Very cool layered element trick on this new site by Clearleft. Looks like they’ve anchored stacked elements to alternate sides of the viewport, and then used transparent PNGs in them to get the layered effect. Simple, and yet clever enough that I’ve never seen anyone else think of it before.
Oh, and: what the web doesn’t need is more one-page sites for upcoming web apps that don’t even tell what the app is. Seriously, if I see another one of these, I might shoot myself in the head. The irony, of course, is that I’m totally contributing to the buzz-building they’re looking for by doing this.
Oh well.
001 // Scott McCracken // 02.14.2008 // 1:26 PM
This site was a classic “why didn’t I think of this before?” moment for me.
It’s simple, well-executed and definitely buzz-worthy. How else would a one-page teaser site with no copy generate so much traffic?
002 // Jeff Croft // 02.15.2008 // 1:40 AM
I dunno. I have a ton of respect for the guys at Clearleft and I have no doubt they’ve probably got a really cool little app on their hands. But, something about the whole, “we’ve got nothing but a logo and a sign-up form, but we’re going to make a website anyway” thing is irksome to me. It’s clearly an attempt at buzz-building (and it’s working) — and they certainly have every right to build buzz that way, if they want to. I just wouldn’t do it, personally. If you’re not even ready to say what the app is or does, then, in my opinion, you’re not ready for it to have a website.
But that’s not the worst of it. The worst of it is the people falling for it. I actually read comments like, “Silverback: I don’t know what you are, but I want you.” Really? That’s just insanity. I imagine it’ll be a cool app, and I’m definitely curious to know more about it. But, I think I’ll take a bit of a wait-and-see attitude before I jizz in my pants over a cute Gorilla.
(And yes, it really is a cute Gorilla. Kudos to Hicks for an awesome illustration.)
003 // Paul Annett // 02.15.2008 // 8:37 AM
Hi Jeff
We put the holding page live just for the sake of not having the default domain holding page there - we had no idea that it would get so much attention!
Having said that, I’m obviously delighted that so many people like the design. Believe it or not, I designed the holding page on Wednesday without the neat layered effect. That was a last minute addition which came to me as I was falling asleep that night. I remember being wowed by the parallax scrolling in Sonic the Hedgehog games when I was younger, and I suddenly realised that the same thing could be done fairly easily with CSS and was ideal for the vines on that page. Glad I did it now!
As for not revealing much about the app itself, that’s because its still in aplha and a couple of months from release, so we don’t want to give any secrets to potential competitors just yet!
004 // Jeff Croft // 02.15.2008 // 9:31 AM
Hey Paul — thanks for stopping by! Really, really great work on the site. A lot of great little details to check out! The parallax scrolling trick is brilliant!
Sounds like I was wrong about you guys putting the page up to build buzz, so I stand corrected. It certainly is building buzz, though — so that’s awesome. I totally understand the desire to not have the default domain page there, and I also totally understand you guys not wanting to say anything about the app yet (we at Blue Flavor have projects in the works we’re not prepared to talk about yet, too — so, totally understandable!).
There’s just sooo many of these “coming soon — [insert flashy name here]!” pages out there with no real content on them, and most of them seem to ultimately turn out to be vaporware. So, I guess I’m a little leery and skeptical of that type of marketing. Clearly, lots of other people aren’t, because people seem to be dying to get their hands on Silverback, even without know what it is!
Anyway, hope I didn’t come off to cynical. Definitely not personal or anything. :)
005 // Paul Annett // 02.15.2008 // 11:32 AM
I do agree about there being many of the “coming soon” pages, and it is some kind of phenomenon that they create so much buzz without saying what they’re for. But hey, if it works it works! I’ll tell you what though - if that had been our intention then we would have saved it for closer to the launch date! I’ve certainly learnt the power of word-of-mouth accidental viral marketing ;-)
006 // Thom Shannon // 02.18.2008 // 6:01 AM
It’s a bit like Jon Hicks stuff, the rissington podcast site uses a similar trick.
My guess is it’s some kind of sales/project management with business KPI, obviously it’ll avoid overlap with 37 signals though, possibly integrating with them to add the KPI. Every web agency builds one of these at some point, I’ve done about three so far in my career!
007 // Steven Hambleton // 02.19.2008 // 1:41 AM
I have to admit that I signed up but only because I wanted to know what it was, mostly drawn to the parallax effect.
I don’t agree with not saying anything due to the competition snooping around. What will it reveal if you just say “A stats program”.
For all we know it might be shit or it might be great. The competition wouldn’t benefit in any way from knowing what you were doing.
How you are doing it is another matter all together!
PS. @Paul, Did you use Fireworks to create those vines?