50 Beautiful Flash Websites
Flash enabled designers and developers to deliver rich content over the browsers, creating motion, interactivity and an impressive visual experience. Good Flash-sites do not require too much bandwidth, load fast and allow for a smooth interaction; besides, beautiful Flash-based sites are Photoshop masterpieces, transporting some kind of reality and fantasy to the Flash movie.
In the showcase below we present 50 colorful, creative, interactive and beautiful Flash-based web-sites. Hopefully they will serve you as an inspiration for your future works or just entertain you on a lousy, boring Sunday.
You might also want to visit the following articles:
- 65 Excellent Flash Designs which features 65 examples of outstanding Flash-based web-sites.
- 39 Creative Flash Designs 39 hand-picked creative and colored flash websites
Drinks Sites
Martini Asti
This Martini site is a nice example of giving a fresh image of a drink. The navigation is made simple, the graphics have superior quality, it loads fast and runs smoothly. What else does a Flash site need? Note due to the law on alcoholic drinks, you need to enter an e-mail address, a password of your choice and accept their terms.
Glacéau – Vitaminwater
The vitamin water site is full of motion and small details like the top menu, with a colored wave effect, the mouse movement, the masks effects and swirls which make it great.
Bacardi – Original Mojito (currently offline)
The motion graphics and the water effects in slow motion give a unique style to this site. A fresh site, with a colored menu with a drag option, makes it functional and simple. Note: due to the law on alcoholic drinks, you need to enter an e-mail address, a password of your choice and accept their terms.
Portfolios
v5 Design
Beautiful landscape with some nice details such us the sun and butterflies. The old paper effect when opening from the menu, and the mask effect over the green plants give it a special touch.
Sensisoft
The Sensisoft site offers a nice interaction for users. The vortex effect while changing from path, the motion graphics in the background, the high quality and details of the graphics make it a great design agency site.
Mauricio Guimarães Portfolio
Mauricio portfolio is a good example of creativity. Instead of the ordinary menu, he uses a kind of parallax movieclip, where the user must interact with the stage to explore the site.
Colorchakra – Portfolio of Srinath Rangamani
A colored background with high quality graphics.
Magnivate Interactive Boutique Agency
A nice animated site. One particular feature on this site is that you need to set a character to explore the site.
e-Content Solutions
This studio portfolio starts with a nice and unusual preloader, a kind of puzzle which interacts on mouse rollover. Another kind of interaction is user’s ability to explode the balloons.
Ari´s Labs. The Digital Home of Graphic Designer Ari Hirvonen
The high quality of motion graphics, conception and the functional layout makes this site a good example of what a Flash portfolio should look like.
Edwin Murat Ganter Portfolio
A simple and creative layout. Not common, but still practical and easy to use.
Vegaone
Color effects and 3D layout on this site are remarkable. However, it could be improved with some motion graphics and page transition effects.
Infinit Colours
This site gives the user the option to change the background between beautiful high quality designs. The menu is also a creative alternative to deliver some interactivity.
Infographiste Indépendant
Another creative portfolio, full of interactivity and motion graphics. The background image is great.
Sonacom
A great Generative Art example which requires the user to interact with the stage.
CloudRaker
On this site you can use the character to move along. The graphic element is great and the concept it unusual.
Prismgirl
A great creative portfolio, using an unusual layout.
Agence Secondlife
At a first glance this site needs the user to interact with it in order to move forward. Rather than the graphics quality, this site creates a 3D globe, full of color which is a creative option to move around the site.
Insurance
Privado Seguros (currently offline)
The Privado Seguros site has wonderful graphics, with many rich details. A good example to get inspired from.
Let Your Worries Go
Another parallax site, with beautiful graphics, with funny interactions like dragging the characters – each of them represents one specific topic.
Projects
Sometimes designers and developers create awesome works, but these works never go online, because the client hasn’t chosen them. The following projects are great examples which will inspire you for sure on your future projects.
Imagine Air – Flash Site School project
Project: Coca-Cola Light – Tastes of the World
Games or Games Related
Get the Glass
This site is a 3D board game, with animated characters, full of action. The graphics, animations, concept are all awesome.
BioShock
A Playstation game related, this site offers a nice navigation through the site, and has cool details like the tv and cinema camera. The graphics are another great aspect of this site.
Commercial
Bebiko
A nice colored design, with motion graphics and integrated video content.
Nokia Trends Lab
This site is full of color which changes depending on the path the user has chosen. You can see some great details like the video images in the bubbles. Motion, multimedia content and color define this site.
