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Name:
Alan Najman
Company:
sitegeist, Inc.
Job title:
Principal | Chief Creative
Services:
Corporate Identity Systems, Branding, Logos, Illustration,
Web Design & Development, eCommerce, Character Development,
Original Artwork, Typography
Practising since:
1994
Country:
United States
City:
Aventura, FL
URL:
www.sitegeist.net
Email:
Alan
Selected client list:
Missy & Jack
Ohr Menachem Congregation
Temple Emanu-El: The South Beach Synagogue
Bancentro, Grupo La Fise
Success Story:
Rum and Form (space and shape) the official magazine of Danish
Designers.
Spirit of Miami
By Mikkel Sonne, graphic designer MDD
Generally speaking,
graphic designers own homepages are rather boring. At least
the Danish. Some web pages show only the address where
others are designed as if they were a printed brochure. It's
sad
to see 'creative' people be so little creative when they
are to design the most vital advertising of them all: Their
own. Let's look at the background colours for starters:
Danish designers use almost always black or white, continuing
all
the way through. One wonders why, considering the web to
be the only medium where the colours are free.
Recently, I
was in Miami to meet with sitegeist, Inc., a company specialising
in graphic design on the Internet. I
found them - of course - on the net, where their homepage
instantly draw my attention. I was not the only one, since
this, the company's most important - and only - advertising
draws more and more clients.
sitegeist's web designs prove
that they think www. The standard of the graphic design is
high, and they display an easy-going
and playful attitude towards the medium. Carefully avoiding
the standard Internet clichés (scrollbars all over,
pointless and heavy animations, loud colours) sitegeist takes
advantage of the strengths of the medium thus managing to
create an unexpected entertainment value. One navigates almost
intuitively through their pages, instead of the usual brochure-on-the-net-way.
And the use of colour, rich and warm, is both appealing and
welcome.
Take for instance the homepage of Bettimi’s
Cakes, where the use of colour has made it one among the
most recognised.
The page has an almost cake-like-eat-me feel to it, is very
easy to navigate and a true feast for the eye.
The legal firm
of Brotman & Nusbaum hired Sitegeist to
create their total visual identity: Logotype, printed material
and web page. The result is serious but with a refreshing
contemporary flair. For myself, I can only wish to find a
Danish law firm with the same appealing design next time
I get a petition!
An e-mail address and a telephone number
only list sitegeist, because the company is a design studio
without a regular
street address. The partners Shana Kruger and Alan Najman
both work from their homes, they communicate online and
only meet in person once or twice a week. The company has
no staff,
but works closely with an umbrella of subcontractors such
as programmers and typeface designers. The finished work
that seems to be the work of one person only, may in fact
be the work of many professionals. Some of their associates
work locally, some nationally and some even internationally.
Some of these have never actually met Shana and Alan. The
Internet works globally and allows people to sit in Miami
and work with people in Hong Kong. They assure me that
they always look for new free lance associates, who are able
to
work under theses special circumstances. Client meetings
are done on the phone, by e-mail, at the client's or someplace
else.
Both Shana and Alan are trained graphic designers,
and they worked doing more traditional design when they
decided to
start their web-based company 1 1/2 years ago. They both
felt the importance to get involved in this new medium.
The way sitegeist works can very well be the way of the future.
Meeting Shana and Alan made me think that there is little
hindrance for me to do my work in a cottage in the country
or on Time Square, whatever I wish.
A bigger and bigger part
of graphic design will be designed for the Internet, and
will call for a greater deal of flexibility.
Things can - and will - be changed from day to day, and
will allow us to work together, across the old fashioned
and well-known
national boundaries.
It is a challenge that a Danish client
in the future may well choose to work with companies like
sitegeist. Around
the world there are plenty of highly skilled designers
who are able to do 'our' work, almost always for a price
we cannot
compete with. It certainly will be interesting to see how
Danish designers will go about this challenge. One can
only hope it won't be with black and white as backgrounds!
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