[RANT] So today during my Upper Schools (High School)'s assembly, a guy who works at this web company called “Free Range Studios” came to talk. At first I was excited to some degree to see what this guy and this company were able to do. However, they showed their newest project, and well. The execution was not bad at all, but the message of the video (which was to destroy consumerism in the US… I live in the US BTW… The point of the video was to say that Consumerism in the US IS BAD AND IS DESTROYING THE WORLD… There were so many points that I disagreed with…) was completely off and really quite out there. Anyway, my rant isn’t with that video.
It’s with this “Free Range Studios” company… I talked with the guy afterwards and traded business cards with him (haha). I just checked out their site and well, I’m disappointed to say the least. Their site’s here
Well, I read through their HTML site first. I was okay with their print and logo stuff. Their websites aren’t bad considering they are for huge organization like the ACLU and Greenpeace. However, what is atrocious is that they call themselves a “Interactive Media” company as well that specializes in Flash… Just check out their flash stuff and be dumbfounded because they are so bad… Seriously. I almost cried at how bad their flash work was, and somehow they do these videos for HUGE and IMPORTANT organizations. How they land these jobs, I can only wonder in amazement.
Then, checked out their flash portfolio. All I can say is that its just bad…worse than bad actually. Just plain ole horrible. I can’t believe a company like this even bothers to keep that flash version up there when its so freaking bad. Finally, another thing that really bothered me is that none of their websites used semantically correct (X)HTML/CSS (they didn’t even use CSS)… It’s all tables! (I do think however that tables are good for certain things like displaying data.) However, for a company that deals with important and huge organizations like Greenpeace, how on earth can they get away from making sites that aren’t accessible and probably literally coded in Dream Weaver (using the site creator options, not hand coding it)? IMO, I think if a site like engadget.com (Which is a total mess, with information everywhere) can at least be somewhat accessible, look clean, and not use tables, I’d at least expect this company to be able to do the same…
Okay, this may be an extreme reaction, and I might be plain ole stupid in even bringing this up. But, I just happen for some reason to have some real beef with this company. My bottom line is I don’t understand how a company like this who cannot create accessible/non-tables (Well, I might take this back…) and cannot really create effective flash videos land contracts with some of the biggest non-profit groups on the planet… WTF is all I can say!
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Sorry guys if you think I went overboard.