Week 6

http://www.honda.co.jp/internavi-dots/#/now

For my logo, I chose the iconic Mortal Kombat dragon logo. Anyone that is familiar with the franchise will immediately recognize this graphic. One reason is due to its longevity. The same graphic has been used since the first iteration of the game, up to the present with the introduction of "Mortal Kombat 2011". The logo is very simple, yet visually pleasing, and because it has such a good deign, many iterations of it have been created over they years; and every time, you can still recognize it as the same graphic that was used in 1992 (when the first Mortal Kombat game came out). Although the graphic doesn't really say much about the product at first glance, when one becomes immersed with the game's story, it makes sense. I feel that the colours work well with the franchise, as it gives a hellish atmosphere; very fitting of Mortal Kombat.

The website I chose was a marketing site for Honda, and it displays various statistics in Japan using simple shapes and colours. What struck me most about this site was that it was extremely visually pleasing, despite the fact that the only shapes used were coloured lines and circles. The animation were smooth and expressive, and the music helped to create a fun atmosphere. As with most good websites, there was also a great deal of interactivity. One notable, but very small example would be on the home page, where we are presented with the title, "DOTS". As you hover your mouse across the text, you are rewarded with a cool little animation. Little things like this make user experiences that much better.

Week 5

http://music.google.com/about/tour/

I really like Portal 2 logo because it, like the other logo's I've chosen, is simple and to the point. I'm a fan of super clean titles because I feel that it allows you to throw in subtle things that make the graphic stand out, rather than having something that is in you face. The text by itself is nothing really that special, but it's the blue little man on the right that does it for me. I think because the title is so simple, the blue man, even though that itself is quite plain, becomes very interesting and eye catching. For people that know the series, the graphic makes sense, and it also picks up a little bit on the quirky nature of the game.

For this week's website, I chose the google music website. I'm actually not quite sure what the site is about (which I suppose is a flaw), but I feel the graphic design and experience makes up for it. The colours are simple and true to the google logo. When you hover over the coloured lines on the site, they play sounds which, as simple as it sounds, is quite entertaining. When you click them, you are treated with a very cool animation and a video explaining more about what google music is. I will say that even though I don't know what the site is about, I did find that the instructions were quite simple and clear (I just didn't really pay attention). While there isn't really anything innovative here, everything was executed very well.

Week 4

For this week's logo, I chose the title for the "Final Fantasy" series; Extremely simply, timeless and beautiful. The example given here was specifically for the first in the series, but the base of the logo has been used over and over again. Each Final Fantasy graphic uses the same text, and then in the background there is a nice portrait of the main character or sometimes villain. What makes these logos nice is that it is very clean and you know exactly what it is, and for some, you can figure out what the story is about by looking at the portrait. I also love how detailed the portraits are, yet they do not detract you from the seeing the title.

The website I chose is for Ubisoft's 25th anniversary. They created a site which is based off of a very common internet game; however, they put their own little spin to it. First off, the web design is very well done and quite fun. Everything stylistically makes sense, and is reflective of the Rabid Rabbit character. It was also fun to see modified versions of iconic Ubisoft characters. The main attraction to this site is the game, however. It's a simple "shoot the animal out of a canon" type game, but their spin is that they have you shooting the Rabid Rabbit across the world. The map appears to be from Google Earth, although I'm not sure. Either way, it's an interesting spin, and I found it particularly clever that they placed landmarks on all of the Ubisoft studios around the world. http://25years.ubi.com/minigame/flash/en/