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Barbarian Group's turn for a new Web site
—Posted by Brian Morrissey |
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I like the site but I'm not sure if I like it for them. They're so known for their interactive Flash sites, that this feels like a completely different company. Speaking of site redesign, check out http://www.tinsley.com. Curious what you guys think of the minimal approach of the work sticking out instead of the site.
Posted by: Gio Gutierrez | Apr 21, 2008 2:09:23 PM
So their site is a blog now? That took six months to make? That will require them coming up with something new to say every day? Genius.
Posted by: JP | Apr 21, 2008 3:22:20 PM
You try to hijack a discussion to promote your own work? Classy, Gio. Very classy. You make Paris Hilton look like a shy, retiring wallflower.
PS: Both your site and Tinsley's blows.
Posted by: James K. Polk | Apr 21, 2008 3:25:59 PM
Wow.... the Barbarian webiste is mad boring. When i visit a advertising/design company website I expect to see something cool not a page filled with copy. Who has the time to read all that shit.
Posted by: Anonymous | Apr 21, 2008 4:23:58 PM
the barbarian site has a fresh approach that sells the concept of making 'useful' sites, but I agree no one has time to read all that text. Needs less text more images.
the modernista site is very radical - it took me a while to figure out whats going on.
Posted by: felix | Apr 21, 2008 5:00:11 PM
Apparently Grey put out an all agency email asking people to stuff the ballot box in a feigning attempt to make themselves seem less lame.
Posted by: sigh | Apr 21, 2008 6:43:05 PM
Barbarian Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Posted by: mike | Apr 21, 2008 7:07:30 PM
Who is going to slog through that site? boring. Hal Riney is the worst thing I've ever seen. I guess it's all about the *navigation*. RGA is a disappointment - this is the best they could come up with? Modernista won't last but a good gimmick. I'm going to burn in hell for saying this; I like the Grey site. Now I need to scrub myself clean and say 100 hail Marys.
Posted by: jaded | Apr 21, 2008 8:56:39 PM
I spent time reading some of the content on the site. I wish the content were actually useful. As far as I can tell, it's a whole lot of back patting self promotion. Sure, that's a website. But quotes like "Don’t be afraid! Well, be afraid unless you hire us!” Lame. Just lame.
Posted by: anonymous | Apr 21, 2008 10:57:08 PM
At the frequency with which people of vested interest check on largely unchanging shop sites, unemployed as they are, there is now a viable reason to visit barbariangroup.com. Something to do, expertly presented.
What would you be doing this minute, were you not frustratingly the second to see a finger twitch? Blogging, opening it up to discussion, I bet.
This is a successful venture.
Posted by: Name | Apr 21, 2008 11:02:08 PM
I think Modernista is the best. It's what the future of the Web is all about; aggregation, data portability and seamless browsing experiences. You can hook up with Modernista on del.icio.us, you can check out their work, their Wiki entry even; everything is literally right in front of you. IMHO, their concept is visionary. It's brilliant.
My other favorite is the barbarian group blog. Text heavy? How different is it from any other blog? I'm guessing that people who say it is text heavy are the kind of people who aren't used to blogs.
Design-wise, their site is based on grids. That means that it's structured to be easy to read and navigate. Minimal visual clutter means you have more time to scan through what's important and less time is wasted on animation that doesn't do anything. There's also a list of latest posts and most active bloggers and their portfolio is right up there on the home page. Score one for information architecture.
Copy-wise, the headlines are lucid enough for you to have an idea of what the post is all about. Overall, the two-way communication that this blog offers is excellent. Score one for usability.
Tech-wise, their HTML markup validates! Their HTML, the building blocks of the Web, is up-to-date, so you can bet that their site works exactly the way that it is supposed to work on most old and new browsers. Score one point for accessibility (and with it, better ROI).
Compare this to Grey's homepage; the first thing that you see is a randomly-sorted thumbnail gallery of their work. It's right there in the middle, so you're attention is drawn to it, instead of the navigation bar at the top.
