Website Graphics The best of global site design
Check out the Website Graphics Hotlist Hotlist selection and editing done by Mediamatic Website Graphics is published by BIS Publishers, Thames and Hudson, and Hermann Schmidt Verlag		About Website Graphics With the World Wide Web consisting of about 50 million pages and a growth rate of 10% each month, it seems presumptuous to pretend that you have seen all there is to see on the Web. Looking at Yahoo’s Top 10 of the Webor David Siegel’s High Five awards makes you realise once more how fast today’s winners are replaced by tomorrow’s innovators. So from the start it has been our intention to gather poignant examples of what is state-of-the-art at this point in time. So what can you expect from a book called ‘Webgraphics, a source book on screen design for the World Wide Web’ ? How should a book capture what is essentially dynamic and ephemeral, subject to constant change and development? Let us explore some of the reflections that played a role in the making of this book. First and foremost Webgraphics is a book about visual/graphic design for Web pages meant to be displayed on the computer screen. The graphics for the Web feature much illustration work designed with any kind of regular authoring software. However, we felt that its main challenge lies in practising graphic design and layout within the confines and limitations set by HTML and Web browsers, as well as searching for new options and possibilities along the way. Consequently we considered sites, in which visual design was based solely on Photoshop and the likes, to fall short of these criteria. Furthermore conventions from a centuries-old graphic design tradition do not necessarily apply to the range of new challenges posed by multimedia and user interaction. An important element for Web designers therefore is the visual clarity of their interaction design – the navigation devices, the choice of metaphors – but also the visual transitions from page to page. The element of time – engaging and entertaining the users as they navigate through a site – poses a whole new challenge to designers. None of this, however, can be viewed separately from its context, the goals and aspirations formulated for a particular Web site. Since each site is made up of a number of disparate pages, it is the context, the general concept that gives meaning to them as a whole. In the end this is what makes a Web site. This chosen concept and the visual design that conveys or carries it constituted a further step in our evaluation of pre-selected sites. Throughout the book selected sites have been grouped according to six main categories, defining a general ‘raison d’etre’ for the chosen sites. Obviously each category, whether it is On-line Commerceor Magazines , presents its own practical demands as well as its design aesthetics. As is the case when evaluating graphic design in print, an important part of our selection process involved checking the original function of a Web site, its mission as it were, with regard to how it is realised visually by the designers in the context they have created. Ultimately ’Webgraphics’ does not present an easy guide on ‘how-to...’, but simply a wide variety of solutions developed by designers and artists while hacking their way into uncharted territory. The consistency in their approach – the decision not to stop at designing a ‘facade’ for their site but to develop an overall concept from which the design follows naturally – has been an important criterion in our selection. We are confident that we have found some stunning examples, and hope that you will use this book for some ‘live’ excursions on the Web to experience the richness and depth of these sites. LIESBETH DEN BOER GEERT J. STRENGHOLT WILLEM VELTHOVEN

About Mediamatic Well, of course you already are on the Mediamatic Website, so look around to find out who we are and what we do. In short Mediamatic is a Design Consultancy, graphic and interactive design studio, and publisher of the internationally acclaimed Mediamatic Magazine. Mediamatic not only produced this book (and its predecessor), but has developed websites for Rabobank, Levob Insurance, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (and many others), and produced the awardwinning Doors of Perception cdrom. For all its achievements Mediamatic was awarded the European Design Prize.

About BIS Publishers BIS Publishers are specialized in books and magazines on Design, Architecture and Visual Communication. Their target audience does not limit itself to professional designers but also includes their clients. BIS publishes a.o. yearbooks where designers present their most recent work to potential clients. Among their magazines are Items- design, architecture and visual communication, Design in Business, and the new magazine Frame (about interior design). Contact: BIS Publishers, tel. 020-6205171, fax 020-6279251, e-mail: bispub@xs4all.nl