Hewlett-Packard – Wake up your feelings with the power of touch
Another site with great graphics and an extraordinary concept. The navigation is just remarkable. A good place to get inspired.
Theologos House of Jewellery
The simplicity of the site navigation and the beauty of flowers are hard to overlook.
Real Casual
Another site with great graphics and a nice concept.
Pirogov
A simple site, with great details, like the light at the left, the sea and the castle at the right.
White Gold
Do you like music? And interact with a movie-clip? Well, here you are able to have both. Great graphics, and the video integration is impressive.
Pantagonia
Another nice and interactive interface example.
Infinite OZ | Tin Man | SCIFI.COM
The graphics are exceptional, and the continuous movement between scenes is great.
Zube
A simple layout with quality graphics and great transitions.
Häagen-Dazs – Help the Honey Bees
Another example of a great user interactivity, with great graphics.
Environment
GE | Plug Into the Smart Grid
Maybe the majority of you have heard about this site, and even visited it due to the Augment Reality feature. But I still wanted to feature it, due to the high quality of the graphics, concept and design.
DirectGov – Act On CO2 Calculator
Another environment-related site, with an educational and informational purpose. You will find nice graphics, continuous motion and an easy navigation. A good example of delivering global topics.
Alex
June 7th, 2009 2:09 amSome awesome sites there… great article!
Bharath Mandava
June 7th, 2009 2:29 amvery useful article and i’ll bookmark it
Karl
June 7th, 2009 2:30 amI don’t like Flash sites.
Manga
November 1st, 2010 8:27 pmWhy you comment negatively. if you do not like, he is human and give positively you must encourage or keep silent …
Karthick
June 7th, 2009 2:36 amInteresting & Inspiring Collection
Tony
June 7th, 2009 2:39 amI used to design a lot with Flash, but these days I use CSS/XHTML for just about every website, much like many others are. But lets put that aside… as an end-user, I have no patience for these sites anymore.
While I can appreciate the beauty of these Flash sites, and know first hand the work that has gone into them – the internet has changed a lot over the past few years – collectively we don’t want to wait 60+ seconds to load the site, then have to click on the random symbols for a menu, wait for more stuff to load / animations.
Flash – still awesome, you guys picked out some nice looking sites here that I haven’t ever seen. Great idea for a followup post should be sites that demonstrate strong usability in Flash!
Keith
June 7th, 2009 2:44 amI only like Flash websites if they don’t take an age to load.
DKumar M.
June 7th, 2009 2:46 amThanks Carlos, I did lot of work in flash and i must say that I’m not a great fan of flash stuff but you got quite a appreciated collection here. Now days i usually prefer CSS/XHTML for my most of the projects.
DKumar M.
@instantshift
Stefan
June 7th, 2009 2:50 amI must say, how do you collect these sites! Damn some amazing stuff! Makes me wanna go and start photoshop/flash/whatever :)
Jonas
June 7th, 2009 3:08 amWhaa, just awesome :P
Mike G
June 7th, 2009 3:17 amFlash is great, but AJAX is much more useful for the web.
daily
June 7th, 2009 3:48 ami cant give up on Flash. It’s the best i think. you cant do these sites easly that much with the others.
thanks for the list. i’ll bookmark it too.. :)
max.w
June 7th, 2009 4:01 amFlash will always be controversial, people will either love it or hate it. Flash is the only way to fully express a design and immerse users in the experience. There are some fine examples here which show some really creative approaches that the usual boring html standard that we are so used to time and time again. The internet would certainly be a boring place without flash, that’s for sure!!
Bine
June 7th, 2009 4:04 amWow
they are very inspiring,
thank you for sharing! :)
awsum
June 7th, 2009 4:05 amMaybe ajax is usable to some extend, but think about al IE6 compatibility issues you are facing developing JS
valp
June 7th, 2009 4:45 amI do like flash sites :D btw I guess author really loves Ars Thanea works, they are great indeed!
TheGreyMan
June 7th, 2009 5:08 am@awsum IE6 compatibility issues have crippled web design for far too long. Which is why the various campaigns to persuade end users to abandon it are gathering momentum. I don’t necessarily subscribe to the anti-Microsoft sentiment per se (I own an Xbox, I use Office), although I will admit to indulging in it once in a while, but it has to be said that when it comes to the Internet, they have consistently done the public at large an enormous disservice. Perhaps that’s why they find themselves less popular than the likes of Google? If you disagree, have a read/think about their dogged insistence on their own bespoke standards at the expense of actual standards, and don’t even get me started on font rendering. As a computer/technology user, I can take or leave Microsoft either way. As a designer, their counter-productive meddling drives me to distraction.
arnold
June 7th, 2009 5:53 amthe http://www.magnivate.com/flash_us.html was so funny and awesome site…I meet other people from other country already right there
Kenneth Younger
June 7th, 2009 5:55 amI have always been amazed by what the guys over at 2advanced.com come up with.
