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You are currently browsing the archives for the Cru category.

Farewell to Cru

Friday, 4th April, 2008

As one chapter closes, another one opens. But before that happens, I must say a final thank you.

Today is the day I part with my beloved Cru. Days leading up till today, I was reminded of how fortunate I was to have experienced what I was able to share; the opportunities I was handed; the situations I was exposed to; and to do it with some of the sharpest and most creative talents in the country; all with Cru Creative, Cru Group and its latest evolution, Cru Digital.

I was always questioned if I had made the right decision to leave such a vibrant team and one with such potential. Honestly, there is never a right time to leave a team like this, especially given its current acceleration of growth. But from a personal perspective, it is the right time for me. Plenty of thought was given to this decision. This decision will allow me to experience the industry from different heights and angles; discover a new city, network new friends; and further myself as an individual.

I have learned life is much more than just about work. I have also learned what I call “work” is also what I call “my hobby” and I’m addicted to the perks and glory surrounding it. I really love what I do, and I am happy for it to be a strong part of my lifestyle. I think I’m getting closer to finding that balance of work verses life that I am satisfied with, but in a way that it amplifies each other.

Cru has been a catalyst for my success and will be for anyone who is part of it. Embracing that Cru culture has shot me to the peak of my game in 3 short years. I am a by product of Cru’s success and as Ben has told me, in the same token, I have been played an integral part of Cru’s success. I will always remember these days and be thankful for it.

Guys, you’ve been great colleagues and greater friends. Thank you!

Final drinks with the Cru.

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Triumph Lingerie

Monday, 25th February, 2008

Triumph Lingerie - You Are Wonderful

Details

Client: Triumph Lingerie
URL: http://www.youarewonderful.com.au/
Backlink: http://triumph.crudigital.com.au/

Launched: 25 February 2008
Agency: Cru Digital & BCM
Project: Microsite, User Generated Content, Product Catalogue, Compatibility Test, Viral Campaign

Recognition:

Major Features:

  • Strategic loading techniques to handle the large amount of content.
  • Site rescaling and repositioning to suite the browser size and ratio.
  • Homepage has live fed up-to-date content.
  • Flash History and Deeplinking
  • Many forms with custom input boxes, dropdowns, checkbox, etc.
  • Input fields have a memory system, where the user doesn’t have to always retype in the fields.
  • 2 person compability test, where the 2nd user returns to a specific section in Flash with their details prefilled out.
  • Users are able to upload a photo of themselves and their bestfriend, which gets approved and added to the “Happy Snaps” wall. Users are able to put in a caption and a message when polaroid is flipped. Users are also able to add some shapes (resize and rotate it) to their polaroids.
  • Product Catalogue has multiple categories and users are able to “Drop A Hint” to family, friends or partners on what products they want. No ecommerce was part of this site as they are the product suppliers.

The Story:

This campaign needed to really engage women and get them involved. So the winning theme idea was the “coffee shop” where the menu items were elements on the table. The background audio and video was added to bring some life to the site. The inner content pages focused on the elements of the homepage.

There was a heavy amount of forms in the site, so to ease the user’s experience, an input form memory system was created, so similar items were prefilled out. From a development angle, a core class system was created to handling the prefilled data, post variable names for server-side integration, appearance, error checking and creation for forms could be done faster. Because as all developers know, forms are a pain in the arse! No matter what language you’re programming in! :)

I had my usual flash history system part of the site, which is usually just top level, and passes some sublevel item parameters for sections like; Compability Test and Polaroids.

The Vox Pops section had a neat display sequence. When the initial XML was loaded for the content, a class-level Array was created with all the 72 videos added in a random sequence. Each instance of the voxpop player had an instance-level copy of the class level Array made. The player went through the instance level sequence with the each item dropping off the array, eventually leading to an empty Array. When the Array was empty, it resliced a copy of the class-level Array sequence. This led to a completely random sequence with no repeats, until the entire set had been played through.

To help the site jump out at the user, some fake 3D concepts were used for polaroids and product details cards to flip. This was inspired from Papervision.

After the initial rollout of the site, a few areas of the site went through a performance optimising phase as the rich content got some users’ CPU’s to work overtime.

Technology Analysis:

  • Flash w/ Actionscript 3
  • PHP5 w/ MySQL CMS
  • XML
  • Javascript

The Team:

Screenshots

Triumph Lingerie IntroductionTriumph Lingerie Main Competition FormTriumph Lingerie Happy Snaps WallTriumph Lingerie Media PlayerTriumph Lingerie Contact FormTriumph Lingerie Women’s Week Promotion

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Ice Break

Monday, 1st October, 2007

Ice Break - Win a Ute

Details

Client: Ice Break
URL: http://www.icebreak.com.au/
Backlink: http://icebreak07.crudigital.com.au/

Launched: 1 October 2007
Agency: Cru Digital & De Pasquale
Project: Microsite, Game & Banner Campaign

Recognition:

Major Features:

  • Very Fluid Interactivity
  • Television Commercials (TVC)
  • Weekly Survey
  • Weekly, Monthly & All Time Scoreboard
  • Send to a Friend and Challenge a Friend Viral Components
  • Game

The Story:

With the design Garth had presented me, I knew exactly how I wanted the site to present itself. The first thing that came to my mind was Jerry Bruckheimer logo video. I wanted to do something a little similar to that.

