/Culture/ The best Flash sites ever
07/07/2008 | Filed under Discover > Culture
When the first version of Flash was launched in 1996, little did we know how it would revolutionise website design over the ensuing decade. The FWA’s Rob Ford counts down the Top 20 Flash sites of all time
FutureSplash Animator shipped in May 1996 and after being unsuccessfully pitched to Adobe was acquired by Macromedia in December 1996, becoming Macromedia Flash 1.0. Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia then saw the initial pitch go full circle and today, what was once just another small animation app has led to the creation of a whole online world that we all pretty much take for granted.
Without doubt, Flash has become the design and development community’s number one tool and through some exceptionally talented individuals and agencies we’ve seen some amazing, pioneering and downright creative multimedia websites go live.
Through my work at leading web award site FWA I’ve pre-screened over 200,000 Flash websites over the years, and seen both the best of the best and the worst of the worst. To compile my top 20 I’ve gone right back to 1997, when the first true wave of Flash sites started to grace our screens, and continued right up to the present day.
Please note that some of these sites are old now and may seem very dated, but in their heyday they were making people’s jaws drop, just like some of the great sites of 2008.
20: Nike Air
As a company with global reach and one of the world’s biggest brands, Nike is renowned for bringing us cutting-edge web experiences. This pioneering website for the Nike Air brand is the perfect example. It engaged visitors by allowing them to interact with a runner or basketball player, using their keyboard to generate a visual array of eye-popping effects on screen. As with most top quality, award winning Flash sites, the production level here is of the highest order. After the huge success of this site, other developers were soon to adopt the visual effects idea, but none of them managed to pull it off quite like Big Spaceship did here.
Launch date: 2006Claim to fame: Pioneering user-generated motion effects.
19: Mono*crafts
Some say that this site is where it all started. Yugo Nakamura is a household name to everyone in the Flash community and was the first person to really start pushing the boundaries of Flash through some crazy experimentation, something that was rife back in the early days and is often lacking now. This site used progressive and unseen-before navigation to house Yugo’s experiments with Flash. If you look through them you might even notice some techniques that are still being used today. This site may look very dated now, but think of it as like one of the very first silent movies by Charlie Chaplin: they both wowed contemporary audiences and they both shaped the future.
Launch date: 1999
Claim to fame: The experimental master inspired a community.
In 2005 we were seeing more and more video on the web, but most of it was failing to capture users’ attention. This site showed how video could be used intelligently, giving visitors the impression that they were behind the camera in the middle of a winter’s night – alone in a dense forest, somewhere in Sweden. The sound effects gave the experience a true edge, as all you could see were a car and the eyes of an animal. This simple idea was so superbly executed that it would see the site become a contender for Site Of The Year 2005.
Launch date: 2005
Claim to fame: The combination of video and atmosphere made for a winning campaign.
17: NRG.be
Peter Van den Wyngaert’s NRG.be is one of those landmark websites that got many people into using Flash for the first time, back in the heady days of the late 1990s. The innovative use of shape tweening made for an interface that did things we’d simply never seen before. Den Wyngaert also added some voice effects, which later went on to grace many of his clients’ websites, including the infamous Kimble. This site, which employed a distinctive graphic style that was instantly recognisable, was made with Flash 3 and soon picked up Shocked Site of the Day in July 1998, which gave it instant worldwide exposure. NRG.be went on to be voted the most influential site of 1998.
Launch date: 1998
Claim to fame: One of the first examples of shape tweening, this laid strong foundations for the web we know today.
16: Comcastic!
This is a really delicious website in many ways. Wonderful colour and high-quality sound have been used throughout. There are two sections to the site: one enables you to create your own puppet – from sporty to superhero to robotic – while the other offers a set of interactive games aimed at challenging you to set a new world speed-mouse record. The most exciting element is the ability to use your mobile phone (USA only) to ring your puppet and make it talk ... it can even talk to other puppets! The puppet physics are so unbelievably realistic that you can easily forget you’re not playing with a real toy. The world speed-mouse record challenge is also great fun and the five tricky yet addictive games will have you playing for hours.
