Anton & Irene

1- How successful as a portfolio website is Anton & Irene’s website?

I really like how their website is set up, It’s clear and interactive which makes it fun and easy to use! I did however have problems seeing their work, it took a really long time to load which was disappointing because I was really interested. 

2 – What elements of Anton & Irene’s website work well as an interface and what do you think could be improved. 

The colours of Anton’s and Irene’s website work really well together, it’s not a plain old black and white website, its full of bright colours and shows your they are designers, especially with the interactions on the front page when you scroll down the two bodies open up to display the heading. What could be improved is the drop down menu, I had no idea that when you click on their names on the top left it becomes the menu.

3 – How important a role does research take in the projects Anton & Irene undertake?

I feel like research is important in any project, not just Anton & Irene.

4 – What types of research does your chosen project involve?

My chosen project is – One shared house 2030

They looked at how far into the future they wanted to go. “If you think about it, we lived in a very different society 13 years ago. We didn’t have the iPhone. We didn’t have AirBnB, we didn’t have selfies, we didn’t have Uber, we didn’t have Spotify or Google Maps, or even the #blacklivesmatter movement because we didn’t have hashtags, let alone Twitter. We didn’t have commercially available drones, self driving cars, Tinder, and nobody had ever heard of Obama or cared about Trump. … So actually, turns out, a lot can happen in 13 years.” They spoke to historians, psychologists and Amsterdam city officials.

They used Irene’s background, “We went through almost 30 years of meeting notes, photographs and postcards, which the house-members had saved. We researched the origins and current resurgence of co-living, the political climate of Amsterdam in the 1980s, the architecture and history of the building and the neighborhood, Amsterdam city politics, Alexandra Kollontai (who the house was named after), and the psychological effects of communal living on adults and children.” They then did a Storyboard “We sat down with the scenario and outlined everything we wanted to visualize. The storyboard became our bible for the illustrations, motion graphics, design, voice-over and soundtrack.”

5 – How is a multidisciplinary approach employed by Anton & Irene?

By using graphic design and photography. A lot of different aspects go into there work. They took a photograph then photoshopped the crap out of it.

6 – Analyse the landing / home page of the Anton & Irene website. What does this first image ‘say’ from a semiotic perspective. What’s the denotation, what’s the connotation? What image are they projecting to potential clients?

Well the picture is interactive, every time you swipe over there bodies their hoodies unzip and show their faces which shows that they are personally involved with every project. I don’t see a menu button which was confusing at start and wasn’t very clear. The geometric shapes and bright colours show that they are very quirky. They are projecting to their potential client that if you go with them that you will get something that is out of the ordinary that you wouldn’t get from a big corporate business. It will be more creative and out of this world than you would ever think.