The Cool Hunter is a design site founded in 2004 by Bill Tikos. It won 2007 & 2008 Webblog Awards in best culture blog category and connect with just over 1 million readers monthly, generating over 1.8 million page views.
The Cool Hunter is not a trend-spotter or trend-predictor but it values global relevance and sharing its discoveries to its worldwide audience, who values architecture, design, style, music, fashion and entertainment.
Pictures worth more than a thousand words is the best description for its content. This site filled with lots of attention-grabbing images of latest design along with concise information. It works very well for those who doesn't like to read long paragraphs but still can get some inspirations by only looking at the pictures, hence this is a designer-friendly web because most designers are visual people.
For example, The Cool Hunter article on Lexus sculpture only contains short descriptions on every images of Lexus sculpture. It briefly explains the creator, project's purpose, materials, and follow-up events. It delivers the significant points well and straight to the point. It also gives some details on sculpture form, which is an interesting fact: "the sculpture is based on a map of vertical lines created from the CAD model of CT 200h. It was built of 2,500 half-inch anodized aluminum bars cut to the exact measurements of the map."
Balance and proportion between pictures and text are probably the most significant thing that must be enhanced by this website. The pictures size are too big and take some time to load. In contrast, the font size is too small, out of proportion. The space between pictures and text also too tight, it is quite distracting. Nevertheless, this website still has potential to convert visitors to subscribes because of its newness and appealing images.
For example, The Cool Hunter article on Lexus sculpture only contains short descriptions on every images of Lexus sculpture. It briefly explains the creator, project's purpose, materials, and follow-up events. It delivers the significant points well and straight to the point. It also gives some details on sculpture form, which is an interesting fact: "the sculpture is based on a map of vertical lines created from the CAD model of CT 200h. It was built of 2,500 half-inch anodized aluminum bars cut to the exact measurements of the map."
Balance and proportion between pictures and text are probably the most significant thing that must be enhanced by this website. The pictures size are too big and take some time to load. In contrast, the font size is too small, out of proportion. The space between pictures and text also too tight, it is quite distracting. Nevertheless, this website still has potential to convert visitors to subscribes because of its newness and appealing images.
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| Lexus Sculpture - CT Umbra |
Great post! I had never heard of this site before.
ReplyDeleteI gotta agree with you, a balance between the graphics and text should be struck. However, I don't actually mind the images being as big as they are (guess cos I'm a visual person). But I can why it would be problematic because some images are way too big and can't be viewed in their entirety because they don't fit on the screen.
Perhaps if the images take too long to load, they could be uploaded as smaller images which you could click on and view in their actual size on a separate page. For me, I would prefer they enlarge the font size and as you mentioned, allow some breathing space between images/text.
I love this Lexus advertising, which present its luxury and unique. This ad creatively shows its characters. I agreed that U mentioned, the content should not too long for readers, which can be easy for them . Meanwhile, if they are interested in this topic or ad, they will explore by themselves.
ReplyDelete@Farah: Glad that you like it. It's an inspiring site and I agree about opening image on separate page or maybe create a low-bandwidth version so those who don't have high speed internet connection won't spend too much time to load its pages.
ReplyDeleteHi Ke, I think we have similar taste. The Coolhunter seems to only focus on images rather than detailed descriptions.
ReplyDeleteAlways thought that The Coolhunter is a UK based website, turns out they have the Australian version :). It has great visuals with vibrant colours and also trendy content to keep you up-to-date. It's one of my favourite website!
ReplyDeleteYes, It's one of my favourite web too, It's so inspiring!
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