Launch date: 2005
Claim to fame: Using a mobile phone to play with a puppet.
15: PDK
Who would have thought that a website selling something as dreary as car loans would have been in our list – let alone one directed at the Polish market? However, this slick creation shows how, by combining clever and cute illustrations – which are drawn right in front of you – you can give a potentially boring subject the cool factor and street credibility. It’s simply amazing when you consider this site is more than three years old – it still seems as fresh as the day it was first launched and, incidentally, was one of the most awarded websites of 2004.
Launch date: 2004
Claim to fame: Animation allows corporate to be cool.
With the domain name ShaveEverywhere.com it might not surprise you that this site is all about the Philips Bodygroom, a grooming kit for men. This is definitely a website that once seen will never be forgotten. While it doesn’t push the limits of Flash or use any extra-special techniques, the concept and implementation of this idea is what makes it so outstanding. Some believed it was pursuing a rather risky strategy, with lines like “The longer you wait, the longer your pubes get” and bleeped-out words when the demonstrator refers to a man’s genital area. But take another look at this site now and you won’t fail to appreciate this clever approach to marketing to men.
Launch date: 2006
Claim to fame: Site of the year... for your genitals?
13: Red Universe
This unique agency website gives every visitor a character and the ability to chat with other characters – and even fly and punch them in the face if you so desire. This very bold approach for an agency site took a risk in not focusing on its portfolio but just creating something original and unforgettable. Its success was instant and there were occasions when over 200 people were on the site at any one time chatting away to each other. It’s also loaded with Easter eggs, so if you type in the correct message you’ll change your character into something more outrageous. For example, you could try “may i please have some blueberry pie?”
Launch date: 2007
Claim to fame: A live chat community with a twist.
12: tokyoplastic
In late 2002 there was a general consensus that web design had gone a bit flat and boring and that we’d seen it all. Then, in early 2003, a duo calling themselves tokyoplastic changed all of that. Their whole brand image was centred on a Japanese geisha and some bizarre creatures. This is one of the most difficult sites to describe because it’s so unique. Giving you an adrenaline rush (or was that a fright?) when you clicked on the loaded graphic and the site swallowed you up, tokyoplastic showed us how to make the most of vector graphics and 3D, fused with awesome sound and FX for an unforgettable, intriguing and almost unnerving surfing experience.
Launch date: 2003
Claim to fame: Proving that personality wins through.
It was no surprise that the FWA judging panel overwhelmingly selected this as the Site Of The Year 2005, as it must be one of the greatest agency portfolio sites ever launched. It used something that was just emerging in 2005, the zoom interface, whereby on clicking an object you’d zoom right in to the next area. While Leo Burnett wasn’t the first company to use it, the way it did so and the depth it gave to the site is what made it stand out from the competition. The navigation concept conveyed personality without obstructing the basic purpose of the website. Revolving around the Leo Burnett mantra that big ideas come out of big pencils, you got to click around the site with a big black pencil as your mouse pointer.
Launch date: 2005
Claim to fame: One of the best agency sites of all time.
10: Audi R8
The Audi R8, a car that boasts groundbreaking innovations, now has a website to match it. The site has interactive and informative areas, but the highlight is the incredible video and 3D motion effects. Some people will argue that this isn’t in fact a website, it’s a video – but where do we draw the line between the two? Do we even need to draw a line? Whatever you consider this to be, let’s just say it’s a pioneering experience that offers a glimpse of next-generation websites with high-impact video and visual effects. This is indeed progress through technology – or Vorsprung Durch Technik – for the Audi faithful.
Launch date: 2006
Claim to fame: High quality 3D video with incredible results.
9: Neostream
One of the true innovators of cutting-edge web design and one of the most eagerly anticipated launches since the previous version garnered such high acclaim, multimedia company Neostream Interactive delivered 50,000 volts of animation heaven that shocked the world on launch in 2002. This was a total WOW! site that oozed personality and character right from the splash screen, where the Neostream mascot shook his finger at you. On entering, visitors were able to ‘slap’ the mascot around by moving their mouse back and forward across him. Each section of the site was brimming with amazing motion, animation and sound, making for an experience that’s still highlighted as many web surfers’ favourite today.
