Cranky Cog Studios
Happy Cog Studios redesign. Cranky Cog Studios launch. Ouch!
UPDATE [17/02]: Nice one guys, I should have guessed!
Read more about the redesign on Jeffrey Zeldman's blog post, and continue through the comments. There are quite a lot but that number I assume includes the trackback stuff. Here's one I read with interest:
This is a trainwreck. What's with all the recent web design accolades for sites following the unspoken WordPress/MT/etc. visual "stylebook"? I'm all for standards-based design, but this is aesthetically painful. I know this circle of congratulation is easy to perpetuate, but can someone please think about the visual aspect of web design instead of slapping a country typographer's theme on a well thought out site blueprint and then blogging their brains out about the result? I hate to be so harsh, but dear god... it pains me to see such back patting over something that looks so bad.
Zeldman's response?
Peel me another grape.
Excluding A List Apart, I've never been a big fan of their style (note not design) and this redesign is no exception. It doesn't engage or entice me enough to click past the home page. I don't like the italicized headers which fade into the background too much, disserving their purpose on the page. And then something about the press testimonial holding so much weight - maybe it would be more relevant if "Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann" (the particular one that loaded at random) rang a bell? Or maybe it's just that my past experiences with those kinds of testimonials begin with an e-mail to clients:
Hi, we're redesigning our site, please write something nice about us for our home page?
But overall it's clean and conservative and I can't fault that.
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12 Comments
The header looks awfully like French Toast Girl. Note the water colour effect.
Not a fan at all!
Ouch is right! I noticed the redesign, but hadn’t caught the “Cranky Cog” site. I’m not that fond of this new look either, but since I can’t do any better I should probably just not say anything. I do like A List Apart, and some of their other work though, including most of their blogs. Greg Story’s “Airbag Industries” is one of my all time favorites.
@Mark: it bear a resemblance to French Toast Girl’s header because they are both abstract watercolor textures. That’s about it :D
I see that toasty site is up for the Best-Designed Bloggie Mark. Nice art, but is it design? ;) Hmm ok enough award talk around here.. yeugh.
@Jason: Thats why I said “Note the water colour effect”. I’m by no means saying the whole site looks anything like French Toast.
I just don’t think its that amazing, and it certainly doesn’t deserve all the arse kissing in the comments.
@Mark: “I just don’t think its that amazing, and it certainly doesn’t deserve all the arse kissing in the comments.”
That’s fine :D
Good design doesn’t need to be amazing, it needs to be appropriate for its purpose, and this design works very well for us.
Jalen: So spill the beans on the Cranky Cog spoof – PR stunt? Greg’s idea I bet. ;)
Nope, totally not us! We were trying to figure out who it is too… seems to be some locals considering the references they made to our school and location. *shrug*
Hey bud,
Just popping in to have a read, as I always do! Thanks for the linkage on yr site. Hope things are good your side,
Chris
Looks like Cranky Cog was asked to take the site down. Where does free speech and the obvious satire fit in?
The difference is that what you thought you were doing was funny, Andrew. Just because you say it’s satire, doesn’t simply make it so. You have to realize that once you started pulling innocents (our friends and family members) in on the joke, you crossed a line. The plain fact that you did it anonymously creeped us all out. We didn’t know who you were or why you were zeroing out us or our friends and families, and frankly, that’s scary.
It’s a shame that you can’t realize that how your actions and comments were misdirected. I disagreed with your hard-lined comments and, even more so, your disrespect. The fact that you spun those sour grapes into a satire seems like a natural jump; you felt burned so you took the cowardly way out, rather than trying to understand how you could have went about things differently. You can cry foul about satire all you want, but your actions reveal you to be childish and spiteful individual.
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16 February 2007
Paul M. Watson01:33 pm
eh, I like it. But then I’ve always enjoyed the Zeldman style. I once gave out about Zeldman and he emailed me with a nice message that conveyed what I think he is; a guy doing well for himself who got sick of internet arguements and retreated from the lime-light to focus on actually doing things.