Ryan's take on the competition-

RISD-
The navigation changes from the splash to the landing pages. Changing from in-the-photo to below-a-masthead-photo and a left hand menu. I also think that the moving menu text on the front page is annoying, and while it might be fine for the undergrads, there are links for parents, grad students, and people looking to give money. They deserve something more traditional. I also like the videos, but they do not have any prominence on the screen I had to really search to know they were there. All in all, the only part that led my eye anywhere was the moving text and the flashes of saturated orange on an already warm colored photo (all the photos were white balanced towards warm) They then under-used these contextual clues on the landing pages, with no moving text and various shades of orange which might or might not signify a link. Overall, I think it's well structured, and delivers the right message. "RISD is focused on the students who study here." And the pictures and video testimonials do that job. However, the consistency of color meaning as well as video-game-y finnicky navigation leave something to be desired.

Mass Art-
The design isn't liquid, it stays anchored to the left side regardless of how big your monitor or computer window is. The menu isn't very inviting and seems institutional, and the blurred desaturated photo behind the text is a very poor solution to problems of readability. The pages that follow are text heavy and uninteresting. All in all, I find it unimpressive.

School of Visual Arts
While I like how they have new/current work and exhibitions available I found the design, cluttered and unwilling to make hierarchical choices. I can't help but ask where they are trying to lead my eye. The color scheme is uninviting and we get an unfortunate amount of "type-soup" with the many changing banners in the center column. If you add the amazingly bad new continuing ed campaign (page curl? a teddy bear artist?) to the story, I truly am wondering what has happend to SVA.


Boston University College of Fine Arts
One of the best landing pages of the group with a color scheme that seems to carry on the color meaning to the different fine arts departments. While it might be a little bit sparse and have a lot of whitespace I think it makes the site feel elegant.




Parsons – The New School
A bit too "tech" feeling for me. But is easily navigable and well laid-out. While the BU CFA felt more elegant this feels a little cold.








Montserrat
So boring I thought it was 1998 again. The logo, the colors, the whole site put me to sleep. They are in serious need of a redesign.







SCAD
Not bad though a little generic. I think they could do more to lead the eye to the navigation and to make stringer use of color. All in all though this is a clean well done site with good navigation.







Pratt
Let me add my voice to the "I hate this site" chorus. Not much to say other than the right side navigation when seen on a wide screen 24 inch LCD becomes ludicrous. Right-align done totally wrong. The Pratt name often becomes unreadable, and the expanding left nav obscures the page and becomes unusable. This is just bad.