The work is from all over the world, but which one is relevant to you? All of them? Are you going to waste time looking through all of the thumbnails to see which is the latest? To see which one is the most entertaining, according to your interests? Not much information architecture there!
The Publicis & Hal Riney site is another example of a ad agency site; what the hell is the navigation doing hidden in some red fluid in the middle of the page? Why do I have to wait so long for it to load? Which section should I look at first? Why is the site making me think so hard to find information that should be available the moment it loads?
Well, that's just my $.020.
Posted by: Suffian | Apr 21, 2008 11:45:46 PM
I think Modernista is the best. It's what the future of the Web is all about; aggregation, data portability and seamless browsing experiences. You can hook up with Modernista on del.icio.us, you can check out their work, their Wiki entry even; everything is literally right in front of you. IMHO, their concept is visionary. It's brilliant.
My other favorite is the barbarian group blog. Text heavy? How different is it from any other blog? I'm guessing that people who say it is text heavy are the kind of people who aren't used to blogs.
Design-wise, their site is based on grids. That means that it's structured to be easy to read and navigate. Minimal visual clutter means you have more time to scan through what's important and less time is wasted on animation that doesn't do anything. There's also a list of latest posts and most active bloggers and their portfolio is right up there on the home page. Score one for information architecture.
Copy-wise, the headlines are lucid enough for you to have an idea of what the post is all about. Overall, the two-way communication that this blog offers is excellent. Score one for usability.
Tech-wise, their HTML markup validates! Their HTML, the building blocks of the Web, is up-to-date, so you can bet that their site works exactly the way that it is supposed to work on most old and new browsers. Score one point for accessibility (and with it, better ROI).
Compare this to Grey's homepage; the first thing that you see is a randomly-sorted thumbnail gallery of their work. It's right there in the middle, so you're attention is drawn to it, instead of the navigation bar at the top.
The work is from all over the world, but which one is relevant to you? All of them? Are you going to waste time looking through all of the thumbnails to see which is the latest? To see which one is the most entertaining, according to your interests? Not much information architecture there!
The Publicis & Hal Riney site is another example of a ad agency site; what the hell is the navigation doing hidden in some red fluid in the middle of the page? Why do I have to wait so long for it to load? Which section should I look at first? Why is the site making me think so hard to find information that should be available the moment it loads?
Well, that's just my $.002.
Posted by: Suffian | Apr 21, 2008 11:45:58 PM
Oops. Typo! My last sentence meant to say "Well, that's just my two cents." Haha.
Posted by: Suffian | Apr 21, 2008 11:57:38 PM
Something I'm missing from the blog/social network focused sites is the actual feel of a website. They feel like blogs or "widgets" and rightfully so; they are blogs and for lack of a better word "widgets".
Now for the unsolicited and more than likely unwanted critique. The Grey site just seems cheesy and what the hell are those alien things? The Riney site is a little heavy and the animations are disjointed, but the presentation is clean and for an agency putting the work at the fore-front isn't the worst strategy. All that said, I was torn between Barbarian's bauhaus inspired design and Riney's slick flash work.
Posted by: Roepert | Apr 22, 2008 12:22:42 AM
"the first thing that you see is a randomly-sorted thumbnail gallery of their work. It's right there in the middle, so you're attention is drawn to it, instead of the navigation bar at the top."
Thank you Barbarian dude. This is the funniest thing I've read all morning. A WEBSITE where your attention is DRAWN TO THE WORK! Outrageous. Next people will start making it easy to contact them.
Posted by: mayhem | Apr 22, 2008 7:42:36 AM
I think Modernista is pretty cool but may not be the best in terms of ease of use. I only chose Grey because it is far more straight forward than the rest.
Posted by: monsta | Apr 22, 2008 9:43:45 AM
I feel like Grey's website is the weakest of them all. It's cheesy flash work thats been done many of a times. If you think about it's Whoswe studios meets DNAstudio. The thumbnail navigation is terrible, it'd be better as a grid, and the fact that the thumbnails are on the bottom like that it leaves the site extremely bottom heavy.
