North Kingdom's new website
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- imnotaplumber0
"but your own site is a piece of your work such as any other client work you showcase and highlight" - I agree with this, it seems a little arrogant that the big studios don't want to put effort into their sites anymore as they know they will still get good clients and big budgets anyway.
I think this trend will pass, when the big studios stop making Flash sites and are forced to use HTML5 I bet you they start making really nice HTML5 portfolio sites too.
All the portfolio sites that get used by individuals like Krop and the other ones that get censored here also show a lack of effort from individuals too.
- iceberg0
^^i mean it really doesn't matter what framework you build your site with, but your own site is a piece of your work such as any other client work you showcase and highlight, so yeah I guess I dont quite understand why that needs to be less beautifully executed or presented. typically your own work, be it website, campaign or annual report can help you make ripples in the industry as well. this site sure doesnt.
- iceberg0
well, i think at least Joshuadavis took a shot at Wordpress in a creative way (while it is not for me personally...) and tried to make something out of it, push it or tweak it some. i find the northkingdom site a bit sloppy and unhappy, dull maybe even boring which does not let the work shine harder imo. it's like a great floor in a poor room. it would be better if the room was neat all over.
- kezza_20
Content IS king.
- acrossthesea0
Love the behind-the-scenes peek in the blog.
- Leigh0
They dont need a fancy site, their work does all the talking.
- Iggyboo0
Even NorthKingdom has to ditch flash for it's environment to showcase its creative... that says something. But no honestly the update is a little less than I expected.
- jamble0
I kind of agree with pillhead, I think this is epically uninspiring from an agency with a long and distinguished history of putting out some of the best work I've seen.
If they didn't have the time to put in the work on their own site then why bother, as mentioned above, the old site was nice enough and you can't tell me that a bog standard looking blog better meets their business needs than their last site.
I'm sure some work went into it but seriously, it's not like it's introducing any interesting or new functionality or design elements and a theme like that for wordpress could easily be knocked up in a couple of days.
If that's how the industry is going then great, it makes it easier to make money knocking out wordpress templates.
- AVAVA0
It's a good move on their part. Aesthetic, from a designer's point of view, is obviously important, but it's worth thinking about purpose and context first.
- kezza_20
Love it...
Flash is going out in favour of sites with video content, and it looks like they are hedging their bets
- BIGGESTDOGINTHEWORLD0
_
Hilarious, Flash is so good that two of the big rich Flash studios NK and FI) both have HTML sites.Fucking death knell for Flash
- Flash, dead? :) Silly. Think about both of these studios still use Flash in most of their projects ;)grafician
- jakobnylund0
It is actually quite fun that people react about it, and I can understand why they do. But it is a website, and tOki has got it right here. If the purpose of this was to make a groundbreaking website, it would never have been made this way and we would have spent a lot more money on it and a lot more time. But if the purpose is to show what we do in a simple and hopefully inspiring way, this is ONE way of doing it. All of us working at North Kingdom are all very different, the work we do is very much a collaboration of people with different skill-sets. And all the work we do is different. So how does one portray that in a showcase? For me, design is a sheet of white paper, and it is what we put in it that is important. In this case, it is the work we do. What´s around it? Not that important. Yes, it is simple, but what is wrong with being simple? Anyway, we just hope you will find our work that we do inspiring and we will put behind the scenes material to cases that we find interesting to share with you guys, and we hope you enjoy it - as well as the work we will put in it in the future. I´ll end with a quote "The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak." :)
- CHarming. That's the last time I try and defend anyone :PMrT
- haha, sorry MrT, you too!jakobnylund
- Beneath my rock-hard, bejeweled exterior beats the heart of a big pussy.MrT
- MrT is actuallly a MrShe? loltOki
- Design is a white sheet of paper but NK seem to have just uploaded the paper not the design.jamble
- Completely agree with Jakob.ximeraLabs
- formed0
Huh. That about sums it up for me. I understand wanting/needing something quick and easy, but this is more or less a completely generic Wordpress theme, nothing interesting or unique. If I didn't know who they were, I'd have closed it done in a millisecond.
That, imho, would be a questionable business decision on their part. But they have gotten this far, so....
- acescence0
this may seem minor, but it's a pretty amateur error- the links in their nav all lack the trailing slash, but when you click them the slash gets added. this is likely screwing up their seo. fire your web developer.
- Really? You think they care about SEO - is google that stupid to worry about slashes?imnotaplumber
- yes, google cares, with and without slash are two completely different URLsacescence
- luckily I always use a trailing slash and also hybens in my urlsimnotaplumber
- *hyphensimnotaplumber
- tOki0
Production based environment means they probably don't have the resource to spend 2 or 3 months on their own site because client work comes first. This is always the biggest problem because managers often don't want to put expensive manpower onto something when there is a stack of other paid work piling up..
Wordpress option much faster :)
- MrT0
dyspl, you missed my point.
I was (yes, flippantly) saying their old site was Flashturbation. I'm not making any comment about their work, but by not making their website another project in itself they let the client work tell the story.
At the end of the day, they have seen this as the right thing to do, and they have a very good client list. Who is wrong?
- utopian0
I could careless if North Kingdom's website was created in Flash or HTML. But please for the love of God, just push the envelope just a little bit. Considering that North Kingdom built its reputation on innovative and cutting edge websites, their new website looks nothing more than a canned Wordpress template from 2008 or no better then some of the blogs designed and posted by college students at your local community college.