| Previews | Noel Douglas - Lateral - Review | Calendar |
| Up to MM Magazine | On to Review Index | UpUp to MM Home |
|
Noel Douglas
|
||
|
Name: Lateral Design: Lateral Net Ltd http:// www.lateral.net London, Aug - Sep 1998 |
In the dark days of the early to mid-nineties, before java scripts, dhtml and style sheets, Web design studio Obsolete was producing some of the first websites to combine cutting-edge interactive techniques with a street-smart visual graphic style. Lateral.net arises from the ashes of Obsolete. Thankfully, their studio site maintains and develops the high standards set by Obsolete by being not only an excellent portfolio of work, but also an interesting site in its own right. Upon entering the site, a simple and clear introductory screen gives the user three basic options: Work, Play, Us. These are fairly self-explanatory: 'Work' shows a selection of sites completed by Lateral, 'Play' contains an assortment of personal sites, games, art and illustrations, while 'Us' contains a brief mission statement, contact information, and a map of where they're located geographically. Clicking on one of the options takes you into the site proper. The whole website works 'laterally', in a horizontal arrangement of three frames. The main frame in the middle always scrolls from left to right. Navigation is quite logical throughout: the bottom frame always contains contact info and links to the sections not being viewed. The top frame has links to the other sections of the part of the site which is presently being viewed in the main, middle frame. Each showcase site is opened in a new window when clicked. The 'Work' sites range in scope from cutting-edge dhtml experiments (such as in one of the Levi's sites) to more standard frame/html site designs (such as those of the National Gallery). This is all interesting enough, but the real heart of the Lateral site is the 'Play' section, where the designers and their friends get to express themselves, experiment, and generally play around. The work in these sections relates to the site as a whole in the same way that a sketch-book relates to a finished artwork. It is at turns funny (as with the 'Benjy the Wonderdog' site), touching (parts of the 'J-Buyers' and 'Muthafuka' sections), interesting (a selection of games and toys made by Lateral) and experimental (for example, 'Sneaker Builder'). Here designer Siaron Hughes lets her trainer fetish get the better of her to create a game where you can build your dream trainer. Clicking on the various parts of the shoe allows you to choose the style, and clicking again chooses a colour. There is an artists' portfolio, where fellow artists and illustrators whose work sometimes features in the commercial side of the studio get to show their work. For instance, there are some excellent bold images from Tom Barwick and Pete Fowler that were featured in the sites created for Levi's. Surfing through the 'Play' section, you come to realise how important experimentation, be it visual or technical, is to the Web. It also shows how interesting it is to see this process exposed and given as much status as work for clients, which, to be fair, in Lateral's case can be just as experimental and playful as the 'Play' section - if it fits for the client. It is this open, friendly and funky approach to the technology - as aware of its limits as of its potential - that makes Lateral stand out as a design studio. They treat design as a whole process, not just a finished product, and ,to boot, they have an intuitive understanding of Web technology. The fact that they, like Obsolete before them, maintain this level of experimentation and put it to real use both at 'work' and at 'play' shows how technological and design innovation are as much about the 'attitude' as they are about the know-how. This review is an excerpt from the book Website Graphics Now, an international source book on the best in Global site design. Website Graphics Now was edited by Mediamatic and published in July 1999 by BIS Publishers in co-operation with Thames and Hudson. For more information on Website Graphics Now read the introduction, or see the complete selection.
|
| Previews | Noel Douglas - Lateral - Review | Calendar |
| Up to MM Magazine | On to Review Index | UpUp to MM Home |