When web design is good it can be a joy to behold. When web design is great it can be iconic. The latter shouldn’t flatter California’s 2Advanced Studios, particularly as we had the pleasure of crowning them the FWA’s most influential Flash site of the past decade. So what better time for us to have a few words with its hugely talented team and discover the story of how they do what they do?
The latest incarnation of its famous series of company home pages, christened Attractor (V.5), has only recently gone live and looks like the best yet. In the first of a special series of Behind the Scenes interviews we talk shop and get an exclusive glimpse of some of the conceptual design assets that were drawn-up during the site’s production. If you fail to be inspired by this little lot then you need your web designer pulse checking!

EJ: Eric Jordan, chief creative officer
TN: Tony Novak, chief operations officer
CN: Christi Nishiyama, marketing manager

How would you describe 2Advanced Studios and the work you do to anyone who has been scarily ignorant to the web design industry since, well, forever?
TN: 2Advanced Studios is an interactive design firm with 25 employees in the United States and Japan. Our services include Flash design, development, CMS solutions, motion graphics, 3D design, rich media, custom audio and video production. Some of our notable clients include Ford Motor Company, Nintendo of America, O’Neill Clothing, T-Mobile, Warner Brothers and Motorola.

How does the creative team or general 2Advanced operation fit together in terms of the staff base, sites, resources and general setup?
TN: We’re a wacky and fun team that works in the dark (yes, that’s right, no lights allowed in our studio) with stuffed monkeys hanging from the rafters. With 25 employees and about 40 plus projects in our production queue, it’s not unlikely to find one of us asleep on the floor under our desk. We work long hours. But we make sure to dedicate time for 2A beach bonfires, snowboarding/skiing trips in the winter and the occasional jaunt to Vegas to get away from the dayto- day office stresses.

You recently topped the FWA’s recent ‘most influential Flash sites’ poll, emerging as the public’s favourite example from the past decade. How does it feel to get that kind of recognition and is there a pressure attached to having such high standards/expectations applied to the projects you take on?
EJ: To be considered as the most influential site in the past decade of Flash history is truly an incredible honour. There are so many amazing Flash designers that preceded us and so many more that are just being discovered, we’re simply happy that we were able to make a small contribution to a very important time for the internet.
We realise there’s a level of expectation from the design community with regards to 2A work. T he important thing is to not let it get to you. Luckily, we’re so busy we don’t have time to think about it.

Your new (V.5) Attractor site is frankly breathtaking and maintains the tradition for great 2Advanced URLs. How much commitment do you put into designing these presences as a team and why are they clearly so vital to promoting your services?
EJ: It was extremely important for everyone on the team to be involved with the development of V.5. It was a team effort. Everyone put their personal lives on hold and really pulled out all the stops to make it something amazing. I’ve seen the team go 36 hours straight without sleep, live on diets of Redbull and give up weekend after weekend to make it something truly special. I’m proud of V.5 because I see first-hand how much heart and effort was poured into it.
The reason we do it is simple: we need a cuttingedge solution that showcases the broad range of 2Advanced’s talents. V.5 communicates the company’s mission to offer its clients innovative interactive solutions that achieve a careful balance between a superior backend technology and an appealing design style.

How long did V. 5 take to construct? And also, were there any interesting stories attached to its development?
TN: Without a doubt, V.5 was the largest single initiative in 2Advanced history. Pretty much everyone in the studio played some role in the production of version 5. Right up to the end even the 2Advanced Sales Team did their part, assisting with quality assurance testing, bug tracking, asset gathering and CMS database entry.
Originally, it had been anticipated that the entire project would be complete within six weeks; but given that we always tend to be our own worst clients (in that we’re never satisfied), the total time for V.5 was ten weeks of production time . Weeks that comprised of approximately: ten ‘all-nighters’, 314 Red Bulls, $2650 in food, and a total of nearly four thousand man hours.

What particular software tools were used throughout the site’s construction and were there any particular aspects that required certain tools or methods to achieve the desired effects?
EJ: We utilised a host of tools throughout the development of V.5, including: Flash, Photoshop, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Go Live, Illustrator, Cinema 4D, and Maya.

Are there any recent commercial projects you’ve done lately that you’d like to briefly plug a little – such as Capcom’s Lost Planet site and T-Mobile’s myFaves?
TN: We created the Fave-O-Tron rich internet application (RIA) for T-Mobile’s current myFaves campaign. T he fun, light-hearted and quirky RIA walks users through a series of questions to determine the five friends and family members to add to their myFaves unlimited calling plan. O ur 3D artist created a host of incredible avatars for use on the site. T -Mobile found the avatars so valuable that they’ve decided to load them onto every T-Mobile phone sold. So now TMobile users can select our 3D characters as avatars for their friends and family, right on their own phone.

Next month we’ll hear more from 2Advanced about Attractor’s development, what they think of Web Designer and also sample more of their design assets in a special visual scrapbook that chronicles the site’s exciting evolution… don’t miss it!