Ben Jacob
June 7th, 2009 6:18 amThese kind of sites are forcing me to learn flash and AS as soon as possible !!
HOT!
Carlos Pinho
June 7th, 2009 6:44 amHi All,
Thank you for your kind comments. Some of you are trying to compare a Flash site with CSS/XHTML, and you can’t. I mean, if you are using Flash to create a CSS/XHTML environment, then you are committing a mistake, on the other hand, you can’t create the interactivity of a Flash site, with CSS/XHTML.
Flash means, motion, interactivity, and finally free access. Don’t forget that, while you are creating a CSS/XHTML site, you must prepare your project to be able to show properly in the several available browsers (i’m not speaking in IE only), however, with a Flash site, you don’t need to care, as what will be shown in Firefox it will be exactly the same as in IE, Safari or other.
Now, don’t forget to digg this, and if you know more cool sites just twitte me with it.
Tameir
July 20th, 2010 5:06 pmHi- In the process of searching for a webdesigner for my personal/business site I came accross this one. I am actually looking from a designer who is familiar with flash which I believe is use to create the web page for a particular company. I am interested in finding out how to create a page that has the same effect as http://www.rasikarestaurant.com. Does anyone know how to create this type of website; thanks in advance for your help.
Tameir
kevinsturf
June 7th, 2009 6:49 amdamn, some absolutely awesomeness flash sites here, I wish i could do some but have little knowledge about flash
Gaurav M
June 7th, 2009 6:54 amSo inspiring!
Damir
June 7th, 2009 7:16 amSome cool websites but it is sad to see how many of them suffer from big usability problems. The readability of the majority of the sites is just plain awful. Increase that text size for goodness sake!
DarkHouse
June 7th, 2009 8:02 amAs a web developer myself, I agree that Flash certainly has its place. It’s great for expressing our creativity and originality, but I also agree that it shouldn’t take more than a few seconds to load. Developers often lose sight of what their users want, and are engulfed in their own imagination. People want content fast, and they want it easy to find. That should be a primary factor when developing flash sites.
If you are creating a flash site and you know it’s going to take forever to load, you should create an html/css version also (if possible) and let the users decide how they want to get to your content. A great method is to have a ‘skip to static site’ button while the flash one is loading. That way the user can gauge how long the site is going to take to load before they make their decision. I realize that sometimes this can’t be done because of whatever your content is.
Anyways, great list.
Allister
June 7th, 2009 8:05 amBacardi – Original Mojito – Link doesn’t work.
huy
June 7th, 2009 8:17 amso cool, so perfect, i looooove them
Peter Craddock
June 7th, 2009 9:00 amI find it amazing that out of these 50 websites, only 3 provide alternative content for users who don’t have Flash enabled.
Three!
http://ladio.ru/
http://www.helpthehoneybees.com/
http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk/
Flash is nice, but it seems that no one thinks of those who don’t have Flash and/or don’t want Flash enabled.
João Pescada
June 7th, 2009 9:05 amAbout the Privado Seguros website, they’re doing some rebranding so here’s a permalink to the online version: http://www.view.pt/go/privado-seguros/.
gr8pixel
June 7th, 2009 9:11 amI just don’t have words to explain the beauty of these websites! Pretty awesome post.. Love you SM!!
Mohammad Adli
June 7th, 2009 9:37 amwow COOL collection
Weegee
June 7th, 2009 9:51 amI’ve found one very interesting – from Poland:
http://www.barbaraszewczyk.pl
About an animated film.
domuslegrand
June 7th, 2009 9:53 amI know a very beautiful website :
http://www.pixels-atlantic.com/
Rick
June 7th, 2009 10:01 amCool. Good selection.
Theo Haberman
June 7th, 2009 10:37 amGreat article, but under commercial there is one typo though. Shouldn’t “Zube” be Zune”?
Frank
June 7th, 2009 10:45 amWow, great examples! i also like this one: http://www.oogvoornaakt.nl
Enjoy!
