Robinson Advertising Website

http://robinsonad.com/

I came across the above website by accident the other day, when looking for a recent Robinson's (as in the cordial) ad. The company is called Robinson Advertising and is based in Missouri, United States. They are a small graphic design agency, with most of their work revolving around either advertising, design or interactive media. From their philosophy, you can see that they very highly prioritise being able to understand their clients background and the ins and outs of their business. A sensible idea when dealing with any potential client. Lastly they stress the importance of communication between themselves and their client. Again, an absolute must for any design orientated company when dealing with clients.

Anyway, now we know a little bit about them, what i really want to talk about is their website, as this was what really grabbed my attention. The flash animation you see before you enter the website flows very well, and i think it is maybe trying to reflect the nature behind the essence of the company. They generate lots of ideas, mix them up and analyse them to eventually produce the one big idea. The reason i feel this, is due to the chaotic appearance at the beginning of the animation, which is then transformed and slotted into the shape of their logo. Maybe i am reading into this too much, i don't know.

Once into their website you are faced with an easy to use interface listing their philosophy, case studies, portfolio and contact details. They have given the site some subtle detail, as you can move the blue bubbles around the screen at your discretion, as they emerge from your mouse pointer. Also as you hover the mouse over the four characters, the scrolling list just above comes to rest and you can clearly see which section of the website you are about to enter. For me this can be a dangerous area when designing websites, as sometimes you often are faced with animations that over complicate the website and make it difficult to navigate. In this case, however, i think these subtle but effective additions give the site a bit more depth and show off what the company is capable of, a nice touch. The use of the black and cream coloured backgrounds also minimalises the negative space that the website actually uses, and in turn creates a small but simple visual aesthetic and a compact user interface.

The choice of colour palette that they have used for the website is very earthy, but the colours vary enough to give it some visual stimulus and also compliment each other. When you click on any of the coloured coded tabs, the page then morphs into a different page. These earthy colours almost become a statement know as they dominate the background. The distressed typeface working with the big bold earthy colours fits well not only aesthetically but is also easy to read.

What i think makes their website particulary attractive is firstly the easy to use interface. There is no need to keep clicking on your browsers back button to navigate anywhere, as it is all self contained on the page itself - just click on their logo to go back. Secondly, every page you visit feels like it is part of the website. The number of times i have been on different websites and you feel like each page isn't part of the same website: this is due to the dramatic layout changes. In this case the transition is very smooth as colours blend, text slides in and symbols calmly rearrange themselves on the page. All in all, i feel that this website is a very good introduction to Robinson Advertising; it is well constructed, engaging, simple to use and reflects professionally upon their company.