Launch date: 2002
Claim to fame: Using a mascot to full potential.
8: EYE4U
You could argue this was the perfect example of what Flash was originally created for. The site made full use of vector graphics that would scale perfectly to any user’s monitor size, as well as some bitmap images that, naturally, pixelated when stretched to match all screen resolutions. Viewing this site now is like listening to some very old rave or acid music – it started a whole new era but, alas, seems so dated today. Having said that, if you’re new to the web, you should take the chance to see where its roots were planted.
Launch date: 1998
Claim to fame: A classic example of what Flash used to be.
I can clearly remember the day this launched, 1 May 2002: I was instantly blown away. The rolling finger loader was clever in itself and paved the way for an even more creative site ahead. This was one of the earliest examples of a heavy use of bitmap images in Flash and created a viral effect on launch. The whole attitude of the site was one of arrogance and it was something you either loved or hated. When you click on a button that says “who are we” and a UFO flies across the screen and produces a giant rock that says “THE BEST”, you know the company has balls. It was a huge shame that it eventually split.
Launch date: 2002
Claim to fame: The power of attitude and humour.
It still amazes me how David Gary managed to create this site with Flash 2 and then 3. Back in 1999 we were all on dial-up and most were at 33.6K. I was rocking the latest high speed of 56K! A big problem at that time was huge waiting times for loading and one of the reasons why Flash started to get a bad reputation. David Gary was the first to load up a game before the site started to load, so that users could play Pong while they waited. A stroke of genius. The site itself boasted a chrome interface with a complete exhaust system that blew out super-realistic flames and smoke. The atmosphere was set through wind noise, barking dogs and the sound of a revving Harley.
Launch date: 1999
Claim to fame: Still standing the test of time.
North Kingdom is one of my top three favourite agencies and this site, which promotes milk, is a great example of why. When I first saw it, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I thought to myself that this was the best site I’d seen since… well, the one you’ll see in a minute at number one (no peeking!). The site is based on a board game that you have to play to help the milk-deprived Adachi family break into Fort Fridge to get the Glass. Roll the dice and experience some of the highest quality production, built from the ground up, that you’ll ever see. Oh ... make sure that you don’t get caught by the cops and end up in Milkatraz!
Launch date: 2007
Claim to fame: Taking production levels to new heights.
4: Advanced Studios v3 “Expansions”
This was voted the most inspirational Flash site of the decade so far, and deservedly so. Ironically, being the most famous has also made it the most copied or ripped as well. The wonderful moving cloud sequence – as if you’re looking up and out of some high-tech building – combined with futuristic sound effects and simple, yet original, page transitions took Flash sites to a whole new level. At the time it was launched it felt like the perfect website, and it made a lot of people pick up the web design baton and start getting creative.
Launch date: 2001
Claim to fame: The most copied website ever.
3: Gabocorp
Known as the Daddy of Flash, Gabo Mendoza is one of the great pioneers who started the whole wave of what we see today. His 1997 website stated: “You are about to enter a new era in website design. This is the new standard for all things to come.” If someone wrote that today they’d be laughed off the web. But those couple of sentences Gabo put on his site ten years ago have turned out to be stunningly prophetic. Remember that in 1997 we had to try and make things move by using animated gifs or those dreadful lake applets. Gabo made things move on user interaction. He made things move right across your screen. He set the new standard … and the rest is history.
Launch date: 1996
Claim to fame: This is where it all started.
2: Road Runner
This huge Flash portal for Time Warner’s Road Runner customers, made by FI, was and still is a true landmark in proving what can be achieved in a full Flash environment. This huge portal, which covers 20 separate content areas, was the first to seamlessly incorporate Google search in a Flash website. Its ability to seamlessly load video without having to pop open a new window was hardly seen at this point. Road Runner set a benchmark for web portals and is still waiting to be surpassed four years later. Word on the street is that FIis about to launch something to top this site and maybe it will be a future ‘best Flash site ever’ – but only time will tell…
Launch date: 2003
Claim to fame: Proving how Flash can handle content.
