Inside the ‘brutalist’ design of this crazy agency website

One of the first things you notice at Diko.co, the website of Austin, Texas, creative agency Diko, is the big, fat fly on the screen. It might give you a bit of a shock at first—what the hell is that doing there? But then you move your cursor and you realize the fly is the cursor. Yes, this overgrown bug is your friend—your guide to a very different agency website experience. There was a time when many agencies—Modernista, KesselsKramer, 86 the onions, Mother London, CP+B, etc.—used their websites to show off how different they were. Those days are largely gone, but Diko revives that spirit with admirable zaniness on its newly redesigned site, which features a dizzying array of micro-interactions—what the agency is calling “thought bombs”—to give clients and talent an idea of what the place is all about. Ad Age Creativity Bookmark our section covering the best in brand creativity every day Read more here The site, which unfolds as you scroll down, features neon colors, mismatched typography, videos, GIFs and memes, and gamified agency philosophies, such as “Only people in advertising like advertising,” “Not bad is not good” and “Safe thinking is a dangerous place.” Tiny bombs blow up into flowers when the fly touches them. An “unsubscribe” button for the agency newsletter dodges the cursor, making it impossible to unsubscribe. Amid the cacophony of content, there are just two menu items: “Work” and “FAQ U.” The agency’s press release describes the site as a “joyful assault on the senses that ... blatantly disregards 20 years of widely accepted practices.” Diko Daghlian and Chad Rea, creative directors at the 10-year-old shop—Daghlian is also the founder—were among the site’s prime architects. (It was built by digital design agency Spring/Summer in Denmark.) They told Ad Age that the project is meant to be a reset of sorts. It's a return to doing more offbeat work, and attracting clients who want it. “I’d say we’ve been doing safer work these past few years,” Daghlian said. “This is about getting back to the kind of work we’ve historically done. We’re looking for clients that see themselves in this work and want to do something interesting.” “Making Diko our most important client and showing what we can do without too many cooks in the kitchen to compromise our vision—this is a calling card for talent and clients that like weird shit,” added Rea. They started with a simple mood board. Everyone at the agency threw things in the hopper, and they picked their favorites and started building them out. Visually, the site is a throwback to Tumblr and raw web design, and it also leans into “brutalist” design principles—which essentially means ignoring the rules and embracing a level of chaos. “Web design has become so polished that everything looks the same,” said Daghlian. “Our sensibility is about feeling more in the moment. And ‘in the moment’ always feels like it's been made quickly. There's something going on in culture that you're referencing, so you’ve got to get it out fast.” “UX and UI have made virtually every website on the internet follow the same rules,” added Rea. “We looked to brutalist websites, which is basically, ‘Let's throw all those rules out the window.’ It’s about getting rid of grids and font rules and pleasing color palettes.” There is method to the madness—the “Work” and “FAQ U” boxes are prominent, for those who want a quicker visit. “We still show the work and show what we think. It’s not completely random and esoteric,” Daghlian said. “You still have to have a good user experience.” Daghlian and Rea said it’s hard to pick their favorite interactions, but they do love the bombs that explode into flowers—which were added midway through the two-year design and development process. “It feels good and it's a surprise,” said Daghlian. “When the bombs go by—at least for us, you can't help but want to hit it every time. And then in retrospect, maybe there's a positive statement in there. That when there's a problem, sometimes a good solution—a better thing—comes out of it.” From beer-pouring robots and human cloning to flaming teddy bears and endlessly clickable fortune cookies, Diko.co communicates a certain energy and taste—something Daghlian believes more agencies should be doing. “Our industry often proclaims, ‘Every touchpoint is a chance to build or erode your brand,’” he said. “For us, this is an opportunity to show marketers how we think and execute with our own brand, as our own client. Why so many other agencies aren’t practicing what they preach and continue to put out dull and unimaginative online brochures is a mystery to us.”

Inside the ‘brutalist’ design of this crazy agency website

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