Frank
alex popovici
June 7th, 2009 11:29 amNice collection. Only one little typo to point out: I think it is called Zune, not Zube. :)
Floris Fiedeldij Dop
June 7th, 2009 11:50 amDespite that they are beautiful designs, I still try to stay away from Flash as much possible.
Justin Woods
June 7th, 2009 11:59 amLOL to people comparing flash to css… let me just bump this comment from the author:
Hi All,
Thank you for your kind comments. Some of you are trying to compare a Flash site with CSS/XHTML, and you can’t. I mean, if you are using Flash to create a CSS/XHTML environment, then you are committing a mistake, on the other hand, you can’t create the interactivity of a Flash site, with CSS/XHTML.
Flash means, motion, interactivity, and finally free access. Don’t forget that, while you are creating a CSS/XHTML site, you must prepare your project to be able to show properly in the several available browsers (i’m not speaking in IE only), however, with a Flash site, you don’t need to care, as what will be shown in Firefox it will be exactly the same as in IE, Safari or other.
Now, don’t forget to digg this, and if you know more cool sites just twitte me with it.
Leonid Lezner
June 7th, 2009 12:40 pmCheck out the page of this company: http://axiom.ee
Mathieu
June 7th, 2009 1:17 pmSome seriously incredible websites. Most of them are de-motivating me ;-)
Paul
June 7th, 2009 1:41 pmFlash is for artists, html and css are for developers. I like flash for online games but not for general website use as it breaks the user experience. Yes a flash website looks good for the marketing dept. and wooing people like the sites you see above – but are not practical for sites you use on a day by day basis; for example sony and their phone site you don’t want to see that flash intro again – when all you want is to view the specifications on some interesting phone. And what if I wanted to bookmark that section?
So flash has its uses (at the moment) but some of that will be stolen when html5 becomes mainstream.
Chris
June 7th, 2009 2:16 pmthese are amazing, people should check out http://www.blueoctober.com an amazing band and a stunng web page
Carlos Pinho
June 7th, 2009 3:07 pmPaul,
The aim of this Flash showcase article wasn’t to say that Flash is the best platform to create sites, but simply to show some of the great flash works over the Internet.
However, you mentioned Bookmarking a section as something that a Flash site can’t do, but, you are wrong. Maybe what you are trying to say, is that the majority of flash sites are not SEO optimized as most of their creators forget to include this feature, however you can do it for example using the SWFAddress Actionscript library. That’s why you can see some Flash based CMS appearing. Gaia Framework is another flash tool that let’s you do the same.
Nevertheless, as i mentioned in my previous comment, pls don’t try to compare Flash with CSS/XHTML.
joey
June 7th, 2009 4:33 pmI HATE most of flash websites. So many of that that are poorly designed, or take ages to load or whatever.
The few of the list i visited are bad too. I mean… come on designers, are you just dumb or what ? Do you think anybody will watch a counter going from 0 to 100 ?
Some of you are so dumb that they are trying to make this shit “design”, adding a little motion or a blurry effect or something nobody will appreciate except a few newbies on the internet.
Please, learn your lessons. Buy a Nintendo, buy some games and watch what they do. You’ll never see a counter or a progress bar from Nintendo, these guys have good ideas to make you wait without notice it and every good designer should do the same.
Always make a cool, funny or informative 30ko preload or just drop your 2Mo swf to the trash, as users will just leave it before it loads completely.
When the first page is loaded, preload some other things that users will probably wanna see, make your flash website fast and usable… or just do good old plain HTML websites, because flash is good only if you have very, very strong technical/usability/network skills.
creativesway
December 8th, 2010 7:48 pmComparing css/xhtml to flash? You can’t. Now a days or even for the future flash will rock the world~! Take a look those mobile devices they are using flash for their apps. Sooner the developers and designer push the limit of flash into next level so imagine that.What’s the beauty of flash for the next generaton it’s like your using a flying car~! Talking to css/xhtml they are also great apps for you website. If you can handle the problem issues like, Web browsing compatibility, fixed, fluid layout to prevent the white space when user adjust the monitor resolution.While in flash is just a preloader.
