With the fifteenth anniversary of the banner ad’s debut occurring last month, we thought it would be a good time to ask our art director, Jeremy Williams, for some quick thoughts on the past and future of the display ad.  We asked the same from our creative director, Jeremy Pope.  You can check out his responses here.

My general take on the first 15 years of banner ads is the very first banner ads were pretty crummy.  Animated gifs are the first banner ads I remember having to build, consisting of 8 to 10 different frames, to be used to build these really underwhelming little banners.  That was the worst part of those early banners—they were so archaic.  No one really put a lot of design into them.

Going forward, the biggest thing with them now, I think, is that they are more cross-sell.  Obviously more flash is available for browsers.  You’re going to be getting a lot more creative with banner ads.  A lot more banners, for example, are using takeover, where they grow and fill up more of the page.  The banners are now and will continue to have more creativity driving them, although there are still a lot of crummy banner ads out there.

They are probably not as widely popular as they used to be because back when they first started, banners were all the rage because there really wasn’t anything else.  Now with Google Analytics and the like, advertisers don’t necessarily need them as much as they did when they first debuted.  Done right, however, they can still be effective.

I was asked recently what I thought had made the most impact this year on website design. For me, I think the top trend of 2008 so far has been the strong swing from the use of table based coding to full CSS coding for building websites. The increased use of CSS has enabled the creation of designs that can be manipulated quickly and easily over an entire website. Thanks to CSS, web builders now have the ability to switch out an entire design of a website for an entirely new one at a previously unheard of speed.

The true power that CSS can give designers is illustrated by CSS Zen Garden, a website that posts a challenge to its visitors to use its code to create a completely different design for the site. The wide range of user created spins on the website’s design featured on CSS Zen Garden provides a perfect set of examples illustrating the diversity that is possible when designers use CSS. From just the set of code used for CSS Zen Garden, over 200 unique websites have been created.

As the popularity of CSS coding takes hold and its use becomes the norm, brands will be able to have their websites keep their content intact while receiving a full design makeover much more rapidly than ever before. Sites may still need to develop fresh content over time but thanks to CSS coding, making these sites look brand new will not be the time-consuming task that it once was.

As Director of Creative Services here at LeapFrog Interactive, I’ve gotten the opportunity to work on several fun and exciting interactive contest campaigns for our clients over the years. In my experience, these kinds of promotions can net great results for businesses. One particular challenge that affects me and my team in Creative Services is maintaining brand compliance on an interactive contest campaign. It’s our responsibility to ensure that if we have to add images, audio or video content that doesn’t currently exist in the client’s digital asset library, those files are always 100% consistent with their brand style.

That’s where the brand personality approach really pays off. If you understand the brand as a three-dimensional persona, you have the depth of understanding to extend the digital assets as needed without going off-brand. Sometimes, you have to appeal to the consumer represented by that brand personality, rather than what the client’s personal preference would be, but if they agree that it fits the brand personality, then that’s the direction you take. It adds a more objective layer and guideline to the subjective design process.

User experience is another area for concern in interactive contest creative development. Any design element that causes friction or prevents the user from submitting their email address is a roadblock. In addition to interfering with building the consumer database, it also represents a gap in user experience. If the user didn’t complete the action we expected it means we need to look at the design again, figure out why, and determine what changes to make.

Finally, it’s important to know how far to push the overt brand elements on a contest site. Applying the brand style needs a certain level of subtlety and sophistication. If you push the direct branding too hard, it becomes intrusive to the user experience. But it needs to be obvious enough that users remember not just that it was a fun contest, but a contest presented by your client’s brand. Striking the right balance can be tough, but it’s important not to go overboard in either direction/

We’re seeing a lot of client interest in developing mini-sites lately, so I thought we could touch on a few things that we’ve learned can make the most of a mini-site.

Keep it timely.  Mini-sites work best for limited time promotions, such as short-term sales events, contests or sweepstakes.

Keep it short.  It’s called a mini-site for a reason–don’t give in to the temptation to try and fit “one more thing in.”  A main landing page, a page for the legal stuff (terms and conditions, privacy policy, etc.), a form page so that folks can either enter the promotion or contact you about it, and perhaps one more page for detailed information or for “follow up” information (for example, a gallery of submissions for a photography contest or a page that lists the winners of a sweepstakes.

Show the way home.  Don’t forget to include a way to get to your main site, and make sure it’s visually clear.

Pump it up.  A mini-site can have great viral potential.  Be sure to promote it in any social media marketing you participate in.

Be as engaging after the click as before.  Pay attention to the “ancilliary creative,” the submittal success page and any transactional emails.  Don’t abandon the user once he or she has converted with a generic, uninspired “Thanks for your submission” page or email.

Mini-sites can be a great way to expand your online marketing presence for big awareness pushes, without the need to redesign or significantly alter your main corporate site.  When well-executed, they can be fast, fun and effective interactive marketing.

They should be grateful that at least it isn’t a disaster on-par with the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

And that’s about the best that can be said about the 2012 London Olympics logo.  Universally derided as a confusing mess, it’s hard to believe someone wrote a check for $796,000 for what may be the worst Olympic logo ever. Not just bad design, the logo is downright hazardous (and possibly seizure-inducing.)

Design can be abstract and effective, evoking a positive emotional response through color, movement, line and pattern.   But this clearly isn’t effective.  All it’s clearly trying to convey is the number 2012, and most viewers can’t even make that out.