Gigapixel Creative’s Sparks Light Up the Web

What do you do when your agency needs a Web site that showcases all the cutting edge design work you can do?  If you’re Gigapixel Creative you’re in luck: you’ve got your very own Creative Director n      amed Joey Kilrain who likes nothing more than to design something that’s never been done before.  That’s how he and business partner Yao-Hui Huang approached the creation of their agency’s own Web site, a digital portfolio of their work.  But in designing their own site they didn’t do anything for themselves that they wouldn’t do for a client; each time the agency creates a site, they take a new look at what they can do, visually and technologically, to create a Web environment.

Making the agency’s own site was a chance for them to flex some technological muscle, and Gigapixel Creative definitely pumped it up.  Of course they wanted to show off a lot of bells and whistles that demonstrated the full extent of their understanding of the software, but Kilrain doesn’t see the point of bells and whistles just for the noise.  The agency tries to make every site they design more interactive, more stimulating and different than the usual site in some way.

Dream it up Then Make It Happen

 So, Kilrain set out to think of the wildest, most impossible thing he could create, and then challenged himself to make it work.  The creation? A multi-faceted site that invites the user in through a stage show – which seemed fitting to Kilrain as a showcase for, “the wild things we could do.”  -- and keeps people clicking to see what else they can discover

The first characters to take the stage are a set of interactive bobblehead hosts who include Richard Nixon and Mr. T.  It’s you, the user, who makes these super-realistic images bobble (they are bobbleheads, after all); they dance to different music, depending on who you click. Typical of Gigapixel Creative’s technical work, it’s so seamless that it takes a minute to appreciate what’s happening on the screen: you’re not watching TV or even streaming video.  All that movement is programming. 

Kilrain describes the technical development process as iterative, starting with the bobblehead inspiration that came to him while searching for something on the web.  He saw the dolls for sale, thought they were pretty cool, and then decided it would be even cooler to photograph and animate them and put them on the Web.  So there they are, intensely realistic, on stage in front of a velvet curtain, inviting you to see the rest of the Gigapixel Creative Web show.  The color-saturated images, created from a commercial photographer’s work, combined with original tracks from a New York City DJ are representative of the agency’s philosophy that only by using quality art – from images to sound – can you create the kinetic art that a top-notch Web site should be. 

Hovering over the stage of bobbleheads is Kilrain’s next bit of technical wizardry: floating three-dimensional navigation.  Wanting to go beyond traditional navigation of sidebar or top-banner links, it took Kilrain several attempts to work out the math and the aesthetics of a movable device.  He had already explored the fundamentals of the movable navigation on his own site, but what made the new one hard to program was the 3D aspect.  In the end, the three-pronged rotating image (is it an ultra-modern retro gas lamp?  Is it a spacecraft?  It’s an idea in motion…) is composed of 108 frames to make it move, and it works whether you’ve got broadband internet hooked into a screaming machine, or a dialup into a college special. 

That kind of broad-spectrum utility is another aspect of Gigapixel Creative’s approach to making a Web site.  It doesn’t matter how much cutting-edge technology they use, if it’s not intuitively user friendly, it doesn’t matter.  When the agency comes up with a new idea, it’s not unusual to run it by a variety of people -- from the most web savvy to Kilrain’s mother – to see if they get it.  If it’s too obscure, no matter how much of a feat it was to develop, it gets redesigned to be more user-friendly, or scrapped all together.

Designing Across All Media

So who exactly is Gigapixel Creative, where did they come from and why are they here?

CEO Yao-Hui Huang and Creative Director Joey Kilrain set up the New York City-based agency in 2003, the day after they thought of working together.  Yao’s background in pharmaceutical and medical communications combined with an affinity for the arts and creative end of things made starting an agency a natural next step.   Her role in the group is to run the business aspects; she handles sales and marketing, pitching new accounts, managing projects and thinking of ways to grow the business.

Kilrain has spent the last decade honing his creative skills.  He has worked with every major agency, which has helped reinforce his ideas about the importance of approaching design with an open mind.  Having seen so much “recycled” design – taking ideas and re-using them until they are stale – Kilrain is passionate about creating innovative design, whether it’s for print or electronic media. 

Gigapixel Creative is a true design agency, established to make businesses and concepts look good across all media, including and beyond the Web.  They do print, product, logo, multimedia and advertising work, providing clients with design and service they can’t find elsewhere.  Explains Yao,  “We’re trying to push the design and the interactive aspects of the Web as far as it can go.  We blend what is real with what is created to develop something that people don’t expect to see.” 

At Gigapixel Creative there’s no such thing as a template; each design is unique, futuristic, and aimed act emphasizing a client’s individuality while reinforcing a brand image.  As a result, the agency’s signature is the combination of real and designed elements to create an unusual presentation for each client. 

By implementing unique design, such as innovative navigational devices, Gigapixel Creative’s Web sites assume and create a more sophisticated Web viewer. The agency strives to push the standard and redefine how people get information online, offering unique Web experiences that keep site visitors exploring, shopping and buying for as long as an hour at a time. 

Kilrain says his favorite clients to work with are those who are open to ideas; the ones who give him their colors and their logos and give him free rein to go and make it work.  He is an artist and self-professed nerd, all rolled into one body.  A painter, Kilrain spends a lot of time sketching his design concepts, working them out by hand.  He finds that going to the computer too soon locks in ideas without fully exploring the possibilities, a technique that works only when you know (as Kilrain does) that you can figure out how to create just about anything that you design.  He is the key to the agency’s balance and combination of pure design and the technical execution. 

Award Winning Design in a Post 9/11 Market

Gigapixel Creative’s range of capabilities has brought them recognition in the form of several prestigious international awards, often winning against companies with far greater resources.  The most notable recent awards include the 2004 American Design Award, in recognition of high design standards and creativity. The agency also received the 2004 Four Elements Award Demiurges of the Web Gold Award for Intense Flash Design and Best Overall Design – two awards that have never been given simultaneously to the same recipient before. From the pharmaceutical industry Gigapixel was awarded the RX Excellence in Web Design award in 2004, for the Cement Works site (www.cementworks.com).  The agency’s designs have also received Forbes’s Best of Web award. 

By proving their ability to turn their customers’ abstract concepts into functioning visual realities that effectively communicate to the appropriate market, Gigapixel Creative has risen to the top of the new wave of Post-9/11 design companies. 

While extraordinary and creative application of technology is one element of their success in this resurgent and competitive market, another is taking their client relationships seriously.  They work with each customer to create appropriate innovations that provide effective interactive communication that will cut through the digital noise in a crowded marketplace.  Every time they propose a design, they check to be sure it will generate something positive for the client – greater attention, a higher professional profile.  Says Yao, “If people are willing to sit down and work with us we can make award-winning sites for them.”

The group’s client list speaks to its diverse capabilities. They’ve provided leading edge design for clients ranging from MBK Entertainment and Alicia Keys to Chateau Lafitte de Rothschild Vineyards, Gateway Computers, Nextel Communications, NY and NJ Port Authority, and Roche Pharmaceutical.