One design I like is the DC Comics website. It mixes simplicity and functionality while still embracing the colorful products which it’s used to promote. Other publisher sites tend to go overboard, jamming up the screen with their characters while DC went with the minimalist approach; settling for their logo, a promo image for the big event of the week, and a scrolling gallery of the current week’s covers for easy clickable access to those books as well as having their title appear on a rollover.
The other areas of the site are access via text menus down the side for news and other content and across the top for all of the publisher’s imprints. Each subsequent page on the site continues the minimalist approach, using a clean san serif font combined with an image or two. This allows a majority of the viewer’s focus to go towards the important information at the center of the screen, relying on the images to just keep the page from being boring. Everything is very clearly and plainly laid out to maintain that central balance, so the appropriate topics can be found and easily clicked to go to a desired section of the site. The best part is, their information is organized in such a way that you can access it with only one click, rather than being taken to a page of additional sub-sections.
I like this because many publishers try to go all out with the comicbook-themed design, sacrificing functionality and clarity for fanfare. You make comics, we get it; don’t shove it down our throat. The most important thing the websites should convey is who they are, what they make, and where to find them. All of that is exactly what the DC site does. It lets their books speak for their creativity, making the website just a gateway to them for the consumers.
