Website: CA Design
Activity: French Graphic Design Agency
Address: www.ca-design.fr
Purpose: Present Agency and Attract Clients

Of so many websites I look through everyday, it's refreshing to see a project as sleek and refined as this website for CA Design, a Paris-based graphic design agency. It's actually the work of my friend and fellow graphic designer Matthew Phillips, whose modern and clean style always really stands out. In this site, he's opted for a simple layout with strong color combinations and carefully thought-out typography.

Much of the strength of the site comes from the decision to keep the content concise and concrete. An overview of the agency, its services, and portfolio selections are efficiently summarized within the bright page layout. You quickly get a good feel for their design philosophy and approach.

My favorite part, though, is the subtle optical aspect. It brings to mind 1960's Op Art principles which concentrated on color contrasts and geometric patterns to tease the viewer's eye into falsely perceiving movement, vibration or pulsating. The bright color transitions of the site already have a hypnotic quality about them, but it goes further than that.  If you focus on the exact center of the page during the color transitions, you'll see that the surrounding neutral gray appears to slightly change tint. It's a fantastic trick on peripheral vision that makes this a visually provocative experience.