Introducing 4 Alarm Studio – 2.0

Our graphics production brethren of 4 Alarm Studio launched their new site last week, courtesy of Boxing Clever. 4 Alarm specializes in image manipulation & creation and print production services. Boxing Clever did the site architecture, interface design, video animation and design, music performance and recording, flash animation and Flex/XML backend administration. (Okay, so in short we did the whole thing. Maybe I should've said that sooner, but it was such a big production, I think it's important to note what all went into it. )

I've found that typically portfolio heavy sites tend to be built in all-Flash environments. This lends strong control over the behavior and animation of the portfolios (read: sexiness) however search engine optimization cannot be done for individual pages and sections and makes it much more difficult to update and maintain (unless you custom build a back-end admin). That's why it's important to take a careful and thorough approach to website design. Because if you jump in willy-nilly you'll come across too many "woulda, shoulda, coulda's" when it's all done, and next thing you know, it's costing a LOT more than it should. Everything should be taken into consideration: interface architecture, intuitive navigation, information flow, aesthetic visual quality, experiential and emotive interaction, SEO, archiving, updating and maintaining. That's why planning is very important up front. In the long run, it saves a lot of grief.



Creatively, we wanted the site to be a very quick read. The home page offers an entertaining 30-second video to explain why 4 Alarm Studio is so important for brand marketing. The work section provides a quick glance at the portfolio but for more in depth explanation, go to the Case Studies for an interactive (and fun) experience that uniquely shows how 4 Alarm transforms concepts and first draft images into final pieces. The studies were done in Flash so that you can drag a bar that shows a time lapse of the transformation. All portfolio and case study pieces were built in a Flex database so 4 Alarm can update the individual pieces easily and keep the content fresh.

-CK