Submitted by: Alex Jaques @helixtorques
Role: Designer

A very clean, minimalistic approach to website design that let’s the agency work do the talking.

Often, when we get submissions, the submitter includes a small comment about the site. creative-jar.com came with this: “A very clean, minimalistic approach to website design that let’s the agency work do the talking.” Its a claim that is often made and a widely used strategy for portfolio sites. Sometimes that means that the site is a little under-designed, sometimes it means that the designer just didn’t put a lot of time into the final product, and sometimes it means just what it says. creative-jar.com is the latter.

While many sites have embraced the power of whitespace, creative-jar.com seems to take their bare bones structure as an opportunity to energize spaces in-between. the subtle sine wave pattern behind their main content is just active enough to energize the space without creating vibration, which can fatigue they eyes and make reading difficult. Its a delicate balancing act and I wonder how it looks on other monitors. You guys tell us what you think.

Quite a lot of attention has been paid to details. Strong typographic sensibilities about weight and font give the site a well ordered and mature information hierarchy and  act as an excellent structural underpinning for the large images that dominate most of the screen real estate. The integration of typography and image in their design portfolio brings a magazine-like sophistication to their design palette that is often missing in interactive design. Even the orange band at the top of the design that wraps over to display their logo sends a strong visual message with subtlety and maturity.

A final detail that I find truly exceptional is their twitter bird (not the tweet bubble, which I find somewhat problematic). This tiny animated element is beautiful in design and execution. The tiniest movements carry though and the intermittent bursts of action are elegantly mirthful.

creative-jar.com is a beautiful site.