Web site analysis - Creative Spark - Design agency in Manchester

Overview and Aims

www.creativespark.co.uk

The main aim of the Creative Spark homepage is to give the viewer a relaxed feeling  by using cartoons which help to show off their creative designs. It tells you where you are straight away and where you can get to using clever cartoons with text to let you know what they have been upto lately to make you feel involved. The colours are bright and stand out well together. The site shouts out creativity and in my personal opinion would make me wonder what the agency is like and what the staff are like. It is definately a website aimed at clients and it would have many viewers applying for jobs and they offer students opportunities to improve their portfolios and get agency experience e.g:

Placement Diary: Ben Brand

February 21st, 2011

Any interview anxiety was put at rest when I first visited for a look over my folder, sat at a picnic table surrounded by a grassed floor and animal life illustrations on the walls. It became clear from then on that they were focused by what motivated me as a student designer, therefore making my time at the studio as fruitful as it can be. In what can be a busy studio, there is a colorful and warm atmosphere, everyone seems happy to offer a hand with a smile on their face.

Its obvious that the studio’s open minded personality has a strong influence on the work. It will definitely live in my memory as the most pleasant placement experience, as I am now just finding my feet I leave with a intent of returning in the near future.

A big thankyou to Neil and all the “sparks”.
Ben

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The website layout looks like it has been carefully mapped out and has many pages for you to view but you always know you can go back to what ever page you like at what ever time you choose. They have positioned themselves as a strong competing design agency who have worked with the likes of... Manchester United, Oasis, Salford City Council, Peter Kay, Lily Allen and many more.

They come across as a very helpful design agency offering knowledge of design and a complete in depth process to get the outcomes the client are looking for.

http://www.creativespark.co.uk/about/how-we-work/

People looking for Creative Spark will land on the site mainly through word of mouth and internet search engines like google and will be able to find them on Facebook and Twitter.

Content

Spark seem to keep the audience "in the know" at all times throughout visiting the site. There are new cartoons on every page with info speech bubble and they seem to know alot about the industry and where they are or want to be. They even have a meet the team page where you can read a little brief into what the staff "love." 


As I mentioned before the clients who have worked with Spark are big named household names so they clearly are good at what they do.


The whole look and feel of the website is inspirational. From other design agency sites I have seen this is definately the best and the most unique looking. It is a very powerful site with minimal flash. This gives the impression to me that they are good without flashy animation. They do offer animation though so they do cover this and all other sides to the industry that I can think of.


They have a play page which is a very nice finishing touch to a great site. It offers free wallpapers for your desktops, some quirky designs and has an office music play list adding to the relaxed feeling they have gave off throughout the whole website.

Structure 

The work is arranged into project thumbnails with a brief discription of what the project was and what was asked for and what was delievered. Each page is broken up nicely and there is plenty of internal links to go back to preview pieces of work and they specify "new work" with a little yellow tag.

 

If the work they have been working on is animation or a website they have a video showcasing it the overall website is a deep structure but very well mapped out and nothing changes size when you load up a new page it automatically fits perfectly to the screen using both Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Navigation

The navigation is simply displayed the same as any other website really with the link names easily regognised and straight to the point, all of which are one word. When you hover over the pages they change from black to white with a black box around the text. Unfortunately they could lose a few viewers as you do have to scroll down to see the content of work etc which is mis leading to some people who don't have all day to find where the page content they are looking for is. They should introduce into the cartoons a SCROLL DOWN bubble so you instantly know where to find the content.

Notice on the right hand side that you have to scroll to find what you are looking for.

Visual design

The look of the site is very impressive and the colours are instantly recognisable which is very clever effect they have chosen to use. I love the cartoon characters used throughout the site and how when there is an important event happening e.g when England play a football match they stick a cartoon of the team or a football sinario up. They are very up to date from what I have seen especially with there blog as you can see from the example I shown earlier. They are very good with the colours they choose to use on their cartoons they blend well with the rest of the site. 

The site is very easy to use is fun and warming the colours are striking but in a good way and the cartoons are very cool over all the website is fantastic and if I was a potential client I would definately choose Creative Spark.