The next trick was to come up with a development strategy on how the different sections of the microsite were to appear and disappear. As you can see, a few sections “pop-out” on top of the remaining content. The fastest way I thought to pull that off was to use a mixture of traditional animation and actionscripted animation with depth control.

Integrating the game into the full flash microsite didn’t work to plan, as the Flash ontop of Flash just chewed up the system resources. Plan B was to provide the game with a HTML infrastructure and hide the original Flash component. After the game was over, the main Flash component was revealed and had javascript was used as the means of communication between both Flash components.

The banners that were launched for the promotion of this website had connectivity to the main database so the highest scores could be retrieved to entice users to beat it.

Inspiration

Technology Analysis:

  • Flash w/ Actionscript 2
  • PHP w/ MySQL CMS
  • XML
  • Javascript

The Team:

Screenshots

Ice Break HomepageIce Break Competition DetailsIce Break PollIce Break Media PlayerIce Break Game Homepage

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Wow Sight and Sound

Saturday, 14th July, 2007

Wow Sight and Sound

Details

Client: WOW Sight and Sound
URL: http://www.wowwicked.com.au/

Launched: 14 July 2007
Agency: Cru Digital
Project: Flash Retail Superstore Website

Recognition:

Major Features:

  • General Extensive Content
  • DVD Catalogue
  • Catalogue Viewer
  • Bookmarking via Right Click
  • Opening in a New Window via Right Click

The Story:

I don’t know how Garth did it, but he managed to pull out a decent design using 3 primary colours. At the clients request we made the sight very “happening” (to match their tagline - “If it’s not happening at WOW - It’s not happening”) by using their voice-overs, store video footage, bear animations and a high level of interactivity. The toughest part was coming up with a sequence and strategy for it to load as needed, and preload when the bandwidth pipeline was free.

Personally from a project perspective I feel we’ve met the target objective, but from a user’s point of view, I have a different opinion. Unfortunately WOW’s marketing approach is concrete, and our simplified suggestions just didn’t fit.

All in all, i’m somewhat happy with the final outcome. Some of those hurdles can be very hard to jump - oh well - moving on to another event now - long jump ;).

Technology Analysis:

  • Flash w/ Actionscript 2
  • PHP w/ MySQL CMS
  • XML
  • Javascript

The Team:

Screenshots

Wow Sight and Sound HomepageWow Sight and Sound CatalogueWow Sight and Sound Category PageWow Sight and Sound DVD HomepageWow Sight and Sound DVD Search

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Sono Restaurant

Tuesday, 12th June, 2007

Sono Restaurant

Details

Client: Sono Restaurant
URL: http://www.sonorestaurant.com.au/

Launched: 12 June 2007
Agency: Cru Digital
Project: 2 Flash Restaurant Websites

Recognition:

Major Features:

  • 2 Websites using the one Content Management System (CMS) for shared content and media.
  • Designed and developed to be handle all browser sizes.

The Story:

This has to be one of my favourite projects. Usually I get over my projects after a week of the completion. The reason why this one stands out in the pack is because of its principles behind it. It is a great example of maximising web technologies.

With the budget provided for 2 average websites, we devised a plan to use one CMS and spend the time on a single high-end website. The single Flash website was treated like an engine - all the menus and content was fed through the CMS. The CMS was treated like the fuel. Whatever fuel was fed through to the engine producted the final outcome: one being the Brisbane City website and the other was the Portside Wharf version. All the mechanics and layouts were identical.

If further stores were to open all that’d be required are new photos, new content and a new background.

Technology Analysis:

  • Flash w/ Actionscript 2
  • PHP w/ MySQL CMS
  • XML
  • Javascript

The Team:

Screenshots

Sono Restaurant Selection PageSono Restaurant Photo GallerySono Restaurant MenuSono Restaurant Job Application Form

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Berg and West

Friday, 4th May, 2007

Berg and West

Details

Client: Berg and West
URL: http://www.bergandwest.com.au/
Backlink: http://bergandwest.crudigital.com.au/

Launched: 4 May 2007
Agency: Cru Digital
Project: Photography Website

Recognition

Major Features:

  • Unique navigation system

The Story:

It was all about the images. We needed to come up with a method of easily displaying the photography of the 2 photographers, Damien Bredberg and Dean West. The key was to use Flash 9’s full-screen capabilities and devising a fluent, yet comprehensive navigation system separating and categorising both photographer’s works.

