Links tend to come in waves. The theme of this latest set of links is high-end flash sites for fashion + furniture. All of them are story or series-based and focus more on the experience and mood. Here are 5 of the more interesting/bizarre ones:
Louis Vuitton teamed up with Gorbachev, Keith Richards and Agassi for their “Journeys” campaign. Even Al Gore and climate change were integrated into LV land. The strange ensemble cast of celebrities are each interviewed about their home cities, what it’s like traveling around them. The photographs are gorgeous and the multimedia pieces are really well-produced. I have to admit, it’s compelling branded web content.
The furniture store Mio’s site features four different narratives from British Colombia, Paris, Isla Margarita, and El Ombu. As the video stories unfold, white dots appear on the screen. The video pauses every time your mouse rolls over the stage and zooms in to reveal more information on that particular product. You can immediately find out what kind of wine glass the romantic lead is drinking from and how much it costs.
This bizarre site called 360 snap for Vidal Sassoon claims to be combining fashion, music + shampoo. I haven’t been able to make the connection necessarily between the product and the design except that the people all have shiny hair I guess. But it kept me entertained for a few minutes while trying to figure it out. Click on a thumbnail and watch them rotate.
I came across these Ikea ad sites built by Forsman & Bodenfors last year. I love their use of video, photography and space. The first website uses a variation of choose-your-own-video interaction. Once you decide on a floor/scene you can click on the item that you would like to see the person interact with. The second website in the ad campaign utilizes the same style. Instead of watching video however, use your mouse to spin left and right through the different scenes. It’s completely addictive to rotate through the frozen dynamic scenes and the sense of perspective is wild.
And last but not least is the Uniqlo UT Loop. They’ve done several interactive heavy loading flash sites revolving around fashion and music. They ask their community to create loops using different dancers associated with different music tones. Their online projects are always well-designed and very interactive.
