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prior listings

 

• the-inbetween 7/29/00 
  Description: "i am not my website, but my website reflects parts of me"
  Comments: Though I wish he would add that nifty back link to all of his pages, I gotta say I really like Mike's site.  His weblog, which appears to be less than a month old, has some interesting links for those who get tired of seeing the same old same old, combined with some personal ramblings that bring you a little closer to understanding what's in the mind of this 20 year old "amateur."  Though he describes it as "the dull spewings of my dull life" when talking about how his site keeps him sane, I wonder if he realizes how it might appear to others -- what he subjectively sees as dull could be rather interesting to the outsider looking in... at least, I find it interesting.  That's part of the magic of personal websites.  People sharing parts of their reality with total strangers is something that flies on the web rather well.  The popularity of blogs seems to show that more and more people are willing to let it all hang out, for what it's worth regardless of what people might think.  "I need connection."  That's what Mike says in describing "the me."  I love it!  The page that I like the best on this site is simply called "the gray" -- it's one of the best minimalist page layouts I've come across.  A simple, small scrollable frame with fine line borders (that appear the same in both browsers, I might add) holds some really cool content -- from a piece on depression to the words of a Rollins song and all kinds of personal and emotional stuff in between, "the gray" sheds light on where the name of the site came from... for me, anyway.  This is an honest and well-designed personal webspace, and I think Mike has gone beyond the realm of "amateur."  Check it.
   
• putsch 7/28/00 
  Description: a developing playground of organic thoughts in a digital age//:. (Flash)
  Comments: "Breaking the grided structure of design" with a 1280-wide embedded Flash interface, I have a vision of usability experts lining up to take their shots at today's pick.  How will the user figure it all out?  Will those tiny little squares look like navigation to all those short-attention-spanned bozos who have nothing better to do than surf the web?  "This is all so different", they'll say, as they urge us all to look alike, think alike, design alike.  Forget about all that -- some of us don't mind having to be challenged a little and, believe it or not, we know how to think and pay attention for more than a few seconds... we cringe at things that all look and work the same.  Today's winning site is tastefully colorful from the start and offers some cool desktops and several visual presentations that combine sight, sound and motion in unique ways... This stuff is what I like and if I have to think atypically and even be challenged a little to get to it, then so be it!  Enjoy this one...
   
• kerosene 7/27/00 
  Description: new independent magazine of visual photographic art (Flash)
  Comments: For all I know, this site may have just launched in the last few days.  The counter on the splash page said "3" when I entered the site.  One of the fun things about doin' the coolstop thing is finding cool sites that nobody knows about yet and pointing them out to you early on.  The concept and mission of this online/offline mag are commendable -- it calls itself an "independent visual showcase" and describes itself as a "visual mix of urban photography and cultural imagery spliced from samples from the collective consciousness of the 21st century."  This non-profit group intends to publish a print version 5 times a year and it looks like the brand new site is here to attract contributors while giving us a little sample of the type of art it will feature.  Hat's off to a guy who calls himself R!CO -- he designed the site and there's several things I really like about it.  He demonstrates how Flash doesn't always have to take a long time to load -- he seems to be using it more as an effective interface instead of for showing off all the bells, whistles and effects of Flash and making the user wait (and wait) - it's refreshing to see a Flash site that's not about Flash, if that makes sense.  Anyway, the layout and navigation is excellent and though the amount of visual content is somewhat limited at the moment, it is really good.  This is great photography, especially the colors and effects - definitely fine art presented in a well-designed package... check it out, silly!
   
• supersnail 7/25/00 
  Description: over 4,300 images to explore
  Comments: It's not always about design, folks... today's winner will not knock your socks off in that regard, though the way it functions in delivering thousands of images to your browser is quite impressive.  People pictures are a major portion of the site's content -- Julian has taken virtually all of the photos -- what a busy guy!.  The photos from Burning Man show just how colorful people are (really cool shots), and other subject areas include parties, portraits and "edible light."  Though I'm not crazy about the heavy blue borders on the thumbnails, I like the cool navigation through the hefty collection of sets.  Once you choose the set you want to view, you have a choice of viewing size and and easy navigation from one picture in the set to the next.  There's also a section of drawings of snails -- that's right - snails, that have been submitted by various artists and, last but not least, photos of alternative comix creators with interviews and information about them as well.  This content-rich site must take a lot of time to maintain -- hat's off to Julian for his motivation -- if you like people, go see a few thousand of 'em at Julian's place...
   
• surfstation.com 7/22/00 
  Description: inspiration becomes innovation
  Comments: Today's pick is an excellent design mag and inspirational portal that I honestly haven't heard of before, which makes me wanna ask "why not?"  The web is full of great sites that the traditional portals don't tell you about.  Like CoolSTOP, today's winner provides exposure to creative sites which excel in design and content, yet I don't see a lot of those sites pointing their visitors back in the alternative portal's direction.  Those whiners who complain that their independent sites aren't getting enough exposure should consider the value of giving a little exposure back to the non-traditional portals out there who do it for love and choose not to play mainstream promotional games or commercialize their webspaces trying to become the next Yahoo! or Webby Awards... the fact that I haven't seen anyone pointing to today's winner is obviously troublesome to me, but enough of my agenda... special thanks to alternativa for pointing me to it.  Now that I've taken up the space here with my own whining, let me just suggest that you check out this site - it should be pretty obvious why I picked it, speaking of great design and content...
   
