Clever Design Isn’t
With a cool domain name like tra.de, you’d think that whoever had it would make something cool out of it. Au contraire, mes amis. In stead, Trade Group–the proud owners of the domain–have succesfully created a paragon of bad design: it’s all upside down. Literally.
“Ansichtssache: TRADE GROUP - Kommunikation + Design”, the title reads. “Ansichtssache” translates into “a matter of opinion”, and I don’t disagree; design is a subjective matter. However, going through the trouble of vertically flipping your entire content is just plain stupid.
The only technique to achieve this is to use images [1], which further limits the already ruined usability. But wait, there’s more! All of the images are defined in the CSS file as background-images to divs, so forget the alt attribute as well.
The only plausible reason I can think of for making such a design is marketing; to get attention. Well, congratulations, Trade Group. You made me blog about how downright asinine you are.
I took a screenshot in case they change the site.
[1] Yes, I’m aware of Internet Explorer’s non-standard filters. If you are encouraging their use, get off my site. Now.
September 6th, 2005