Posted by: Vandal | Apr 22, 2008 10:48:20 AM
Just did a whole post on this (click on my name for link) but in a nutshell:
Big and/or well-known agency sites serve a very different function than small/unknown agency sites.
For the former, the main reasons an external visitor would come to the site are:
1. To get the address and phone # of a particular office
2. To bone up on the agency the night before an interview
As such, the internal audience for these sites assumes a greater importance-- both as a retention and recruitment tool-- and they should also be judged on their ability to meet these goals.
Sites from smaller/unknown agencies have different goals, since the site is potentially the only opportunity they have to make an impression on a perspective client.
Doesn't mean their sites need to be dull. Just that they need to be designed with a different audience in mind.
Posted by: Toad | Apr 22, 2008 11:15:28 AM
Of all sites Modernista's was the most original and clever idea, but I'm not completely sold on it. I understand what Barbarian is trying to do and I think they have executed it pretty well. Most advertising agency's typically miss the boat on best practices or emerging technologies when dealing with interactive, but for Barbarian it's their core competency.
Although it may seem to be the flavor of the day Blogs, Social tools, online apps/widgets are the direction the web is heading. I think Barbarian is trying to showcase their expertise in this arena, and doing a pretty good job. Frog design did something similar last year although I think this example is more robust.
R/GAs site seems like a step back from where they were, and I found some bugs in it here and there.
HRP has and interesting navigational idea, but seems like it's trying to be "creative"
Grey's would have been cool if it were launched in 2003 and really I think the execution is a little patchy for this day and age. Another example of how most traditional advertising agencies create very mediocre interactive work.
Posted by: the Dude | Apr 22, 2008 1:06:37 PM
BG and Modernista! feel like they’re the current state of the actual net experience. Not ‘trying’ to be per se, they just are, which is what I prefer.
The approach of the others seems to be, how can we update what your expectations of agency sites have been, but without walking too far away from that. (Evolution, not revolution I suppose.) That’s not a bad thing, just a different approach for each.
Posted by: bg | Apr 22, 2008 2:41:09 PM
The R/GA site has some powerful imagery in the leadership section which is great for connecting with them on a personal level just via the web. If GREY ditched the Flash and went all web standards with some AJAX they could pull off the same feel and still showcase their talents and how they appear more up to date on trends. Two other companies that could go on this list are Organic Inc (http://www.organic.com/) and Critical Mass. Organic could do away with the heavy Flash too because they actually offer some great content. I also love that they are running lots of tracking, investing in marketing ;)
Posted by: bj | Apr 22, 2008 5:23:16 PM
Barbarians and their alter egos the Bavarians have managed to re-invent themselves. That Grey site is ok but so cliche, if i see another version of that annoying nav im going to puke. We all know that we can add animation and 3d to websites now but what Barbarian did was epic, they took a step back and in turn it was taking a step forward. I applaud them on their gutsy new site, its great! Leave flash for the client sites. Creating beauty in HTML and CSS is beauty in itself. Plus check it out on an iPhone... really cool! Publicis and Hal Riney took a great step forward with thier physical Wii-like site but Barbarians are the real deal! Great work guys! your still my heroes!
Posted by: Craig Elimeliah | Apr 22, 2008 11:36:06 PM
is it me, or does that dude look like a jedi knight?
Posted by: brian | Apr 23, 2008 11:27:46 AM
Grey site = Coca Cola Happiness Factory
Posted by: gheppy | Apr 23, 2008 12:47:36 PM
If you're gunna make something cool, make sure it doesn't break so easily... *cough* Publicis Hal Riney *cough*
Posted by: Michael Zick Doherty | May 6, 2008 5:27:00 PM
I heard so much about Barbarian's site ... the sizzle was better than the steak. If this is our new standard of greatness, then it's no wonder there's so much garbage out there.
JR
Posted by: Jake Raymond | May 27, 2008 8:40:02 PM
F all you haters man. Barbarian's dah bomb.
I thought I told that we won't stop.
(SMACK)
Posted by: Gingerbread Man | Mar 23, 2009 2:03:08 PM