Stevie
June 7th, 2009 6:47 pmI agree with most of the comments above. I understand this was just a showcase for Flash, and indeed they were beautiful website. Flash is quicky becoming obsolete however as far as professional and corporate websites. For example…the Greek website for jewelry….if I were really looking for jewelry, I would’ve left long before I even saw an actual piece. It took over a minute of animations and effects before I even got to the goods. Forget it…people dont have patience for that stuff. Thats a fact. Beautiful flash websites are great for portfolios and artists and photographers. For commerical websites or corporate….standard CSS and AJAX is the way to go. Again, no knock on the Flash showcase….truly stunning indeed….as artwork. As far as usability….ugh…its horrible. Keep things simple. Just further proof that there is a difference between being an artist and designer, and an interface designer. Its like comparing a DOS interface (Flash) to Vista or OSX interface (CSS and AJAX).
creativesway
December 8th, 2010 7:53 pmDude what’s the use of website for your business? simple website just to show your products etc? maybe that’s good also but if you compare it to a nice presentation using flash to your products it will attract the customers.The website also describes the personality of owner~! take that on your mind :)
Andrew Cofield
June 7th, 2009 7:02 pmI agree that there are many flash sites (including some on this list) that take too long to load and can be frustrating to navigate. But this post is about inspiration, and a site or even a page doesn’t have to be all flash or css/xhtml. Flash can provide a little bit of animation or interactivity as part of a xhtml site. I enjoyed this list to see what elements work, and which ones I’ll be happy to stay away from.
braga
June 7th, 2009 7:04 pmvery nice!
MK
June 7th, 2009 7:33 pmI would like to recommend Power To Change website as well. It’s an environmental campaign by HP. The aim is to create awareness to turn off their computers when they are done using it, either at workplace or at home.
dhype
June 7th, 2009 7:58 pmGreat selection of flash sites. Loaaaading……. :D lol
Justin Woods
June 7th, 2009 8:19 pm@Paul… “Flash is for artists, html and css are for developers.” ….
I don’t think this is true at ALL… compare html/css to actionscript 3.0 and you might change your opinion…
@Joey… “I HATE most of flash websites. So many of that that are poorly designed, or take ages to load or whatever.
The few of the list i visited are bad too. I mean… come on designers, are you just dumb or what ? Do you think anybody will watch a counter going from 0 to 100 ?”
Flash can be misused just as often has html/css sites. One of the most popular places flash is used are geared towards the entertainment and gaming industry, well coded and designed flash sites should not take long to load comparable to an html site. But if it does take a little longer, its because of the fact that it adds a level of interactivity and animation that css/html couldnt do. It’s pointless to argue html/css vs. flash, that’s like comparing php to javascript… they have their own reasons for implementation
zh_air
June 7th, 2009 9:04 pmFlash is beautiful But too slow
HelenLee
June 7th, 2009 10:22 pmFlash is great and it is the most complete development environment to work in still. Do anything in one place is great. But it is surprising to me how many dev and company spend so much creating nicelooking and innovative sites and still dont know how to optimise for fast load. It is easy to get blind on your own fast line and supercomputer. I will always test Flash and other sites on slowband (mobile) and a netbook or old computers. Even being a Flahs-geek I move on if loading keeps on and on and the menus are too “exeperimental”. On the other hand, its a big internet with room for many experiments and tastes. Everything does not have to look like corporate HTML /CSS verified, most looking the boring same. Theres room for play too. Its those who dare to break new grounds that brings dev and innovation forward and some things will be good some will be bad. Some seem to think that internet should be only one big boring sales folder, it is also an exeperience and much more than that. Flamewars are only silly. Use any technique and learn, but test in different environments is what I think. You dont like it – move on!
Flaah
June 8th, 2009 1:02 amVery nice selection. Has anybody a hint / tutorial, how to reach an effect like v5 Design or Sensisoft? http://www.nespresso.com/citiz/ style is similar.
spritzstuhl
June 8th, 2009 1:34 amReally nice examples and I like Flash if it is beneficial for the visitor! But as already mentioned from others, sometimes it takes too long to load. Specially the environmental sites should be more concerned about load times :-)
smalllotus
June 8th, 2009 1:45 amactually I hate to design flash website,but I enjoy these inspirational websites very much~:)~~
smalllotus
June 8th, 2009 1:47 amActually I hate to design flash website, but I enjoy these inspriation websites very much! :)~~
Michel webdesign
June 8th, 2009 2:28 amI think flash website give you a new way of experience a website. But from a SEO point of view i would say no.
Hater 1
June 8th, 2009 3:17 amSmashing magazine. Your taste in flash webdesign is one that was lame in 2003 and is horrible to say the least. Maybe look at some http://tha.jp websites wich for one actually have estheticly correct typography. Now stop polluting our minds with this craep!
Ben
June 8th, 2009 3:36 amSmashing magazine. Your taste in flash webdesign is one that was lame in 2003 and is horrible to say the least. Maybe look at some tha.jp websites wich for one actually have estheticly correct typography. Now stop polluting our minds with this craep!
rukiddingme
June 8th, 2009 3:42 amThe majority of these website literally suck ass, wtf is wrong with you people?
