The latest issue of Step Inside Design featuring the 2008’s Best of the Web should be on a newsstand near you now. After reading the issue and looking through their picks, I came away feeling disappointed that they’ve picked these 43 websites as the very best the web has to offer.

Of the winning selections, 28 are completely Flash-based sites, only eight are HTML-based (some of those are hybrid HTML/Flash sites), four are videos (including a PowerPoint posted to YouTube), two are reels and there’s one lonely banner.

I’ve created a little infographic (above) illustrating the relative number of entries for each category… and I have to ask again; does this really reflect the very best content the web has to offer? Judging purely on eye candy (aka function following form), maybe…. although a scan through the FWA will reveal many more worthy candidates. Thinking about it from the perspective of the sites you might visit for more than a few minutes and actually use on a daily basis, definitely not. And don’t get me started on including reels and videos as examples of good web design… did they get their entry forms confused?

There are so many sites that take complex data and interactions and boil them down to easy to use, elegantly designed interfaces—sites that don’t require pokey preloaders, “skip intro” and “enter site” links and “innovative” navigation schemes—sites like Evernote, Vimeo, the ubiquitous Twitter, Tumblr, and many, many more.

I know the judges are working with what they’re given, so it’s hard to knock them. Still, I’d like to see a better cross-section of the web in the future. Is it just me?

If you want to judge for yourself, here’s a list of all the winners:
Judge’s picks:
www.thinkaboutit.com (It looks like the domain registration has lapsed on this one), www.digitalvaults.org, www.hornallanderson.com

Flash:
www.adobe.com/creativelicense, www.anode.com, www.antics.com, http://bbbf.archrival.com, www.torkrevolution.com, www.290mulberry.com/#/Nolita, www.hbovoyeur.com, www.luminafoundation.org/latinos, www.mofo.com/career, www.ebd.com, www.shearsadkins.com, www.eyeballnyc.com, www.166perryst.com, www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/multimedia/interactive/infosecurity/index, www.bakemaniacakes.com, www.1201k.com, www.HL2.com, www.nsfclothing.com, www.virginfestival.com/2007/btb_sampler/pre/, www.cuspconference.com/2008, www.d4wgear.com/bc/d4w/index.html, www.groundinc.com, www.ge.com/innovation/nano, www.ge.com/innovation/aviation, www.cat.com/cda/layout?m=8703&x=7&f=177263

HTML:
www.aigadc.org/showoff, www.gallup.com, www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience, www.sciarc.edu, www.vulcanmotorclub.com, www.earthpledge.org, www.alaska.si.edu, www.poetryfoundation.org

Video:
www.antics.com/awards/Best_of_Web_2008/AMD/index.html, http://langtoncherubino.com/blog/2008/02/25/53/, www.nicespots.com/nicespots/webReels/index.php?webReelID=578&webReelShareEmailID=88&webReelShareID=1172, www.nicespots.com/shortURL.php?id=103018

Reel:
www.firebellydesign.com/animation_reel2007.php, www.hzdg.com

Banner:
www.client.struckcreative.com/skiUtah/banners/oldMan/index.html

I watched a few minutes of Adult Swim tonight and I was exposed to a whole crop of new (to me) commercials.

Given the political season and an inability to distract myself from the up-and-downs of the day-to-day drama, this spot easily caught my eye. After checking out each candidate’s site (kitten, baby) — I still have no idea what’s in store, but I’ll probably check it out on October 21st. It’s hard to top the absurdity of real-life politics, but it looks like they might come close.

In the last month’s issue of STEP Inside Design, their closing column, Room 650, issued a challenge to rethink Corporate logos. Given the political season, I thought it might be fun to rethink the RNC logo, so I mashed it up with the old Sinclair logo, fired it off to STEP and promptly forgot about it.

Flipping through this month’s issue (Sept – Oct), I was pleasantly surprised to see my logo gracing the pages.

For those who hang on my every sporadic word via a feed reader, you may want to take some time to peruse the new site. I’ve put a fresh coat of shellac on the little bugger, with special attention paid to the popular fonts and portfolio pages.

My goal was to push the boundaries of traditional web layout and apply a magazine-style grid to bits of the site, which was relatively easy to achieve with the help of the handy Blueprint CSS framework. As time allows, I hope to push the blog format in this direction, too (à la JSM).

In Other News

Never to be outdone, IDEO beat me to the punch by about a week with the launch of their new site.

They’ve done an superb job of bringing a massive amount of fascinating content to the foreground while maintaing an easy-to-use, eminently browsable interface. Inspiring all around.

*regarding the title of the post, totally kidding.

This is a pretty incredible microsite for Coke Zero built by the gang at North Kingdom. It’s a really smooth integration of rich streaming video combined with basic controls that add up to a surprisingly playable set of games.

If you can pull yourself away from the games, North Kingdom has posted a nice behind the scenes look at the production.

It’s very reminiscent of Dragon’s Lair — if Dragon’s Lair actually worked. It only took 25 years to get it right.