"The interface is as aesthetic as it is informative—bound to bring a smile to each user’s face." —juror Jonathan Hills

"This site is delightful. The xylophone-like bars for viewing the paintings are brilliant… and made more so when transformed into an arc of sound bits. I’m sold. This is clearly someone with immense talent and wit." —juror Jacquie Moss

Overview: Inspired by vertical storage shelves and rotating CD players, this simple interface reflects the unique style of the work of artist and musician Aaron Jasinski. Key features included minimal download times and a quick and easy system for making updates.

• 195 images, 55 music tracks
• Drag-and-drop administration tool
• 67KB Flash shell

Comments by Aaron Jasinski, Craig Erickson and Jason Keimig:
"Aaron had talked with us about what he wanted for the site—a design that really didn't get in the way of the content. Beyond that, he let us loose creatively.

"Aaron is a prolific artist. At one time or another, we had all enjoyed, and even personally commissioned his artwork, and were inspired by the energy, and talent that went into the creation of each piece. Presenting his work in a fashion that wouldn't detract from its creativity, while establishing an intelligent organizational system, was our primary goal.

"The overall design concept was inspired by the vertical shelving in which paintings are stored and visible by their colored edges. The music section was inspired by high-end, rotating CD players. The simple and flat visual navigation utilizes color and numbers to create organization in a modern and minimalist style and an intelligent numbering scheme was used to quickly identify and archive the works.

"Flexibility was a major goal for this project. The result? A single SWF shell (65K in size—most of that in embedded font support), a stubbed HTML page and a single XML file are all that are needed to get the site rolling. Users get into the site at the cost of a couple of JPGs, configuration is a snap (updates require an XML edit and a copy of the new content) and migration is a directory copy away.

"Aaron also wanted a site that was hands-off from the development team, and hands-on for adding content and general updates. The result is a data-driven model that adapts to the needs of the content, while allowing for the flexibility to tweak details on the presentation. A rock-star job on the coding allows for the site grow dynamically as Aaron produces more work and makes it painless to update.

"We had no doubts that this project would be something amazing. In the end, everything came together. The site's innovative and really showcases the work. It's received a lot of positive response."