Carlos Pinho
June 8th, 2009 3:48 amHi All,
You are giving me a good idea for a future article to showcase good and bad things on Flash Websites. The fact of taking too long on loading a site or a scene doesn’t means that is bad, maybe it’s because you are about to experience a high level of interactivity. However, sometimes, the site creator doesn’t have good Actionscript knowledge which contributes to a bigger file size, and will reflect on a long time to load (which is a bad procedure). I have seen awesome animations within a flash site, using only 30kb. Not to speak in the animation, but any html/css site are bigger.
Anyway, good to read those comments, as will definitely write about it.
r_jake
June 8th, 2009 4:05 am@Carlos, I think the main reason that people are comparing HTML/CSS to Flash is because SM does tends to focus on HTML/CSS/JS/PHP so your audience here are mostly based in that camp. It’s also a debate that has raged for a few years now, so whenever Flash is brought up, everyone has an opinion.
Flash is excellent for immersive, high-impact experiences, and advanced interactivity. This is a niche area, and development time excludes it from being appropriate for day to day projects, but doesn’t mean it doesn’t warrant a post on SM.
I am interested in the rumours, that you allude to, that Flash is becoming indexable by search engines and that there are some solutions for content managing Flash. Although not sure this will cause a resurgence in Flash sites, would still like to hear more about this – another post perhaps?
Tom Bradshaw
June 8th, 2009 4:41 amThese are a great selection of sites. I really like flash sites, however the problem with them is they aren’t really SEO friendly, can be slow and just not appropriate for many businesses – but apart from that they’re great!
Rusty
June 8th, 2009 4:51 am@Carlos
I think that what you are doing here is great and I say keep up the good work. After all the negative stuff about flash in this thread, you seem to be staying positive – thats how I believe things should be. I’d be very interested to read your next article.
@Everyone in the Flash verses XHTML/CSS war
Good luck in trying to win that battle – I for one will not bother wasting my time choosing a side. Instead, I’ll act just like a professional web designer/developer and use the technologies how i see fit to fit my individual projects and clients. After all, we are all creative in our own rights are we not? You are all wise enough to know the differences between the two technologies – why not use that for your own strengths?
jordan
June 8th, 2009 5:11 amI used to be a flash sites fanatics… not so much anymore after I see how well CSS/AJAX/DHTML sites can be designed.. and poorly designed flash sites are driving my CPU temp like crazy!
one thing I feel ironic is with the advancement of broadband penetration, flash websites do not seem to benefit.. maybe I am short-sighted, but I think with the emergence of Web 2.0, people’s expectations grew extraordinary.. youtube is streaming here, facebook app is loading there, tweets are added every few minutes.. tabs capabilities in browsers feed to the greed and I feel this is a significant contribution to flash-killing… so what I am saying is until flash breaks away from the notion of it being a waiting site, people’s patience towards navigating a flash site perhaps might not be as willing as most used to be…
anyway, these showcases bring some justices to the proprietary capabilities of flash sites… some are simply awesome! thanks!
Jesse
June 8th, 2009 6:31 amThese are great sites for inspiration. Thanks as usual Smashing.
Berong
June 8th, 2009 6:46 amv5 Design, hp and Pirogov are all in the same concept.
that’s the problem i see in flash sites nowadays.
5ink
June 8th, 2009 6:52 amThe gallery is nice but you really can’t have this post without mentioning 2advanced – those guys have done amazing flash since it existed and have the work to prove it.
Carlos Pinho
June 8th, 2009 9:16 am@5ink and others Well, i haven’t showcased 2Advanced because everyone knew them. I tried to choose sites that haven’t been showcased at FWA and other similar award sites.
alex s
June 8th, 2009 9:24 am5 star post, Thank you.
gamma-normids
June 8th, 2009 11:06 amI don’t usually like Flash sites, excepts for games or things like that, but this are quite inspirational :D
Eclipse
June 8th, 2009 11:35 amI found Saizenmedia’s Keepersgame in your list, so I recalled their Nightwish project site beeing very well designed: http://www.saizenmedia.com/nightwish/
8bitmag
June 8th, 2009 11:39 amAmazing designs!..
Scott
June 8th, 2009 1:28 pmI love how the first site showcased doesn’t let you past the entry screen without you entering your email and creating a password. Great marketing strategy… if your goal is to divert 80% of traffic away from your site.
