Is it too late for yet another ‘best of 2004′ list?
I was on iFilms list of 2004 Best Viral Videos just this afternoon, so I guess we can ride it a little longer. Considering that we are barely two and a half weeks into the new year and this being my first blog entry on this site, it seems appropriate to start things off with something that pays respect to all that has come to pass. So I am going to do a top 10 list of websites that …

www.industrialbrand.comThe first offering in the “Top Ten Most Important Websites (to me) of 2004″ is a sentimental one. The Dec. 23 entry on the homepage says it best: “After 13 months, 6 designers, 25,000 different concepts and a “Battle Royale” our site has been given a major facelift”. It is always hardest to design for yourself and this new look for IBC did not come easy. But we think we got it right. Complete with a blog, online store and a recipe section, the new design presents a more realized …

www.billyharveymusic.comOkay, I will be the first to admit that including billyharveymusic.com in a list of “Top Ten Most Important Websites (to me) of 2004″ might seem a tad irresponsible. Important might be the wrong word in this case. But we are only at #9 and it is Friday afterall. Plus, it cracks me up everytime I visit and underneath its stoner disarray is a highly conceived and smoothly coded website. His music isn’t half bad either.

www.moma.org/exhibitions/2004/tallbuildingsArchitecture was a full time distraction for me in 2004. Frank Gehry’s influence was always working itself into my designs and I was floored by the plans that were revealed for Beijing’s 2008 Olympic Stadium(check out design B11). But when it comes down to a website that kept me coming back, it was the Museum of Modern Art’s Tall Buildings site that did it, earning them the #8 spot in my “Top Ten Most Important Websites (to me) of 2004″. This site is clean, informative, and chock full of some …

South African Robocop QT movieThe #7 listing on the “Top Ten Most Important Websites (to me) of 2004″ is not a site at all but rather a viral movie. Vancouver’s The Embassy arrived on the scene in 2003 and immediately set about making some of the freshest visual pieces that advertising and the web have seen for some time. Their dancing Citroen Transformer ad created quite a buzz on the viral circuit, but what really caught my eye was the above piece directed by Neill Blomkamp.
Consisting of raw, almost …

www.massivechange.com“It is not about the world of design. It is about the design of the world.”-Bruce MauThis fall, the Massive Change exhibit debuted at the Vancouver Art Gallery. In trying to answer the question “Now that we have the ability to do anything, what will we do?”, a team of designers under the guidance of Bruce Mau set about not just to warn us about the critical condition of the world today, but to demonstrate how we have the resources and technology to save ourselves. It is not so much …

www.woostercollective.comThis site has become a high priority in my daily surfing over the past year earning it a respectable rank in my “Top Ten Most Important Websites (to me) of 2004″. There is no better place to turn for inspiration than the energy of the streets and the Wooster Collective has become the online portal to all things stencilled, sprayed and glued. Favorites include D*Face, Dalek andKinsey.

www.imaginaryforces.comThe elegance and subtlety of this site is the perfect frame for a portfolio that includes some of the most groundbreaking motion graphic sequences in the history of film and television. Not only that, they are also founding members of United Architects, a coalition of six innovative firms who share a desire to design new visions for buildings and cities that reflect the way we live today. The orginal focus of this project was on redesigning the World Trade Center in New York City.

wvs.topleftpixel.comSam Javanrouh’s daily photo blog of Toronto is one of the best of its kind on the net. He consistently delivers challenging, thoughtful and often humourous images of both detail and grandeur. As a displaced Torontonian (thankfully when I see images like this) his chronicles also serve to calm the nostalgia that can sometimes rise when one lives away from home. It is for these reasons that he has ranked 3rd in the “Top Ten Most Important Websites (to me) of 2004″.

www.gapingvoid.comAbout six months ago, I discovered the marketing gospel according to Hugh Macleod and it has not only become necessary daily reading, it has also made a convert of me. There is a revolution upon us in the world of marketing. The ways of communication have changed in the past ten years, moreover in the past ten minutes. Brands are two way conversations and more often than not, it is the consumer in the driver’s seat. Those companies who ‘get’ this will succeed; those that don’t will fade away. I, …