Roll the music ... “Straight in at number one!” Okay, here we go ... the best Flash site ever is Vodafone Future Vision, made by North Kingdom (www.NorthKingdom.com). When this site launched in January 2004 it was way before its time. The funny thing is, its aim was to promote what Vodafone saw as the future of technology. The fact that they managed to create a site that was so progressive and innovative as well is quite amazing. It would go on to be one of the most highly awarded sites of all time, as well as being the only one ever to pick up both FWA Site of the Year and FWA People’s Choice Award in the same year. Lots of original techniques were used and influences from it were even spotted in TV adverts shortly after. Hands down, this is the website that all designers and developers wish they’d been a part of and which, at the time of launch, totally blew away its audience. A very worthy winner and a site that must be kept live for all eternity.
Launch date: 2003
Claim to fame: The best Flash site ever!
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Comments
Pete / 08/07/2008 / 09:10
I think it really says something that most of these sites are a good few years old now.
Is that through the inability of the design/development community to come up with the goods? Or because it's been largely realised that putting a glossy facade on something that is ultimately quite simple and straightforward is not good for the long term success of a site?
Nowadays users demand more than a "wow that's cool" gizmo they can play with for 10 minutes.
It's certainly got it's place within sites that demand a rich media experience - for movies, music, art etc - but by and large Flash on this scale is an indulgence of ill informed marketing/advertising departments with large budgets or developers that wish to experiment and show off what they can do with Flash.
I'm no Flash hater (believe it or not) and have developed a few things in Flash but nowadays I try to restrict Flash usage to only where it's really needed - as, I think, most other developers do. That's the reason nearly all of the sites listed are of such age.
Luke / 08/07/2008 / 15:39
Neostream wins the award for the most annoying preloader in the world.
F/M Marketing / 08/07/2008 / 16:59 / http://www.forwardslashmarketing.co.uk/
I have to confess I don't normally go for Flash but the Voda Future site is extremely well crafted.
A Fan / 08/07/2008 / 22:23 / http://www.808ultimatemax.com
I know for a fact that whos we studios did not split. They are Very alive.
I should know, I am a client. :-)
john smith / 08/07/2008 / 23:12
You missed DER BAUER II. The one that had door in the middle. That was one of the most impressive sites ever.
Michiel Ebberink / 09/07/2008 / 17:09 / http://www.designdirector.nl
Nice list but where is http://www.derbauer.de
R.J. Adams / 11/07/2008 / 20:29 / http://www.waterfountainsindoor.net
Yah, these Flash sites are pretty awesome. I think flash sites will be on the rise again, since GOogle is now able to crawl the Flash files is configured properly, so that these Flash sites can start making a difference in Search Engine Optimization.
rob ford / 15/07/2008 / 07:57 / http://www.thefwa.com
"You missed DER BAUER II. The one that had door in the middle. That was one of the most impressive sites ever."
I remember that teaser site, very cool but it was only a teaser as you couldn't actually get past the door.
"Nice list but where is http://www.derbauer.de";
Indeed, derbauer have had some great sites over the years but I could only list 20 in my countdown so there were many sites on my shortlist that didn't make it.
You can see a lot of the old skool Flash sites in the 10 years of Flash polls we ran for Adobe at:
http://www.thefwa.com/flash10/
victor / 24/07/2008 / 09:39
No doubt about it those and other forgotten like derbauer, theory7, and many others, depending on personnal view are great sites.
These kind of considerations are very bizarre, because most of the choosen sites are not for ther "WEB development" but instead by their content. Other words: I can have a perfect and technically build site, but if I don't have 3d/video I'll never get into the top...
Victor
Buddha / 27/07/2008 / 09:33 / http://www.himalayacrafts.com
Wow so many nice flash websites listing in one place. visiting these sites makes me feel like having one flash based website bit i hear it is not very good for SEO as crawlers find them difficult to crawl.
