’ve created for:

• Armstrong
• LENOX
• IRWIN
• Rubbermaid Commercial Products
• GBCI

There are a couple projects we are very excited about working on in 2012:

Can’t wait to launch the new Marvin Hamlisch website. Marvin is an amazing composer. Amazing might not even cut it. He’s won just about every major award. He is only 1 of 13 people who have won an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards). And he’s only 1 of 2 people who have an EGOT and won a Pulitzer Prize. He’s actually also won 2 Golden Globes. His trophy case must be huge.

I cannot wait to create the identity for the restaurant La Finca y El Mar. La Finca y El Mar will be the brand new restaurant at Rancho Santana in Nicaragua, my favorite place to vacation these days. It’s a hidden gem off the beaten path, on the coast of the Pacific. Think secluded beaches with dramatic scenery that conjure the feel of a pre-Steinbeck California with their unpolished appeal. Needless to say we are excited to design this logo and work with their team regarding the brand in 2012.

We’re very excited about designing Woodberry Kitchen’s new coffee-centric restaurant, Artifact. Woodberry Kitchen is my absolute favorite restaurant in Baltimore and is the best at carrying a brand throughout all phases of the dinning experience. We’re eager to work with Mary Mashburn and incorporate her artistic letterpress within our web design. It’s going to be a great pairing.

And we’ll keep progressing with new technology and functionality for our eLearning Platform. Derek Andreen of IRWIN Tools as well as Beth Holst and Manny Straehle of GBCI have been inspiring us to invent new platforms that engage and immerse learners on a whole new level. We’re about to introduce some learner to learner motivational techniques that’ll spark competition.

Again, thank you so much for all that you have brought to the table. We sincerely look forward to all of our upcoming initiatives and are proud to look back at this year’s accomplishments.

I couldn’t agree more with Michael Bierut of Pentagram when he stated:

“Clients are the difference between design and art… clients can be the best part of the design process.”

Bravo VW! This is a truly amazing web design.

Jim Coudal’s inspiring talks on creative businesses, working with clients, setting the right goals and becoming an entrepreneur.

Here at Hardly Square we’ve come across the discussion of scrolling many times. Often times scrolling is unfairly categorized by clients as a negative act. I’m sure you’ve heard it, “Ummm… Yeah I’m gonna have to have you move that image, copy and 3 links up above the fold.” Why jam everything within the top 600 pixels? Why not entice your viewer to look further with a thoughtful design and utilize a reveal? Sure, I guarantee you can whip out a report stating people rarely scroll. I’m willing to bet those studies were either:

A: Done years ago

or

B: Tested on poorly designed websites

A: I’ll end with the extra fun stuff, web design examples that feature kick-ass scrolling techniques. Anyways, yeah… so it’s 2011 people. We are more than used to scrolling by now. Blogs → Scrolling. Facebook → Scrolling. Not to mention the Multi-Touch trackpads these days make it easier… 2 finger scrolls, 4 finger swipes and new 3 finger drags. Seems to me we’re obviously moving to a more scroll friendly environments.

B: Ever think that visitors aren’t scrolling to more content because you squashed everything up above the fold, destroying any kind of negative space and overwhelming your visitor? They’re not scrolling because they left 3 seconds after you abused their eyeballs by unloading a visual assault.

There are a lot of ways to use scrolling to entice your visitors. You can tell a well paced story as they scroll to the climax, prize or call-to-action. There are also web design techniques you can utilize with scrolling like parallax scrolling. Parallax scrolling is trending right now and is a technique that creates the illusion of depth where multiple backgrounds seem to move at different speeds. Don’t let the statistician scare you. Let the numbers apply to all those websites battling to look and act the same. Rules are meant to be broken. Broken by creative people like yourself.

Ok, so here are some examples of my favorite web designs utilizing scrolling. Go ahead scroll through and view some of the sites.

Ben the Bodyguard

Nike Better World

Nizo

Atlantis World’s Fair

WeSC Footwear

Manufacture d’Essai

If this hasn’t swayed you then you probably have some exceptional reasons to why you disapprove of scrolling. I want to hear them. Please comment.

We can establish this methodology with our clients. We can identify and create supportive systems. And we can design the brand to clearly display the ideas behind the business. However, often times it’s up to the client to protect the brand experience we’ve set up down the road. Recently there was a video I came across that was a perfect example of a company protecting its brand experience. The company was the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. On their website they claim:

Our attention to detail in film presentation and programming has made us a second home to movie fans all over the planet and earned accolades from the likes of Entertainment Weekly (#1 theater in America), Wired.com (Coolest Movie Theater in the World) and Fandango.com (One of the Best Theaters in the Country).

This is for serious movie goers only and that’s their niche. Don’t even think about talking or God forbid texting during the movie’s screening. They won’t think twice about throwing you out. In fact, they show this disclaimer before R-rated movies.

Good for them! Sure this type of behavior may discourage a good amount of people. And yes, they will probably lose these people as paying customers. Although, that’s not who the Alamo Drafthouse is. That’s not the brand experience they are cultivating. Actually, the audience that would text during a movie hurts their brand and no amount of short term profit will out weigh protecting the experience their actual target audience wants and expects.

A recent client of ours, Post Prohibition, has a similar situation. Post Prohibition is a Baltimore-Base movement, celebrating the craft of the cocktail. If you’ve already gone to the website, you’ve seen Post Prohibition takes cocktails very seriously. That’s its niche. Post Prohibition is a sensory step into a bygone era, everything from classic cocktails with a modern twist to prohibition era style music softly playing in the background. Their events are optimal for enthusiasts who demand more of their bar experience. You won’t see flavored vodkas and saccharine ingredients. Only seasonal handcrafted libations with an attention to detail. If you’re looking for Bon Jovi and a Miller Lite this isn’t the place for you. They understand that not everyone is going to be interested in listening to Duke Ellington and Billie Holliday. And some customers are going to be turned off by the amount of time it takes to make a proper cocktail. However, their target audience fully understands and expects this.

If you plan on pleasing everyone you’ll end up pleasing no one. The brand experience we created with Post Prohibition is fragile. If Post Prohibition doesn’t protect it and starts playing Lady Gaga and dulling down their cocktails to pump them out faster they’d lose their niche customer base. They’d also lose the very thing that separates them from every other pub on the block. Setting up brand experiences and protecting that experience at all times will carry more weight than a pretty design every time.

Yet another example of how to successfully utilize scrolling in web design. Reveal and excite your visitors.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky has a new campaign for Burger King that involves DirecTV. Channel 111 will constantly air a spinning Whopper. The longer you lust for the Whopper the more you are rewarded with Whoppers.

Simon Sinek speaks on how great leaders inspire action. Why people don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.

I couldn’t agree more with Life Below 600px by Paddy Donnelly. Scrolling is ok people. Would you rather click?