Random Culture

Gucci: Web 2.0 Redesign

Flash is basically a staple for high-end fashion websites. This is because the "cool" factor flash provides is one of the most important goals many fashion brands have for their website. Gucci, however, is shaking things up a bit. They've redesigned Gucci.com to retain the "cool" animations and effects, but they haven't used a lick of Flash, it's all Javascript and Ajax. Interesting to see the types of "cool" transitions and dynamic behaviors that aren't solely the domain of Flash.

Link via Adverblog.

Diesel Jewelery Site

Diesel has launched a new jewelery line, and a new site for the effort: Diesel.com/jewellery. It's certainly a unique site in the jewelery retail space. The site was created by hi-res and Geoff  Lillemon from Oculart.

Does it tell you anything about the jewelery? Not really, but it certainly lets you see the product, and gives you a feel for the style they're going for. Since Diesel really only sells watches online, they don't need to be bogged down with "product information" or a "shopping cart."

Louis Vuitton Guerrilla

Apparently, Louis Vuitton needs saving. Despite skyrocketing profits, they've enlisted the help of some very enthusiastic college students, willing to work for fee in the service of their guerrilla marketing efforts.

Here's a pretty good breakdown of how Louis Vuitton showed up at Yale, including some conversations with the people who carried it out. This raises some pretty interesting questions... I can't help being a little put off by the whole "save louis" theme, but I'd be interested to hear about student reactions in general to this particular incident.

Link via Agenda Inc.

Sony Luxury Brand

PSFK  posts about Sony's launch of a new luxury brand, Qualia. What does Qualia mean? It's ephemeral at best, as you can see in the wikipedia definition.

The Qualia US site only contains a few products at the moment. While I find the idea behind this impressive... this doesn't seem like a very impressive start.