Abdel Faiz
June 8th, 2009 2:57 pmVery inspiring collection !!
Cesar
June 8th, 2009 3:10 pmCome on people! You can´t just execrate all the flash web sites ´cause their are too slow or I don´t know what else.
I agree, usability is everything for me, so, that´s why I´m a big fan of simple designed sites, css and ajax, but, flash websites has an appeal that you will never find in somewhere else (at least, for a while).
(I agree there´re some websites in this article with serious problems of navigability and design)
My point is:
When you´re surfing through a website that will show you the schedule of the cinema, for sure you´ll want it faster as possible, otherwise you just close your tab and go away to another link.
But, when you´re expecting to watch a teaser of your favorite movie, or travelling around the world of your favorite chocolate brand, you can easily wait a few minutes (no more than 3! =D )
Each kind of website has an target to reach, and a specific kind of people to captivate… don´t be radical. Understand the needs first, ok?
praveen
June 8th, 2009 9:04 pmwow those are amazing. I also created a new flash website for Aitken Spence Travels
sama creation
June 8th, 2009 10:25 pmVery inspiring
Andris
June 8th, 2009 10:45 pmIf used properly I think flash based websites don’t really have to be SEO friendly. ‘Cause the “only” use of flash is for advertising websites. With more than just information on them. And pretty often you will not search for these sites using a search engine like google. You will see these sites after clicking on adds or over viral advertising. So this is a pretty nice collection for flash websites. I think any technique has its own use and if used properly has its own claim.
Michael Minor @ pixelbacon.com
June 8th, 2009 11:22 pmFor anyone who is arrogant enough to use the comments here as Flash V.S. Ajax, Flash V.S. loading times, or anything else that out of place you might want to remember that strong experiences are what drives a strong brand. A lot of these sites were done in a way to be as engaging as possible, to let the user tie as much emotion to them as possible.
If you think you should tell Martini the best way to invoke brand experience is with an Ajax form then you’re an idiot and might just want to stay in the IT department.
I know server side, client side, and multiple languages, and they all have their place. Ajax even being mentioned in the comments here prove many of you don’t have a clue.
Anyhow, thanks Smashing Magazine for a great list of high end and highly engaging web sites
Makaw Kim
June 9th, 2009 7:23 amnice post.. thanks again.. guys for me flash is great but it depends on how you use it. Flash is use for advertising website like Coca cola.. but using flash on informative webiste?? hahaha. makes me laugh.. its better to use ajax on that kind of site, but both flash and ajax are great it only depend on how you use it..
joey
June 9th, 2009 7:27 amSome of you reply that Ajax is better… but for some kind of stuff, you just can’t do the same in Ajax (especially if you have to deal with IE).
Some other reply that “if … you can wait 3 minutes”. Are you crazy or what ? Do the test, look at a clock and wait 3 minutes : it’s waaaaaay too much. If i wanna see a trailer, i don’t go to a poor flash website, i go on youtube or a specialized website.
Stupid “artistic” websites are one of the reason that lead to the success of MySpace when looking for a band.
Going from a site to another, wait, try to find how that tricky designer has hidden the tracks to listen to was just horrible.
#78 > “strong experiences are what drives a strong brand”
Yeah… but that doesn’t imply Flash at all. Excellent design, layout, photos, and user interface are better : http://www.apple.com/aperture/whatisaperture/
The point is : to make a site pleasant to use with flash, it takes a lot, lot, lot of extra work compared to HTML/Ajax websites. It’s not standard by essence, and many of the reflexes can’t be used to flash websites so users are frustrated most of the time.
Plus, the internet is about scrolling fast across content to find what you’re looking for, manipulate content… Flash is bad at that. Sooooo bad.
So flash is mostly used for portfolios, interactive commercials nobody cares about (we have enough ads on the TV, thanks, we don’t want an “ad experience”) and games.
It’s rare that people use it for really good, informative, content-oriented, presentations where animations help to understand… purposes.
Instead, the web is full of “look what i can do with flash and my talent”, “there’s no content but you’ll have to spend 5 minutes to understand how to reach it and 10 to load it” websites.
cdoggyd
June 9th, 2009 9:36 amPatagonia is misspelled.
Ashely Adams : Sticker Printing
June 10th, 2009 3:10 amThe amount of creativity involved here is undoubtedly massive. The designs are top-notch and the Flash programming is superb. The only problem is that these sites can only be enjoyed on rather high-end computers which, sadly enough, are rather few in number. That way, such weighty Flash designs actually limit your audience.