Technology Analysis:

  • Flash w/ Actionscript 2
  • PHP w/ MySQL CMS
  • XML
  • Javascript

The Team:

Screenshots

Berg and West Unique NavigationBerg and West Contact Form

http://neilnand.com.thehostingroom.com.au/

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Limbo Auctions

Thursday, 1st March, 2007

Limbo Auctions

Details

Client: Limbo Auctions
URL: http://www.playlimbo.com.au/

Launched: 1 March 2007
Agency: Cru Digital
Project: Flash Reverse Auction Website

Recognition:

Major Features:

  • Real time bidding - with random “Instant Wins”
  • Various bidding methods
  • Registration & Login
  • Real time bid & credit history
  • Live & past auctions with paganation

The Story:

All the dynamic content to this website is delivered through web services, which was new to me. Till now, I was used to using XML and LoadVars methods. After experiencing how web services works, I’m keen to use it again. Its a bit easier and faster making the requests and the same as playing with XML with the response. From a back-end and front-end development perspective, it allowed working parallel faster and more efficient.

Technology Analysis:

  • Flash w/ Actionscript 2
  • ASP.NET
  • XML via Web Services
  • Javascript

The Team:

Screenshots

Limbo Auctions Bidding ConsoleLimbo Auctions Past AuctionsLimbo Auctions Winners Page

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2 Chillies

Thursday, 8th February, 2007

2 Chillies

Details

Client: 2 Chillies
URL: http://www.2chillies.com.au/

Launched: 8 February 2007
Agency: Cru Digital
Project: Fashion Label Website

Major Features:

  • Has a full retail catalogue system, with search and multilevel cataloging
  • An international retailer search and an Australia-only postcode search
  • Polaroid image gallery
  • Deeplinking to a primary level.

The Story

My first retail catalogue! Looking back at this, I’m still satisfied with how it turned out. A lot of thinking went into how I’m going to technically map out the catalogue. I implemented load orders, so the first items would show first, and then carry on loading the consecutive items. Eg: http://www.2chillies.com.au/#1=1=1=-1

At this point of time, I wasn’t confident in taking total control of the feel and flow of the site. Olivia helped me get the ball rolling on this.

This project did cut into my weekend a little bit, but it wasn’t all bad. It was actually my favourite part. Friends were staying down the coast, so on the Sunday when I got the final part complete, I popped down to the Gold Coast. Monday morning, I woke up, went for a dip in the beach, had some brekky with the boys, rocked up to the 2 chillies head office (also on the Gold Coast) still covered in sand on my beach attire, to run through the website, a bit of CMS training and the thumbs up. Then headed back to the studio. I’m sure those casual days are now gone, but at least I can still share the stories of what the early years of Cru were like.

Technology Analysis:

  • Flash w/ Actionscript 2
  • PHP w/ MySQL CMS
  • XML
  • Javascript

The Team:

Screenshots

2 Chillies Intro Animation2 Chillies Product Details2 Chillies Navigation2 Chillies User Error Handling

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LiveIn Real Estate

Friday, 17th November, 2006

LiveIn Real Estate

Details

Client: Live In
URL: http://www.livein.net.au/

Launched: 17 November 2006
Agency: Cru Digital
Project: Flash Real Estate Website

Major Features:

  • Client is able to manage property
  • Property manager facilitates a dynamic floorplan, 3D virtual tour, image gallery based on position on the floorplan, plus more!
  • Links are able to access specific content (deeplink/bookmarking)
  • Users are able to register, rate property, etc.

The Story:

This was my first major full flash website, and as flashers could imagine with the specifications required, this was very painful - but a gaint leap in my skills. Working alongside a sharp PHP & Javascript developer, Steven Miles, we were able to create a bookmarking & history system to dynamic content, similar to how a standard dynamic HTML website would function. One of the other tricky bits was integrating the 3D Quicktime movie, for the virtual tour to the Flash environment with data being fed through the content management system. The dynamic content wasn’t too hard, but getting the Quicktime to flow with Flash was a bit of a pain. Our end result was to have the Quicktime movie sitting on a layer ontop of the flash, with data communication and fluency being handled by javascript.

To see the Quicktime integration in action, go to: http://www.livein.net.au/#show=10=0=0

Click on the spinning eye on the floorplan on the left to activate.

Even though parts got tough. This was a really enjoyable project. We had complete control of the creatives, and with that responsibility we were able to give the website life and character. We did this by creating the “Live In family”. Dean was out in the studio building the scene for photoshoots, and Lisa came up with the scripture and tone for the characters.

Technology Analysis:

  • Flash w/ Actionscript 2
  • PHP w/ MySQL CMS
  • XML
  • Javascript
  • Quicktime

The Team:

Screenshots

LiveIn HomepageLiveIn Property Search Result ListingLiveIn Property Search Result ItemLiveIn User Error HandlingLiveIn User Defined Property Comparisons

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