Flasher / 28/07/2008 / 15:07
How can a 2003-site win this competition?
It's lacking tons of technology for this to be a good Flash site:
It doesn't use SWF-object, has not implementet backbutton (# for keeping state), does not provide text size changes, is not speedy as a newer AMF site would be, doesn't calculate as fast as AS3 would,
It's at best a nice piece of motion graphics and graphic design, which suffers from the contagious snipsnaps and twinks'n'blinks of 2Advanced.com.
It's the ability to make really fast, user friendly, accessible and light weight rich media applications for the web that makes Flash worth anything now.
Call your competition "Best of Flash-nostaligia", or something... And in that case you can't leave out J.Davis.
rob ford / 29/07/2008 / 10:19 / http://www.thefwa.com
@ Flasher
So, if we do the best films of all time we have to have a film from this year as the winner?
The Vodafone Future Vision site was pioneering and blew everyone away in the industry at that time, like no other site had ever done. This site pushed the boundaries more than any other site had.
Of course, it may seem dated now but so do black and white movies and some of them still stand the test of time against some of your modern day blockbusters.
Good to hear your opinion though!
rob ford / 29/07/2008 / 10:22 / http://www.thefwa.com
@ victor
"These kind of considerations are very bizarre, because most of the choosen sites are not for ther "WEB development" but instead by their content. Other words: I can have a perfect and technically build site, but if I don't have 3d/video I'll never get into the top..."
Not true! Number 2 in the top 20 is the for every reason you mention. However, the Flash version no longer appears to be online.
Nadav Tal / 22/09/2008 / 09:31 / http://www.nadavtal.com
great stuff!
check my website too
forex / 07/11/2008 / 01:33 / http://www.fxcaliber.com
this nike http://www.bigspaceship.com/archive/nikeair/ is really the best i think
lanquetin / 11/11/2008 / 22:48 / http://www.studiophotovision.com
I appreciate very much this Flash selection, I knew almost all of them for sure...
I start to be involved in the Flash Technology from the year 1998, and I have built up some very nice website with all my teams...
I would love to introduce to you our website jsut came out in November 2008 wich should have been in this selection if Nike Air was selected, let's meet there : http://www.studiophotovision.com
eml
Ozan / 14/12/2008 / 09:01
@ lanquetin
After reading your post and visiting your site, I'm surprised very much. Not only to see a guy coming out with such a crappy site after 10 years of experience, but also to see that he still can't understand the difference between a good flash site and a crappy one. It's unbelievable that you compare Studio Photo Vision with Nike Air.
Jonathan / 24/12/2008 / 00:22 / http://www.splinter.tv
Hee, ehm, lanquetin .. with studiophoto thingy .. your site is crap man.. sorry to say, but .. you really don't see that ? (and it was build by a Team .. ? )
Enfin, had some sugestions : http://www.r-a-n-d-o-m.com/v2/index.html , www.floodgear.com , http://www.sgr.jp/ .
Oh, and i loved the 2advanced sites, the first 3 .. But the one currently online... why ? it's to much, the design is messy, it's not half as good as previous ones. same goes for der bauer. after the first 2 or 3 versions everything got worse. a lot.
ciao
jFrank / 09/01/2009 / 16:06
Maybe I'm just crazy, but I really didn't think any of these on the list were that extraordinary except the Nike Air and Leo Burnett. Nor were they really life changing, and I've been working in flash since the beginning. The others are great sites, yes, but I wouldn't call them top 10. I always view the fwa's picks with a grain of salt. The jury seems to be bias.
I don't know. Maybe I'm just getting old and all that whiz-bang doesn't do it for me anymore.
agent95 / 14/01/2009 / 05:46
Great stuff, I enjoyed checking out all the mentioned sites
....except for studiophotovision.com
@lanquetin ...Please dont compare it with Nike!!!! just Dont!!!!
