What would the start of the week be without a little design reflection? Starting today I’m creating a new category called “Design Hot Or Not” where I pit two site designs up against each other in a no-holds-barred reader opinion boxing match. In today’s crystal ball we examine two new site designs: one from new-comer Mind Petals and the other a redesign from Gawker.
Mind Petals
Mind Petals is an independent content network like 9rules, but it’s focused on young entrepreneurs. 9rules Member and design master Matt Brett rocked the pixels for this fresh and well-designed site. I’ve heard on the grapevine that the client’s design direction focused on inspiration from 9rules, and that’s pretty evident in the design. They even have their own 10 Petals For Success (link), not to be confused with our 9 Rules (link) which Paul came up with three years ago. Inspiration must be in the air, as their parent company site Cash Campus smells a bit like 37signals.com. Ahh the sweet smell of copy and paste.
Gawker
Gawker has relaunched its leading gossip brand, and the result reminds me of a default template before you add any flourishes. I can understand keeping the design benign for the sake of bandwidth, but it’s just too plain for my tastes. The fluid layout is a nice touch, however the execution of it is odd — layout elements don’t resize at the same pace as others, alignment changes, etc. Oh well, at least Denton’s still a quadzillionaire.
