The Boston-based ad agency Modernista! recently redesigned their homepage in a real ballsy way - but not really having a “site” at all. When you go to Modernista.com, it cleverly (and a bit alarmingly at first) takes over the top left corner of your browser with general info tabs about the agency written in cutesy 2.0 writing like ab.ou.t, wrk and the ever-charming n3wz.
Besides a Wikipedia link and a Facebook profile, the only information about Modernista! is in the form of Google news search results, meaning that anything that links to or mentions the agency will show up in the feed. Can’t you just see your average CEO shudder at the thought?
It’s a serious stride in corporate transparency. Well done.
March 14, 2008 at 5:12 pm
A serious stride in corporate transparency? I don’t think so…
Google News is hardly ‘anything’ that mentions the agency, that’d require a google blog search at least.
Plus, there’s some talk on the Wikipedia page they wrote their own entry, which is super dodgy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Modernista%21
March 14, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Dodgy, indeed. Thanks for pointing this out Paull. :-/
I still think it’s a cool idea to put everything out there about yourself, good or bad. Perhaps someone could entice them to put up a blog search feed as well?
March 20, 2008 at 5:33 pm
They do NOT have a website. Just a URL. A little annoying navigation box doesnt make a “Top Notch” website. They use what everyone else uses. Flickr has a website. Wikipedia has a website, YouTube has a website, Google has a web site.
They have a URL. I guess that’s cool! Right?
March 21, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Kevin Smith did a “I’m F**king Seth” video on YouTube and his site to help promote his forthcoming movie “Zack and Miri”. The trend seems to be catching on. ;)