Who's the hottest design studio besides 2A?

**njproduction** · 03-14-2005, 10:06 PM

when it come to that, the answer is... www.group94.com ...of course

**zakp0** · 03-15-2005, 07:33 AM

Dont forget Hi-Res people!!

**sense** · 03-15-2005, 07:50 AM

Remember, this ain't some kind of race for the best to win.

And 'most popular' doesn't automatically mean 'most talented' (Go ask Britney Spears).

Alltho, 2a, group94 and the lot do wonderfull work, they still can't come close to FOUO, blastradius or S-V.
Them portfolios have a fresh diversity of styles while the others seem to be bounded to their own style. Would I dare to use the term 'one-trick-pony'?

**villain2** · 03-15-2005, 01:54 PM

Oh Sense, Sense, Sense ... we come across each other again, I thought I'd seen the last of you.

Anyway, in this realm, most popular usually is in relation to talent. No one here is lip-synching! This is about use and style.

For FLASH WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT, which is what this forum is about, the best studio right now in my opinion is Fantasy Interactive.

As for 2A, they had the crown for a while but the development side of their recent projects is not as robust as some of the stuff I've seen elsewhere, which changes the landscape from being just about how good it looks to it looking good and working well.

**nayades** · 03-15-2005, 03:16 PM

Originally posted by villain2
Oh Sense, Sense, Sense ... we come across each other again, I thought I'd seen the last of you.

Anyway, in this realm, most popular usually is in relation to talent. No one here is lip-synching! This is about use and style.

For FLASH WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT, which is what this forum is about, the best studio right now in my opinion is Fantasy Interactive.

As for 2A, they had the crown for a while but the development side of their recent projects is not as robust as some of the stuff I've seen elsewhere, which changes the landscape from being just about how good it looks to it looking good and working well.

As many other times, i'm with sense. This site may had the initial purpose (and still has) of focusing on flash website development, yet, given the current situation, in which development has reached certain standards, it is time to talk about design.

It may be true FI has a powerful development team, but when it comes to creativity, they use the same old formula. That also applies to 2a, and recently discussed here, g94.

Other studios like FOUO or northkingdom, have less tradition within this forum, but that does not mean they're worse. in fact, designwise, they're far more brave and creative than any of the "oldies"

**asun2art** · 03-15-2005, 08:39 PM

http://www.kurtnoble.com/ has just as good of a portfolio as anyone.

(BEST) IMO.

**J-Luv** · 03-17-2005, 10:17 AM

yea they sure do have a lot of clients. strong portfolio and nice casual designs.

**rudolflai999** · 03-18-2005, 05:46 AM

Originally posted by villain2
Well, 2A hasn't released any updates on their site since November which either means they're working on a lot of big stuff or they're not doing much of anything (I'll let you guess to which hehehe).

I'd say that for me personally, the level of detail and depth that fantasy-interactive put into the road runner site elevated them to the top for me.

Well, villian2, open your eyes! didnt you see that 2A is working on their v5 site? read the ITA interviews. thx

Cheers,
Rudolf

**ZeroInspiration** · 03-18-2005, 08:25 AM

I think people seem to think that a flash packed site with all types of crap flying around means your hot... Well, that means nothing when you have lots of no names in your portfolio, try checking out BLUR. These guys site is pretty plain and straight forword but if you look at the portfolio you will find a lip smacking goody bag crammed full of hollywood movies, blockbuster game titles, and commertial spots for some of the biggest tv stations.

http://www.blur.com

**AssyrianKutie24** · 03-19-2005, 08:34 AM

OMG... I can't believe you guys left out the infamous group WEB AGENT www.webagent007.com

**revenanted** · 03-19-2005, 03:09 PM

http://www.twothirty.com/

http://www.triggerstudios.com/

http://www.neubix.com/index.asp

http://www.noedesign.com

http://www.netymology.com

**stevietat** · 03-19-2005, 05:01 PM

Originally posted by sense
Alltho, 2a, group94 and the lot do wonderfull work, they still can't come close to FOUO, blastradius or S-V.
Them portfolios have a fresh diversity of styles while the others seem to be bounded to their own style. Would I dare to use the term 'one-trick-pony'?

Finally, a post with perspective.

2a and FI are 'hot names' than get thrown around a lot in flash communities like this, but they are far from being the end-all of web devevlopment, or dare I even say flash dev.

