Welcome to Richard Ho’s portfolio website, home to his favourite past projects including award wins and highlights. Richard originally started his career in London, UK, as Interactive Designer, steadily developing his experience in Digital Design and the Media-Rich User Interactive Experience. Now, in a senior position as Art Director, he was last seen in Toronto actively doing what he likes to do best. Casually browsing through? Simply click left or right to browse through the Gallery. To see in more detail where Richard spent his time, please select a time period from the main menu. For optimal viewing experience, this website is designed to fit 1440x900 screen resolution. The latest Flash player is required. Feedback or suggestions welcome!   Copyright © 2008 Ephemeraldreams.com. All rights reserved.

On the summit of graduating with a BA(hons) in Communication Design, Richard and a fellow peer decides to embark on a journey to dream up a diverse and persistent multi-user world for 'British Telecommunications ADSL Student Contest'. The prototype was aimed at a target audience of 11-18 and won 1st Prize.

Role: Art Direction, Design & Animation CREATED a brand new website for 'Britshorts' – Europe's Premier Short Film Studio. Worked closely with the Information Architect and CSS Developer to design highly stylized and user engaging templates that were easy to update and conformed to Web Usability design standards. Developed the animation spots and directed the music as well as liase directly with clients to present and discuss creative concepts, storyboards, animations and final designs at each stage of the review cycle. RESULT: Won the Silver Lion at the Cannes Cyber Lions 2001 Festival and featured as pick-of-the-week on Linkdup.com.

Richard never once forgot about Britshorts for the next couple of months and when news arrived that it had won a Silver Lion he was absolutely ecstatic.

Role: Design, Illustration & Animation ILLUSTRATED and DESIGNED the creative concept for the ‘NIKEPARK’ mini CD-ROM game. Brainstormed with a core team of Multimedia Developers and worked under an extremely short timeframe to produce 5 mini-games. Repurposed the original poster artwork to create all game levels, interface designs, intro and product sections. Lead a team of Illustrators to recreate new artwork traced from the original television spot. RESULT: Over 250,000 copies of the CD-Rom were printed and distributed over London’s regional NIKEPARK events. Game artwork featured on Adobe®’s Prestigious Design Showcase.

With NIKEPARK featured on Adobe®’s website, Richard felt that perhaps this recognition is better measured by the individual's who worked late, ate pizzas, played Quake and slept under their desks.

Role: Art Direction, Design & Interactive Development DESIGNED and DEVELOPED the website for 'Technics1210' with De-Construct, London UK. Collated and organized 30 years of dance history and integrating culture with product. Brainstormed and designed the ‘Sound Flyer’ online mixing desk to help drive viral traffic and spread affinity to the brand via users. Proposed that user generated music be used for merchandizing. RESULT: Attracted over 100,000 unique visitors during the initial 10 week campaign, 20% of those visitors returned more than once and Technics created a database of 30,000 email addresses. Awarded Macromedia® Shocked Site of the Day.

Finally! Macromedia® Shocked Site of the Day. More importantly, this project was the final time Richard had the chance to work with the original team from Deepend.

Role: Art Direction ORGANIZED and led a design team to re-design an e-commerce website for ‘RedLetterDays.co.uk’ with Poke, London UK. Interviewed and hired designers, supervised and art directed the design team, reviewed and approved artwork, photography and information architecture. Liaised with clients and their technical staff to present, discuss and manage delivery of creative assets for implementation. RESULT: A re-architected and re-designed website that is both sleek and user-centric which engaged users and helped facilitate sales. Reviewed in Revolution Magazine who praised the website as "… emerging as an industry standard".

Revolution magazine had this to say: “I remember wrestling with the old site last Christmas, only to give up and join the call centre queue. The company's revamped offering adopts the clean and unfussy design that seems to be emerging as an industry standard for commerce sites: lots of white space, discreet use of colour - red, unsurprisingly - and idiot-proof navigation. The proof of any e-commerce site is in the transaction, and Red Letter Days doesn't disappoint.” November 06, 2002 RICHARD HALSTEAD, Corporate Development Manager at Virgin Wines

Role: Art Direction, Design & Illustration ART DIRECTED and PRODUCED an isometric racing game for ‘Civic Nation’s Suzuka Challenge’ for Honda Canada. Directed the 3D modeling of the vehicles that appear in the game and led a creative team to design and produce the interface design, all in-game graphics, artworks and illustrations. Liaised and provided direction to interactive partners Crash Media, Toronto, in the development of the racing game mechanics. Play tested and quality assured prototypes and assisted in design and artwork. RESULT: A simple yet addictive racing game that appealed to everyone from driving enthusiasts to Soccer Moms. Awarded Merit at the ADCC 2005 Awards and published in Taschen's ICONS Web Design: Flash® Sites.

We wanted to push the envelope on the feeling the game had with panning and zooming and motion, which was influenced by the method in which racing is televised. It provoked good feelings and a small victory at the ADCC 2005 Awards.

Getting your work featured in a Taschen publication felt great. Yet again, a testament to the hard work from everyone involved.

Role: Art Direction, Design, Animation & Illustration ART DIRECTED the ‘Lancer Earth’ website for Mitsubishi. Led the design team to create storyboards and directed all 3D video scenes – taking the 08 Lancer across Canada, USA, Germany and Japan. Liaised with clients to present and discuss concepts, storyboards and designs. Art directed and oversaw production of video, music, narrations, 2D/3D artwork as well as illustrations, designs and interactive development. Art directed the interactive banner campaign. RESULT: A seamless fully interactive 3D video experience that utilizes the latest in AS3 technology. Won Favorite Website Award: Site of the Day on theFWA.

Congratulations to everyone for bringing home Site of the Day from theFWA.