"The ambient setup on this site heightens your sense of hearing so that when a portfolio work plays, it sounds beautifully rich." —juror David Young

"What a blast! You immediately want to jump in and explore their world. A delight to see such an interesting use of Flash dimension and photo-realism. The passion they have for their work is literally flying from every corner." —juror Robin Naughton

Overview: This vibrant site showcases the work of a leading Canadian music studio. Its photo-realistic use of Flash and an exploratory interface bring home the quirky personality and wide-open creativity of the firm.

• Experiential navigation
• Rollover magnification of type
• 2 languages

Comments by Jennifer Varvaresso:
"This was a sporadic project that went on for about a year.

"Apollo Studios is a small company, with funky offices and a creative, and somewhat disorganized, vibe. We'd worked with them on a campaign for our client Le Lait, so when they wanted to redesign their site, they asked us.

"The mandate was to produce an experiential site that was edgy and a bit out of the ordinary, but that reflected the studio and Montreal.

"Alluding to the company name, the main navigation is based on the concept of space. We wanted to create a site where users could really explore in a cool and original way, discovering 'hidden' sections that were never really hidden in the first place. Our goal was to compel visitors to navigate to spaces above and below the ground.

"One of the interesting outcomes of the interface is the microscopic type that magnifies on rollover in the Portfolio and News sections. It was the result of a decision we made while we were designing the site. We had absolutely no information about what kind of content was going to be presented in these sections, or how much of it there would be. To accommodate our uncertainty, we used small paragraphs and left a lot of space for any kind of content that we might receive."