FWA- the eye for talent
By Marc Cadiente
Against a brilliant blue sky, a spacecraft is cradled in its bright red tower and launch pad. Voices from the control tower can be heard checking the conditions of the weather, the massive glistening shuttle, and the crew inside. All is clear—clear as the sky. Then the countdown to launch the space shuttle to the moon begins. A voice crackles from static over the intercom. “Three, two, one, zero…liftoff. We have a liftoff…” while spectators on the ground—hearts thumping, chins quivering, hands raw from applause—witness the eruption of smoke, the powerful roar of rockets, and a seemingly impossible amount of steel being lifted upward and upward and out of sight. This is the historic mission of Apollo 11 that took place on July 16, 1969, recreated in real-time with archival radio transmissions and 3D animation at wechoosethemoon.org to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the event. Even if you weren’t there that day, you can now say you were. It’s a powerful experience made possible through the creativity and technology of the Web.
How about the seemingly simple idea of drawing a song? To the tune of a romantic Spanish melody, the viewer is given the power to—yes, draw a song—create a new landscape in which the song can exist, an experience that is memorable, unique and personal.
Millions of sites exist, but for a handful to standout—to be an experience—it must be “a site or project that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck within one minute of seeing it. One that makes you sit up straight in your chair. One that makes you turn the sound [up] on your computer. One that makes you email people and ask if they have seen it. One that makes you send an invite to submit to [Favourite Website Awards] if they haven’t already. One that has the X-Factor,” said Rob Ford, founder of FWA.
From its site, “FWA is an industry recognized award program and inspirational portal, based in England, and is one of the world’s leading website recognitions. FWA is widely recognized as the number one achievement for innovative Web design through the Site of the Year award.” Indeed, the site is an archive of innovative design, interactive invitations and thought-provoking ideas—a sort of yearbook of inspiration and excitement.
FWA, the brainchild of Rob Ford, started after the agency he founded in 1997, treecity.co.uk, was shortlisted for a Yell UK Web Award in 2000. At the time, the Yell UK Web Award was the most sought-after award run by Yellow Pages. “I got an amazing buzz being nominated for a top UK award, but also realized the failings of many Web awards at the time,” Ford recalled. “I set up FWA, to focus on the sites that were award-worthy rather than the awards themselves.” There are millions of sites, and for many of them, a designer or team of designers spends endless hours creating an environment that captures one’s eye, holds one’s attention, ignites one’s imagination, and makes one lose his breath. In May of 2000, Favourite Website Awards was established as a way of showcasing these—the most cutting-edge and pioneering online projects.
Ten years and over 100 million visits later, FWA is still following the same principal. FWA bases its selections on: Design 40%, Navigation 25%, Graphics 15%, Content 15%, and Personality 5%. Judges for Site of the Year are picked personally by Ford. “I have built up an incredible network of contacts over the last fourteen years and the biggest issue I have is who not to ask, to keep the numbers down,” Ford said. Site of the Day judges are picked by putting out a request on Twitter, asking for previous FWA winners who want to be judges. “You’d be amazed at how many apply. I put the request up at the weekend as I am always looking for people like myself… those who work whatever day of the week it is.”
For Ford, FWA has meant endless hours of work. “In the early days I did everything. I built the website, promoted it, worked 24/7.” Ford spent a lot of time scouting sites himself. Eventually, he assembled a team of scouts, but for about the last five years, FWA has received submissions from agencies and companies directly. “It’s quite rare for us to look for sites now. Most agencies submit to FWA as soon as their projects go live. We have never awarded sites without prior permission or submission as it’s potentially risky, especially as you can take a site’s server down with the amount of traffic a Site of the Day mention can generate. We actually took down a Volkswagen site a few years ago.”
It was only when FWA launched the recent version of the site in March 2010, did Ford’s work begin to lessen and he finally got some time to himself. “I didn’t have a holiday for ten years and not even a single day off for sickness.” FWA was not only a passion but the natural next step in Ford’s career. He was one of the early adopters of Flash, using it to create treecity (screen captures from the site in 1999 is a testament that Web design has come a very long way). “I have always been interested in progression, whether in computer games, fashion, music and even gardening. The Web just took me in a new direction.”
To help promote the project, Ford looked to design portals such as ThreeOh, PixelSurgeon and K10K to get the FWA link mentioned. Most of these portals are now defunct or just a shadow of what they used to be, so the success of the project depended on the project itself.
And the payoff was huge. Today, FWA is “the most visited website award program in the history of the Internet, with over 75 million site visits as of January 2010 and an estimated additional 30 million per year.” Ford never thought it would be this successful. “It has grown by word of mouth alone. I have never advertised. It has been a lot of very hard work over a long period of time. I lost all of my 30s to FWA!”
With success came sponsorship offers. Many major brands, including Coca-Cola, Sony, Adobe and Microsoft wanted to tap into FWA’s audience, however deals were not struck with any of the companies. Ford looks at this as a good thing. He attributes the site’s long term success and longevity to the fact that he created a robust business model around FWA and stayed a single entity—not joining forces with other people, portals, or big brands. “It’s rare to get any sort of deal off the ground as most of the [companies] think that the brand association is enough and that FWA should roll over and give them what they want, with little to nothing in return. [A] reason why being independent is important—the lure is never as great as being in control of your own destiny. I am always keen to find sponsorship but it is a rare thing these days.” Ford is clear to state that FWA has never been about making money. The first six years of the site’s existence was financed from his own savings, and despite the lack of sponsorships, advertising revenue and site submission fees help support the project. “I will never give up to a big brand unless the offer is perfect for both the FWA brand and FWA’s loyal users.”
True to his word, the FWA site offers exactly what it seeks in other websites—interesting, innovative and fresh content that is easily accessible. And that’s the lure that has its audience coming back time and time again. Now that the project has many more automated processes, Ford has the time to look at new initiatives. He has regular pages in magazines in countries including China, Korea, Netherlands, Japan, etc., and he writes a regular column for Adobe, which helps keep attention on FWA. Ford is also in talks with possibly the hottest agency in the world right now about creating a press pack for FWA.
Still it’s the websites that excite Ford. They are, after all, the reason why he started FWA. There’s for instance a site for Vodafone (http://demo.northkingdom.com/vodafonefuturevision/), a European mobile company, which offers a hundred new possibilities of communicating, integrating the system into every aspect of our lives and customizing it to our own personal needs. It doesn’t sound any different from what other mobile service offers—and perhaps it isn’t. So what makes it so special? It’s the delivery of the message. The site excites the viewer. It invites the viewer to take a journey into the future, creating the possibility of simplicity and ease in our lives that both soothes and excites us. That is the power that some sites have, and the Vodafone site is privileged to have Ford call it “one of the very few pioneering sites in the history of the Web.” And he should know—he explores and sees the best of the best every day.
Today—or maybe any other day at the FWA office—the world is peaceful. The PC hums steadily as the keys on the board are tapped. An occasional bark can be heard from a distant dog. But the cyber worlds that are being explored include Sean Connery-esque adventures thousands of feet below the ocean surface in a Navy submarine; colorful furry “Things” that teach children about genetics; a fashion show in Japan you direct yourself; and simply an unbridled view of the future. A typical day at the office. “The atmosphere is in the interactive ether…even though you can’t see it, you can definitely feel it.”
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