Gensler

Gensler's website was easy to navigate and relatively simplistic. It looked to me like a standard website. I was a little disappointed because I felt it did not have something that made it stand out. The red on the homepage made a statement because that would be Gensler's signature color, but I thought it distracted from the pictures. However, the website does offer amazing pictures and I was very impressed with their work, especially the One Thousand Steps retail store in Cerritos, California. I also liked that they had a section of their website called "what's new" that shows news releases and has peoples reactions to the new buildings they have designed. That is something I haven't seen on any other architectural firms' websites.

HOK

This design firm's website was both creative and efficient. The website opens up with slideshow of different projects that HOK has designed. The pictures were large and took up nearly the whole page except for the HOK logo and two words: ideas work. I loved that they put all the focus on their projects rather than having long explanations backing up the pictures. When you put your mouse over the word "work" a long list of categories comes up and you can choose which type of design you wish to view. Each of these pages were designed very well with unique ways of displaying the pictures. I also commend them on their photography. All their pictures colorful and showed the spaces at different times during the day. Some even used time-lapse photography which I found gave the projects a more artistic look and made it more interesting. The spaces designed by HOK were very impressive, especially their "aviation" category displaying the airplane terminals they have designed all over the world.

Daroff Design

Daroff Design Inc. is an architectural and Interior Design firm based in Philadelphia. Their website had a unique intro with lots of squares that blinked into different designs by the firm. The square theme continued on through out the website with little squares at the top of each page. The squares represent the diversity of projects that the firm takes on and each one is a link to different projects they have designed according to that category. One thing I disliked about the site was the size of the pictures. They were much too small for me to see any detail. Plus, I feel the bigger the picture is the more I can imagine myself in the space and that is something the site needs to encourage.

SOM

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill architectural firm has an impressive website. Their homepage was laid out well and organized logically. I was also impressed with their many locations over seas and their vast library of buildings they have designed. The buildings each offer something completely different as some focus on sustainability like the UNC Genome Science Lab, or the graphics on the Jianianhua Center, or the unique shape of the highrise Infinity Tower. It was incredibly easy to navigate the projects page as they organized them by several differents categories depending on which suits your needs. I also liked that they offer photo galleries of each project that really give you a feel for each project. I particularly enjoyed the partners page under people. If you put your mouse over one of the figures they change positions and tell you who they are with a speech bubble. You should definitely check out the guy 3rd from the left on the bottom row, he was especially creative.

Random Product Designs

This is a cheese grater from the Italian company Alessi. This design I thought, was incredibly brilliant. My grandmother is always making me grate cheese and she has the worst kind of grater that never works correctly. I liked this one because it comes with a container for the cheese to fall into after it is grated. It is also small enough to hold in your hand, so it is not such an awkward task. I also love that it comes in lots of fun colors for you to pick from.

Marcus Tremonto has recently been getting lots of attention for his new product series called Ragno. His product is composed of a two-dimensional traditional chandelier made of an "electroluminescent material" on acrylic. This new interpretation of a chandelier illiminates the hassle of installations that were a major problem with the heavy classic chandeliers (as I well know). This is much easier to install and has a very young, modern look with the flourescent colors.

This is a very bold look by Kohler. It is becoming increasingly popular to have the sink as a bowl on top of the counters rather than being flush with the countertops. I love the way it is done here with the clear glass and the way the water creates reflections on the countertop. I also like to see the faucet coming from the wall rather than the counter like a shower does. The simplicity of the faucet is perfect so as not to distract from the focal point of the reflections.