Roy
Mads / 17/01/2009 / 09:44 / http://www.webtwist-design.com
Ahhh, brings back a lot of memories. Some of these sites are fantastic. I really enjoyed the milk board game. I even completed the game :) They could have made the last puzzle a little more interesting.
stryker / 31/01/2009 / 11:18
I agree with some of the people on here. None of these sites are all that great. Take a look at this site, one of my favorites that I've seen. http://alphaville.de/
Ian / 06/03/2009 / 06:38
@stryker you either accidentally double posted or miserably failed to shamelessly plug your/ your clients website. I gave it a shot, and after the tedious load times, was not that impressed. I usually don't criticize people's work to harsh, but if it is the coolest site you have ever seen, you clearly didn't look at these 20 examples which were all made a long long time ago.. sorry, 30 second transition times between sections? no thank you...
I stumbled upon this post because I was thinking of the Vodafone website and looked it up. I was extremely happy to see it at number 1. I remember marveling at this website years ago, and I still think this is one of the best executed Flash websites in history. The combination of graphic design, video, information architecture and user interaction, to me is amazing. I remember downloading all the swfs and reverse compiling them... just sifting through their code and image assests, truly amazing... if one of the creators of that site is reading, my hat goes off to you.
Mark J / 23/05/2009 / 22:21 / http://www.visitorcamp.com
Can't believe no one mentioned http://www.balthaser.com/b1/index.htm which was truly inspirational when it launched in 98/99 as well as the Polar Design flash intro at http://www.polardesign.com
Stryker / 04/06/2009 / 08:19
In response to Ian. I accidently doube posted. I have no ties whatsoever to the alphaville site. I just think it's very cool. Sorry, not impressed with the choices made on this page. I do like the Saab one though. Everyone has different tastes. If anyone else wants to site with lots of flash site links you can go here. http://www.bestflashanimationsite.com/vote/ ( I have no affiliation with this one either)
Lady / 18/06/2009 / 07:45
I also agree with some comments that this list is dissappointing. I think the title should be "Sites that pioneered Flash design" rather than the "best flash sites ever". I don't feel as though usability has been given much focus at all - in a few of the sites I didn't have a clue what they were about or how I was meant to interact with them. The focus seems to be on motion tweens and video integration rather than truly innovative interactivity. Also these sites are extemely commercial. I'm sure there are some less commercially-driven sites out there that require a spot.
jonno hughes / 08/07/2009 / 22:49 / http://www.subspecies.co.uk
subspecies is all in-house developed from graphics, art and even the tunes that roll out when you tap on the gorilla with the ghetto blaster. we designed an entertaining site that was easy to use for purchasing our streetwear brand. see what you think.
cheers
jonno h
James B / 18/09/2009 / 00:18
I like these sites but they are too concept driven trying to sell the end user a bad idea. I like bigspaceships sites but I think clean slick stuff like http://underdog.tv or http://www.iamalwayshungry.com should be up there.
Björn Z. / 21/10/2009 / 19:13
I´m really missing the first version of http://www.yugop.com which was very famous when Flash started. Also, http://www.yenz.com and http://www.pepworks.com were the first pages which used sound, anmation, transparency etc. (1996). Finally http://www.moccusite.com (formaly http://www.moccu.com) won almost every important award in 2001.
rosanne / 02/11/2009 / 14:27 / http://www.nycimageconsulting.com
I love flas websites, mine was in flash but i had it con verted to html, which was pricey. My friends website, http://www.mmgooddesign.com however is both xml and flash and she gets a lot of traffic because there are ways to optimize with a combo of both. I like the design too, I think it's better than some of these..
<a href="http://www.mmgooddesign.com">Awesome Flash Website</a> WHAT U THINK??
Sark Quadron / 07/11/2009 / 17:10
@James B http://www.iamalwayshungry.com ??? It's a mess... too much going on.
tom / 02/12/2009 / 16:53
anyone remember the one that started as a white dot...
then there were the sperm swimming to the egg, then a series of 3d stuff....
..3d teddies and soft toys that bounced, screens of running men etc. all of which you coudl navigate through, then the 3d head?
was awesome, flash 4, 1999 or 2000 at the latest...
really want to knwo what that was called and if it still exists!
