OK, so work wasn’t being done for the entire 2 plus years, however that was the last time the Flash version of this site was updated. That version (number 2!) garnered many encouraging words from visitors from all over the world including Mexico, India, Japan, Australia, and everywhere in between… But in the internet world over 2 years seems like an eternity and the site was looking pretty dated.

Thankfully that all changes with the new and improved Flash 8 version launching tonight. If you’re not already looking at it, head over there now. On first glance, it may seem very similar to it predecessor, but this new version is actually a considerable evolution. Gone are the brackets and other elements that felt stylistically old and they’ve been replaced with an understated efficient interface geared solely towards getting users to the content they’re after quicker than ever. Of course a rewrite wouldn’t be complete without bells and whistles, and this one has tons of them under the hood. The Flash 8 text engine is utilized for amazingly crisp text, Actionscript 2.0 is implemented, XML parsed from a mySQL database provides the majority of the content, animation is dynamically generated with code, Flash CSS styles text, and, somehow, it still all manages to squeeze into a 77k package easily.

As exciting as this is, there’s still some ways to go before this new design is 100% done. There are a couple minor bugs (hopefully you don’t notice) and some missing sections (like downloads), but expect to see quite a bit of development on this design over the next few weeks where bugs will be squashed and new features added.

In the meantime, enjoy!

Working as a freelance Creative Director with the good people of EURO 4D, I got the pleasure of helping to craft the re-imagining of the members only Guinness 1759 Society for Guinness (a Diageo brand). For years the society was really just a name for their RM program that consisted of unrelated single touches in the form of emails, landing pages, and DM pieces. With their internal team recognizing that the landscape of communicating with consumers has changed since the society’s inception, they saw an opportunity to make a step towards a more genuine conversation.

What launched now is just the tip of the iceberg for the new society. Updated often with new communications and run on member input, I expect the new society site to grow exponentially over the course of the next year or so as it gathers momentum and exclusive, member’s only content. (Like the currently featured Brewmaster commercial outtakes pictured.)

Swing by, sign up, check it out, subscribe to the RSS feed and immerse yourself in a grassroots fueled Guinness experience.