• bindii digital designs 7/19/00 
  Description: online portfolio of Paul O'Neill
  Comments: Paul O'Neill calls this version "a whole new beginning" and I call it a great website.  I really appreciate the fact that Paul's design portfolio is free of the typical sales pitches that cross the line between "creative" and "commercial", because I'd hate to miss this chance to recognize such an innovative site.  At the outset, you notice that Paul is only using one half of the window space for content (vertically) and if you're like me, you wonder how he intends to pull that off.  I found myself hoping that a vertical scrollbar wasn't part of the plan and was I pleasantly surprised  His "slider" idea is unique and fun to use - and the "thumbnails" are done quite well, thank you.  I was really impressed by the many covers Paul has designed and submitted to other design sites, and the collection of big "banners" that includes many submitted by other designers... there's a sense of community spirit here that you'll pick up on immediately.  It's obvious that Paul's still working on several sections, but this site is good to go and easily grabs today's Best of the Cool -- what a sweet design!
   
• n3xt.com 7/15/00 
  Description: an interactive art exhibit of collage works by shikam
  Comments: "When I was six, July nights were filled with dust and grapes covered my narrow room of whispers" - at least, I think that's what it said in the vertically moving text which is part of the current collage feature.  Each month since January of this year, a new collage appeared here - each one presented in a neat little popup - each one a spectacular work of motion graphics and sound - each one a true piece of art.  This type of interactive art is unique to the web and you have to respect the pure creativity behind today's pick.  I'm not sure if there's one or two people behind the site - "shirin" is one of the names, but the head shows "shikam" or "shirin, kambiz" as the author... mysterious, if you ask me.  Anyway, if you like something that's different, go look at this one - you'll be inspired.  It's tied to a second site which is shirin's digital art gallery.  When you've had enough of the flamers and hype and egos and spammers that fill the web, a site like today's winner reminds you what it's all really about - it proves that the web is as positive as we all make it - it shows the light that arises from true spirit...
   
• JacekZaluskiPhotographer 7/12/00 
  Description: gallery of photographer and multimedia artist
  Comments: New photography sites are showing up on the web almost every day and many have great content but fall a little short on site design (in my humble, but consistent opinion).  But this has been one of my better weeks in finding well-designed photo showcases.  Today's Best of the Cool pick features the photography of Jacek Zaluski, a photographer in England, who is also a multimedia artist.  I like the way the thumbnails are presented - they auto-scroll horizontally in the top frame as the user views the full size versions in the middle frame, providing an ongoing selection to choose from.  One minor improvement would be to cut down the size of the bottom frame which would probably get rid of the vertical scrollbar in the middle frame for many of the full-size photos.  As far as content goes, I like photography that captures the facial expressions of real people and there's three sections here that do it well - "bikers", "fashion" and "portraits."  There's also a "landscape" section and overall, the content and design is superb...nice work, Jacek.
   
• Flight 404 7/11/00 
  Description: experimental Flash diversions
  Comments: Seems that "404" is becoming a popular number on the web... Saturday's pick had it in their name and today's winner does, too.  Interesting that a number associated with "not found" errors would be so popular -- perhaps it says something about the web in general. 
  
  
  
  Today's winner is an interesting collection of Flash work.  Using the different seating sections of the aircraft as its navigation device, it seems that the "passengers" are the different Flash experiments on display now, and the number of empty seats on the plane implies that more stuff is on the way -- based on the number of passengers added recently, I get the feeling that this is all just getting started.  If you enjoy the motion of swarm behaviors and don't mind a little turbulence here and there, you'll probably find this site quite amusing...
   
• lab404 7/8/00 
  Description: An ambient immersive library of dreams, better experienced than explained.
  Comments: With a name that implies you may have found something different than expected and a scattered (I mean, really scattered) mix of input and output, Curt's site is....uhhhhh...errrrr....unique.  A few other one word impressions... random... unbridled... visual... energetic... fun!  The design is all over the place.  You are thrown into a million different directions, but the simple word "wake" keeps you anchored... you can always get back to Curt's body-parts-navigator and it's bright purple glare -- and what's that graphic, anyway, Curt?  This guy is definitely a creative engine getting ready to burst and you might like what you see or you might think it's dreadful... but in the end, Curt is putting it out there and it's up to you how to take it.  Honest and scattered and barely structured... sometimes that's what engages the user... Oh - and do reload the splash page a few times!
   
• OOK 7/5/00 
  Description: observing obscure kulture...eclectic sundries for the kulturally shellshocked...
  Comments: "Art (or anti-art) in any medium is not good or bad. It simply is what it is and we have our individual, subjective experiences when exposed to it."  Today's winning site looks at some of the more obscure aspects of culture with an attitude that we need to keep an open mind about things - don't judge - observe.  It's not only the obscure they look at ("we shouldn't dismiss a subject just because it's well known"), but they do like looking at something "especially if it has fallen through the cracks and off the radar screen."  A most interesting tone - I have to admit I've only read a few of the articles so far and they were really good.  And what an assortment!  In-car phonographs of the 50s and 60s -- "The Persistence of Exotica" -- "Meeting Danny Bonaduce."  The features are quite amusing, too - a gallery of advertising, packaging and ephemera -- movie capsules -- a casual glance at automotive design.  This site is surely a pop-culture junkie's dream come true and the design of the site is pretty good, too, though I don't want to judge - just observe...