Cool [Sponsored] Redesign
Cool Hunting has been reinventing the blog as a communications channel since February 2003. The site challenges the conventions of what a blog should be to the point that it is not even a blog anymore, it feels more like a ezine that adopted this emerging medium becoming a hybrid that communicates immediacy through its media design at the same time that lets content flow seamlessly through its blog-like interface.
The redesign has been sponsored by Adobe, which can also be considered as a breakthrough marketing initiative by the software company. With over 55 million blogs and over 2 billion websites, “design sponsoring” is set to become a discipline in itself, offering a win-win situation to all parties involved: the brand, site owner, and the people reading.
The question is then, should this trend be owned exclusively by software brands?
Perhaps not. By facilitating the redesign of a popular site that is consistent with a particular brand persona, the brand in question can impact people’s experience in a meaningful, non-intrusive way. Design in general and its digital, interactive form in particular carry a wealth of meaning and brands can use this vehicle to express not only their more rational benefits (in the case of Adobe this is obvious) but emotional ones, all without interfering with the site’s personality. Not an easy task but consistent with the level of sophistication needed to become a successful brand these days.
