arkitrave :: log

I didn’t realize I needed a private jet before yesterday, but my eyes were opened by the compelling copy and the AMAZING photography in netjet.com’s (pdf) brochure. The price is right, too, starting at just $450,000 ownership cost for 1/16 ownership, and monthly and flying fees.

Once you understand the extent to which having your own aircraft gives you total freedom and control to travel when and where you want, there isn’t a person in the world who wouldn’t want one…When you acquire your own private jet, air travel becomes effortless. You obtain unprecedented control and flexibility to travel according to your own schedule. It gets you to places you might not otherwise be able to reach…Whatever reason you choose to use a private jet, it allows you to respond immediately. “Maybe” becomes “definitely.” “Later” becomes “now.” “Why?” becomes “Why not?”

I know money wasn’t much of an object with this brochure preparation, but I think the photography is stunning. I’m sold, just on the brochure (if I could just find that pesky half-million that keeps getting away from me).

That said, the website doesn’t really fit such a high-class business. It’s got a mediocre Flash intro, with ugly multi-colored flags above (which are the only place the brochure can be downloaded, and in multiple languages), and when the intro finally dumps you into the site, it’s rather bland and undifferentiated. The logo is simple—nothing wrong with that—but the softness and blur that is so beautifully featured in the brochure doesn’t find its way into any of the website graphics. Perhaps one simple problem is the lack of a background color beyond the fixed-width of the page; the expanse of white in my largish Safari window doesn’t excite me.

I think the real problem, however, is that the brochure photography is HUGE and carries the brochure succesfully even though the brochure text is minimal (and antialiased, which helps).

When transitioning to a webpage, where photography has to be smaller because of page load times, the resultant minimal treatment of everything else feels cheap.

I won’t talk about the code. It’s scary.

But I mention it as an illustration of how difficult it is to work between print and web design. The same people were probably responsible for both web and brochure, and they hired an awesome photographer. But, the photography, which is what makes me start to get goosebumps and want to mortgage my house (15 times) and sign on the dotted line, isn’t able to communicate on the website. It’s nice, but it isn’t breathtaking.

And if you’re trying to sell airplanes, breathtaking is a good goal to aim for.

(by the way, I’m not dead, just working extremely hard on my thesis, the reasons for all the dust that has settled around here lately.)