The original design of this banner had no Flash, it was just a jpeg. When Apple released the new iPod, the client wanted a revamp I suggested adding some Flash. In the working example, each show had a unique click through. It took a while to get the coding just right, but in the end it has been one of the most successful flash banners to date. I like to design flash banners that incorporate functional interactivity. Something that isn’t a ploy to get you to click or a mindless game that results in getting your browser redirected.

This is where I kicked it up a notch. This is a rendered 3D movie, which I edited down and brought in frame by frame. Due to size constraints I had to keep it short. At the time we were going with pink as the online signature color. We connected the banner to directly connect to the archived tune. The client really liked this and had me do another which you can see here.

There is quite a bit of work on this one. If you look carefully, all the ribbons draw on individually and is a different hue for each, as well as type color changes. It’s laborious work but the effect feels polished and professional.

I had to break a lot of actionscript rules to get this done on time. I was able to keep all my actionscript in the timeline but I couldn’t keep all the elements in the first frame. The end result doesn’t matter as it looks the same, but I take pride in my coding and I like my flash to look as good on the inside as it does on the outside.

This is a very simple home page slideshow banner that rotates through static screens. Clients like flash banners because they can squeeze a lot of message in a small space. The only drawback is that most web-masters require the file to be below a certain size, usually around 30K. The trick, as a designer, is to find fonts that read well and not allow the overall quality to suffer too much.

One of many flash banners that I design throughout the year. Banners are becoming a greater part of what I do. The trick is to do everything the client wants, and more, but keep the filesize under 30K. To do this you have to know how to compress your images optimally and know how to create simple code. The more work the code does the smaller the file will be.