Don’t Forget to Flush

With locations in New York and Paris, Area 17 is a brand agency spearheaded by the immensly talented Arnaud Mercier, formerly of Blast Radius and elixirstudio respectively. The work is fresh and honest. The site, well planned with a unique file browser. Go have a look for yourself.

Unfortunately, the group at Toko seem to have shut down the studio, so to speak. Too bad. They are promising they will be back after an indefinite hiatus. Take a look around while nobody’s home, or before it goes offline. This Rotterdam outfit has some great work.

“The 3 Deep group of companies are committed to design excellence.”
Take a trip to Victoria, Australia, and discover some of the most breath-taking work you will see today.

Hailing from Rio di Janeiro, the current Boston resident Nando Costa presents his work in the Daniel Eatock inspired “universal format”. Have a peek. There is all sorts of wonderful work here and he keeps his site pretty current as well.

Melbourne based Round was founded by an ex Spin member and the work showcased exemplifies the same aesthetic. Lots of gallery and museum pieces here.

I have long admired photo-retouchers for their artistry and skill. Have a look at some of the step-by-step case studies Taylor James Ltd. has made available.

British studio Un.titled has recently updated their flash site, and I must say, it is quite nice, though some pieces of the navigation are less than intuitive. But its all about the work isn’t it? The work you’ll find here is top notch. I especially like the identity section.

Loyal was founded by former Lamosca team member Tamara Zimmerman who has worked as an art director in Spain, Argentina, and the United States. Her site showcases a good variety of corporate identity collateral as well as some environmental and wayfinding graphics.

Check out the works of Belgian photographer Kurt Stallaert. In particular, have a gander at the ad slides for some fantastic shots and concepts.

While I don’t think he’s English, check out the personal portfolio of Sir Philippe Richardson, The Rock Collection, for a great breadth of motion work you’ve probably admired on the idiot box, as well as some other stellar formats.

It must get really cold in Norway. That’s the only way to describe how good this work is. Everyone must be inside designing 24/7. Check out Mission.

I have long been an admirer of this Barcelona-based studio’s aesthetic and work. Among a great smattering of other equally impressive works, the standout here is their comprehensive style guides and manuals, wrapped neatly in an intuitive Flash navigation.

Minimal work always puts the onus on the concept. Chicago-based VSA Partners is showing some sparse, yet squeaky clean creative. Very nice indeed.

With a highly technical aesthetic, and an equally impressive automated on-line presentation of work, this is Mode.

Extremely impressive body of work from former Farrow/North/Cartlidge Levine members Bibliothèque.