For example, I was trying to view the HP site. Even with a Dual Core processor and 1 GB of RAM, I found the experience erratic and annoying. Makes me wonder, is there really a point in designing such heavy sites if they remain inaccessible to most of us.
ev4n
June 11th, 2009 8:06 pmalmost EVERY site has a really large photo which covers the screen with little to no actual content. this list has beautiful websites indeed (as per the title) but i would have liked to see FUNCTIONAL AND BEAUTIFUL since that actually takes something a lot more than a big pretty picture.
Ben Kuker
June 12th, 2009 7:00 amSome of the sites are cool, but I would really love to see a feature on Flash websites that don’t break the browser, do well in search engines, and are usable for every day use, all while offering functionality that can’t be achieved with HTML/CSS/JavaScript.
Mike
June 12th, 2009 7:08 amAwesome collection. As for flash vs css. I get way more jobs to do flash and paid twice as much. As long as I’m getting the green, I could care less about a silly debate. The fact that when I make something in flash I know what the user is going to see it, more than makes up for any drawbacks for flash. Besides multi touch and flash are the future not markup.
Marius
June 12th, 2009 11:04 am@ev4n
check fwa to find functional and beautiful flash websites
that’s actually the most important flash link now:
thefwa.com
css vs flash?
flash is becoming more and more SEO friendly
that was for years the biggest downfall of using flash
techniques like deep linking allow us to achieve in flash
everything what can be done using markup
and we still have much more creative freedom…
Sanchit Thakur
June 12th, 2009 12:36 pmWell, Saizen Media always scores in Flash based wesbites.
Sanchit Thakur
June 12th, 2009 1:12 pmSome real good flash work here.
But most of it is ordinary.
huge schlong
June 12th, 2009 11:42 pmIt’s so refreshing to see I’m not the only designer who absolutely hates flash. I instantly leave a site if I come to a loading screen. Stats show I’m not alone.
I agree with @74 Scott. You want my email address to see the site? FUCK YOU! bounce
Flash is pointless for anything other than a brochure/ad style site like coke’s site. Sometimes i think the only traffic sites like these get is from designers. Why would anyone want to go to Coke’s site anyway?
I always tell clients who want flash they’ll have a horrible page rank and a sky high bounce rate. works every time.
Mike
October 20th, 2010 6:16 pmAmen
Robert
June 13th, 2009 2:49 am@Karl – #3 “I don’t like Flash sites.”
@huge schlon
I think you are probably quite boring men (in a visual meaning)
and
I belive also that WITHOUT FLASH THE INTERNET WOULD BE SO MUCH BORING!
Robert from EU
ps: do you leave the cinema instantly when a movie is begining with a prelude full of the list of the producers, actors and actresses, camera mens, and so on? I do not think… so please keep be patient when a flash site is loading or go away for a cup of coffee… :-)
So think + and do not be so philistine!
cheerio from Hungary!
Mike
October 20th, 2010 6:16 pm@Robert – “please keep be patient when a flash site is loading or go away for a cup of coffee… :-)”
Ummm, no. That’s not what the purpose of a website is. Get me to the point of your website..now. And not after a cup of coffee waiting for it to load. I’m curious as to how many visitors leave your sites after a few seconds.
sldimension
June 15th, 2009 1:33 amHello, and thanks for add my company website in this article. I’m jim from sldimension, the company of the “full color planet” described on the top is not “agence second life” but “Sldimension”. Contragulations for the others websites. See U
Brant Schroeder
June 15th, 2009 10:32 amNice post, lots of great sites.
Brant Schroeder
June 15th, 2009 10:33 amNice post, lots of great designs.
Mike boogaard | Purple Daydream
June 15th, 2009 11:20 amSimply inspirational! Great sites, designs and usage of Flash…Nice one!
Arjun
June 18th, 2009 1:07 amHi,, Its reaaly really cooollll
steve
June 24th, 2009 1:17 pmHad trouble interacting with the sites. Hard to read fonts. Requires great dexterity for some links, for example I had to click a 8 pixels square to scroll down to read tiny font in a small window. Why couldn’t they make the window bigger or resize-able or at least make the scroll bar larger? Lots of prettiness without a lot of practicality or functionality. Lots of thought into the art and design and none for the user’s end.
I’m sure some of these sites are exceptions.
Anand Deep Singh
June 29th, 2009 3:47 amgud links keep sending me on my id
Diego
July 1st, 2009 11:28 amTodos os trabalhos estão ótimos e bacana ver trabalhos de brasileiros nesta seleção.
Parabéns.