JohnnyDean

Web’s Design Trends Influence TV, Sport

I met my dad for a quick BBQ lunch on Father’s Day. We were waiting to be seated in the bar area and caught the end of the Nextel Cup race at Michigan International Speedway. During one of those laps where most drivers decided to pit, we were — in all of our extensive expertise — critiquing the Car of Tomorrow (NASCAR’s new stock car design, brought on primarily by the 2001 death of Dale Earnhardt Sr.) and I noticed how far paint shemes and decal design have come.

The decals seemed to be placed with slightly more “strategy” now and not quite as in-your-face (it’s still pretty bad, but better). Much like the web world — well, for most of us anyway –, they’ve realized that obnoxious is not always good and that advertising should intergrate into the larger design scheme. As far as the paint trend, there are more bright, saturated colors and contrast schemes that have become very popular with the Web 2.0 design fa. The cars also seem more reflective than ever before. I dunno, it might be a stretch but it was one the first things that came to mind as I watched the chaos of pit row.

This sparked something I noticed earlier in the week regarding how “2.0” TV ads have become. My wife, Melody, is an Ad Exec for a major cable company so much of my life involves dissecting advertising campaigns. This season’s series promos have had all the latest web fads: diagonal stripes, gradient backgrounds, big, bold, shiny text and even the cut-and-paste, vector art/photo, scrapbook look. I’m not being critical, I dig most of these styles when used appropriately. I was just surprised by how far design trends of the web have influenced other forms of media and life and I believe it speaks to the level of respect and legitimacy the web has gained in the sphere of traditional media.