WSA Winner
Tuesday November 2nd, 2004
Pretty much a clean sweep for the Heads of State this month. It truly is a marriage of design and technical skills -- Jason and Dustin's retro illustrative style taking advantage of JSM and Shaun's web development savvy.
It's this kind of synergy which should be the way forward for Web Standards. Take the best of both worlds, stir, and serve.
“It's an extremely simple offering that benefits from some nice typography and a wicked worn style. The design is never in your face, but is always there when you need it. Class.”
Andy Budd
“I love it. As much as I love the retro vibe of Mr. T And Me, the Heads of State site just sings. Two thumbs and a big toe up.”
Eric A. Meyer
“I really like this site, so much I actually ordered a nice new poster from them! It's got a great, stylish and detailed look, yet remains unencumbered and very easy to use.”
D. Keith Robinson
“The entire site manages to capture the style of the brilliant posters and printed material it features -- a consistently top-notch look that makes you all sorts of happy.”
Dave Shea
Original review:
Designed by Jason Kernevich and Dustin Summers (i.e. THoS) and developed by Jason Santa Maria and Shaun Inman. With such a strong lineup it's no surprise that both the graphic design as well as the code is in tiptop shape.
So, without further ado, go explore the excellent typography, wonderful colour palette and beautifully aged background patterns of THoS. Note also how the main content area resembles a blog layout laid to rest (pun intended).
Reviewed by Johan Edlund
#1
Sorry to disappoint. The Heads are friends of mine and they actually designed the site. I programmed it with Inman's assistance. But, regardless, it's still a beautiful site and should be recognized. Just want to give credit where credit is due.
Posted by Jason Santa Maria :: November 2nd, 2004 at 03:49 PM
#2
The look and feel of this site is amazing. Leave it to JSM to take the Wicked Worn Look to a new level. My only criticism is the logo overlap. The red and grey tiled backgrounds appear to be behind the main content section because of the drop shadow, yet the logo throws the depth off a little.
Posted by Dan Mall :: November 2nd, 2004 at 04:13 PM
#3
This site looks real crisp. Two thumbs up on aesthetics. And for a graphics design firm, that's fairly important.
Though I would have preferred if more thought was given to usability and accessibility.
My first impression visiting the site is that I didn't know what they did. A personal site displaying artwork? Selling artwork? Custom designing it for businesses? A punk band who also likes posters? A postpostmodern political group expressing itself through posters?
I didn't find a definitive answer until the last two sentences of an About Us section on the Studio Info page.
Speaking of that About Us section, I disagree with the decision to put a block of unformatted grayscale text into a GIF file. At the very least, a summarized alt tag would be a good idea...
Posted by Ed. :: November 4th, 2004 at 07:18 PM
#4
Love the design. One of the cleanest I've seen in a while. But I do have to agree with Ed on his last point. I find that large portions of text on the website are being used as .gif images which is pretty inaccessible.
Posted by Chris Gwynne :: November 4th, 2004 at 09:52 PM
#5
Um, isn't it me but shouldn't the primary designers be mentioned in the main article text, and not as an afterthought?
Posted by Foofy :: November 4th, 2004 at 11:00 PM
#6
I agree with you Foofy and have therefore updated the entry.
Posted by Johan Edlund :: November 5th, 2004 at 10:16 AM
#7
It's beautiful. And beautiful typography too. The only downside, at least to me, is that they don't mention the size of posters. :3
Posted by Neko :: November 9th, 2004 at 12:35 PM
#8
An awesome achievement.
Posted by Beerzie Yoink :: December 7th, 2004 at 04:45 PM
#9
The porfolio-works are great, but the site itself doesn't impress me at all.
The colorchoices are pretty strange in my opinion.
Posted by Jerome Bos :: December 10th, 2004 at 01:45 PM
#10
This is an excellent site. I just like everything about it. You've probably the greatest job ever.
Posted by Jay, web designer :: December 20th, 2004 at 02:37 PM
#11
I have to say it. I love this site.
At first I just liked it. But as time passed I found myself returning to see this design over and over. It's become a reference.
It's so "dans l'air du temps". (dunno how to translate that)
Posted by ghola :: December 22nd, 2004 at 02:43 AM
#12
This is one of those sites that I liked from seeing the thumbnail to liking even more once I got to have a real look. I especially pleased with the way the portfolio section was set up, it looks great and is very easy to use.
Posted by Bob Duncan :: December 22nd, 2004 at 07:04 AM
Comments on: The Heads of State