"This site takes visitors on a fun journey and 'rewards' them for spending more time investigating. Unpretentious and pointed, this 'self-promoting' site shows many positive reasons to work with Larry Martin." —juror Elena Blanco
"This site somehow manages to turn a dull day at the gallery into an amusing personal portfolio—complete with finger pokes to get people to move out of the way of the art." —juror Robert Hodgin
Overview: Termed as a "most unusual interactive experience," this amusing site targets art agency directors with a gallery-like interface filled with curious animated characters. Full of surprises, it provides an entertaining way to access a wide range of illustrator Larry Martin's work.
• 1 main Flash movie; 14 sub-movies
• 5.1MB total file size
• 6-month development time
Comments by Jim Eustace:
"Larry wanted a site that would strike agency art directors as fun, creative and memorable—in much the same way as his illustrative work. We concepted the idea of the Larry Martin Gallery—a display of humorous work, in a setting generally identified by seriousness.
"Flash Action Scripting randomly displays characters and actions so repeat visits to the site are never identical. The programming also gives characters unpredictable behavior while visitors are at the site (examples of this are the beefy guard's cough, the skinny guard's radio calls and the coffee cup that gets knocked over). Also hidden in the museum are interactive items such as the kitty cat's roar, the elephant's quack and the old man's pants.
"An HTML e-mail campaign is an accompaniment to the site. Identified as the 'newsletter' for the museum, it keeps art directors up-to-date on new work. The newsletter provides the opportunity to introduce new themes and characters, such as a burglar and a super hero who's let himself go.
"What's the best way to get an art director's attention when they're bombarded by portfolios everyday? Well, our answer was to make the site worth the AD's time and, before they knew it, they'd be engaging Larry's illustrations and seeing the value in his work."