And if we're really talking about design studios (not just flash or web studios) 2a and FI are just blips on the radar.

**villain2** · 03-21-2005, 05:11 PM

1. I don't spend all day reading interviews with Eric Jordan so no, I did not know they were developing v5.

2. StevieTat - if there are so many other flash and web dev teams that are WAY better than 2A and FI, let's see them. Give me some links and explain why they're better.

3. Since this is FlashKit (I know that concept escapes a lot of the anti-Flash people that seem to litter this site day in and day out), I would assume we're talking about FLASH DEVELOPMENT STUDIOS.

4. Blur's site has a bunch of stuff flying and zipping and flashing ... but they're an animation studio anyway, not a Flash web design company.

I could reference Tomato as being one of the best designers, but not in this context.

As far as I've seen, I haven't found any site near the complexity in Flash of Road Runner. Show me one that is and I'll seed you the point.

Let's keep it in perspective people. This is FlashKit, not DesignKit ... if it was DesignKit, I'd agree with this thread.

**J-Luv** · 03-21-2005, 06:03 PM

(coming back into this thread with my gun cocked)

i am surprised nobody mentioned http://www.plotdev.com/flashindex.html they put out nice work...

**sense** · 03-22-2005, 04:43 AM

"This is FlashKit, not DesignKit ... if it was DesignKit, I'd agree with this thread."

Villain, thanks for pointing that out. Now I know why we're always up against each other.

But this is FlashKit, not DevelopersKit ... if it was Developerskit, I'd agree with you more.

To show you a site that could easely stand next to the RoadRunner site, I'd had this in mind: http://designarchives.aiga.org/

**BrockAnimations** · 03-22-2005, 07:30 AM

Plotdev Rocks the house. One of my favs so no shoot'n over here tex.

Im eager to see what BB has to offer on the 5th of may. BBStudios??

As flash design goes, HAHAHAHAAH there are zillions of'em out there.

im kickn back honing my skills and waiting for the 2010 addition.

Plotdev is sweet, but gmunk is the flash god designer.IMO

**villain2** · 03-22-2005, 12:01 PM

To show you a site that could easely stand next to the RoadRunner site, I'd had this in mind: http://designarchives.aiga.org/

Are you serious? Those are two different sites entirely. Both (I assume) are using xml to parse data ... the presentation is up to taste and I prefer the way FI used their infamous pods to put it out there ... add in the customization ... add in the video ... add in the fact they're parsing various xml feeds from outside sources into flash (which the actionscript has to be written to accept and process the information) ... consider the easier usability of rr.com ... I'd have to say the site you've references isn't quite the same thing.

Not that it's not good, it's excellent, but it's not on that level ... but then again, I may be missing something.

The one advantage designarchives.aiga.org has for itself is the complicated and extensive search engine feature done totally in flash with more options than you can imagine.

Let me know what that "something" is.

**Eyenovation** · 03-23-2005, 04:55 AM

That Vodafone site actually won site of the year.

A few more to ponder:

http://kurtnoble.com/
http://www.bigspaceship.com/
http://hybride.com/index_en.html
http://www.derbauer.de/
http://www.site06.com/
http://www.mn8studio.com/

A thread like this is very subjective. While it may be tempting to say 2A is the best (and they might well be at their specific niche) it's misleading to think they do the best work in the world. Many times artists are more creative, yet don't have the fortune 500 clients to boast in their resume. Other times, they're more entrenched in such things as motion graphics.

Many 'agencies' also have sites a novice flash author could make, but have accounts many here could only dream to one day get (me included). For example:

http://www.leoburnett.com/about_us/clients.asp
These guys probably do millions per year in client billings. I don't think anyone mentioned thus far does, except maybe Big Spaceship.

The agency sites are bland for a reason because often times they're dealing with unimaginative 'suit and tie' people who know nothing but to sign a check. The work is the true measure, in my opinion - and with that said, there's nowhere near one entity surpassing the rest.

A few more:

http://www.sixtailer.com/
http://www.webagent007.com/
http://www.axis360.com/

**zakp0** · 03-23-2005, 06:31 AM

How is this possible...even after I posted about it, STILL no one posts Hi-Res! Come on peeps...its one of the best studios out there!

**The RZA** · 03-24-2005, 10:52 AM

thedesignking.com

Thread: Who's the hottest design studio besides 2A?

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