Adobe Flash player was a driving force for creativity in the early days of the web, as well as the delivery mechanism for delivery of animation and rich media digital display advertising units. Designers were able to use simple stage-based animated frames and scenes, and developers had access to powerful scripting frameworks.

The ad:tech industry has now mostly switched over to the less proprietary HTML5-based animations (for easier debugging and battery optimisation).

This is a small selection of my Flash banners, where I have often tried to invoke a sense of utility — because when advertising is done well it is useful.

Visa business credit cards

An actionscript (AS2) Flash-based banner campaign to promote Visa’s credit card for business, these animations were used in many sizes and creative executions. It starts with the real time (retrieved from the user’s computer clock), and increases in speed to give the impression of ‘time flying by’.

Careful attention to detail meant it closely represented both the analogue mechanism and a blurred animation effect, while still being fully generated in real time.

Filesize: 42kb

UBS tracked investments

Rich media banner containing a live stock ticker feed from external source.

Filesize: 42kb

National Booktokens

Mouse-based drawing application delivered as part of display advertising.

Filesize: 184kb

Samsonite Cubelite

The Cubelite premium luggage collection (now re-branded as Lite-cube) started in random locations and utilised a simple collision-detection algorithm — as well as realistic shadows — to generate more visual interest on repeated viewings.

Filesize: 31kb

Dove Body Wash

Multiple layers of blurred raindrops (arranged using Disney’s “multiplane” animation technique to give the impression of depth), artificial steam, three product shots and a logo into a minimum file size.

Filesize: 26kb

Daily Mail Wine Club

The image transition here uses a simple smooth animated mask reveal (controlled programmatically using AS3).

Filesize: 29kb