Interactive Annual 18:
Self-Promotion
Dean West
“This is why Flash still exists. A thoughtful and delightful way to explore luxurious images. Beautiful transitions, responsive scrolling and wonderful attention to detail.” —Kim Rees
“Websites for photographers flood my inbox on a daily basis. This piece is so different from all the others; it’s still a showcase for photography but, through graphic design and motion, the site shares the tone and mood of the images it presents.” —Keith Butters
The creativity and quality of this portfolio site are equal to that of the content found on it. It couples ridiculously fantastic photography with a unique method of interaction while ensuring that visitors can see as much work as possible—right from the homepage. The creative use of motion throughout the site, especially the unique scrolling liquid layout on the homepage, adds a level of intrigue, creativity and professionalism that encourages visitors to continue browsing. It’s a simple, intuitive and elegant portfolio of stunning imagery with effortless transitions and virtually invisible navigation and.
- • The project took a few weeks to design, and about a month to develop. However, the site didn’t launch until an artistic collaboration (the Process series with octopus, ostriches and astronauts) between Dean and the staff of Jam3 was completed.
- • Tight, quick animations throughout the site match the detail of West’s complex photography.
- • The trick to making the interactive tiles scroll smoothly (and infinitely) was to remove the tiles and draw the images to a giant bitmap; once the tiles stop scrolling it hides the static bitmap, showing only the interactivity.
Comments by Adrian Belina
“Jam3 is no stranger to portfolio sites, having done both our own and DDB Canada’s site. Our favorite part about them is the willingness to push creativity so that the content can be shown in new ways that users have not seen before. A site like Dean’s is especially interesting because it’s not deep and allowed us to focus our effortless transitionsorts on the body of work.
“As a fan of photography myself, I was immediately drawn to Dean’s work. As we became more familiar with him through the concepting phase, we began talking about collaborating together on several highly creative photography concepts. The result was the Process series featuring the staff at Jam3; it loosely depicts our company’s development process through six incredibly elaborate, over-the-top composited scenes (which can be seen on his site).
Credits
Cole Sullivan, art director
Adrian Belina/Pablo Vio, creative directors
Sunil John/Salpy Kelian/Mathieu Mencé/Aaron Morris/Nick Poisson, developers
Mark McQuillan, technology director
Jam3 (Toronto, Canada), project design and development
Dean West, client
