Lift off

Sputnik Design Team’s website pays homage to exploration and human curiosity, a key ingredient of the creative process and characteristic of the agency’s name, derived from humanity’s first satellite. Steering clear of complex structures and animations, the website is focused on ease-of-use and accessibility, an uncomplicated portfolio of work floating in zero gravity. Work is presented as a mixed-media collage of 2D and 3D objects, dotted with quirky visual references of exploration, from astronauts and UFOs to flying ducks and carrier pigeons. To accentuate Sputnik’s unconventional design philosophy, the website features a playful mouse pointer. As users drag the mouse over the projects, the pointer changes into surreal icons characteristic of each piece. Ease-of-use is also mirrored in the website’s rudimentary structure, reduced to just two pages: the collage universe and Sputnik flight manual, an orange one-page section with information about the agency titled with verbal puns on spaceships and exploration.