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Click 'n Play

I spent today looking at ~60 entries to Exhibit A, and thought I'd share some thoughts on what I saw.

Maybe it shouldn't be surprising, considering this is an AIGA event, but the number of sites that used images to display text was shocking. Designers have *got* to get over this need for typographical control. An example is The Willey House, devoted to a residence designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It's a striking site, engaging aesthetic, but frustrating in its graphic heaviness.

Still, though, the Massing Model was pretty nifty. Which the house grow before your eyes!

The Design Online 04 is a remarkably clever online design exhibition. It's design-y, but has some interesting innovations -- "Entering" from stage right, the floating navigation (that you can close), and that you can page through the entries with the arrow keys.

The most delightful site was Snow Days, where you design a snowflake to share with the world. For internet news, the most fun is conducting a search, and seeing how the results appear. It might give Google some new ideas.

Bamboo Design's site is remarkably simple, and fairly clever, but the only reason I'm noting it is for the surprise I had when clicking across the navigation bar.

Also created by Bamboo is Hyper-Cow, a site promoting a new caffeinated milk beverage. It's, um, pretty crazy. I don't know if it accomplishes any viable business goal, but it's a blast.

The Brilliance of Eternal Sunshine

The only movie I've seen in theaters in the last coupla months that's truly worth the price of admission (if not more) is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Sadly, it doesn't seem to be finding much of an audience, even with Jim Carrey in the cast. The irony being, this is probably Carrey's single best performance ever. Definitely his best dramatic performance.

What excites me about this movie, is that not only is it a good, smart, touching story with brilliant performances, but it's also a real piece of *cinema*. It understands its medium and takes advantage of it. For an audience, any film's first frame is the beginning -- there is no "before" (even if there is a backstory of some sort). Eternal Sunshine intuitively gets this, and plays with it in a way that is quite ingenious, and unlike anything I've seen.

What surprised me was the emotional depth. Kaufman's prior movies banked on irony and wryness. This one feels more mature, while retaining its cerebral mindfuck.

Go see it. In a theater.