» AdGoodness advertising/design goodness – advertising and design blog: The best ads & designs and sometimes the worst around the globe.

AdGoodness

Alright everyone, I have been working hard for the last couple of weeks on completing an all new Advertising/Design Goodness. The name will be shortened to adgoodness, to make it a little easier to remember.

There will be lots of new features for your enjoyment. Check out the site and have a look at the layout etc. Please comment and give me your feedback on what i currently have. Please remember that it’s not 100% working yet, but the layout and main features are there.

*UPDATE: Thanks everyone for commenting on the site. After all its most important what you (the user) think and want. I will be posting an updated version with the comments and feedback that you have given.

Click here to view the site.

Anna Goodson Management

Get your ad here for 30 days, for a ridiculous price.

48 responded to this post

Kelly said on January 8th, 2007

I like it a lot! One thing though, I’d prefer a bit more padding between boxes, since the page bg and the boxes bg’s are very close in color.

Excellent!

Jens said on January 8th, 2007

I think an overhaul of the current version would have been better.

Steve said on January 8th, 2007

I think it looks great, Freddy.

Blah said on January 8th, 2007

One of the reasons I come (typically daily) to this site is that it’s easy for me gauge if I’m current with site content. The single panel down the center is VERY easy to navigate and, for me at least, back fill if I’ve missed a few days. Your new layout makes ascertaining that more challenging.

Ant said on January 8th, 2007

Not bad. I still like to see the home page with the latest contents. I don’t come here daily so I need a history to see what I missed and stuff.

van.diesel said on January 8th, 2007

nice work. keep it up!

bloom said on January 8th, 2007

Although the design for the new site is well done, it offers me way to much stuff. I don’t wanna search around. I don’t have time. I’m so busy. And important. oh, uhm.

no, really: i love your old blog here. it’s nice, quick and easy. i use the rss to see if there something new and click for the blog if something catches my eye. don’t need interviews, this and that and stuff … just someone with good tatse that picks interesting stuff for me to look at.

cheers
bloom

The Ad Mad! said on January 8th, 2007

Have to agree with bloom…

There’s way too much info on your new design (I know you must be saying ‘DAMN!’, sorry).
4 Columns is really too much (800*600 you can’t see them all), and the boxes are a bit confusing at first sight.

This site rocks on it’s simplicity.
Really, I know you worked hard, but why not refreshing a few things around here instead of changing it all?

Just a thought…that’s what *I* would like
Keep it up

Travis said on January 8th, 2007

Wow, quite a mixed response here.

I’ve always thought the current version is one of the nicest ad blogs out there. The new version seems to be targetted at building an ad community and enabling a wider range of communication. I like it. For that purpose, I think it’s spot on.

It ranks up there with Kineda as one of the most unique uses of WordPress.

Go for it Freddy. Something is always better than nothing, and the new version is definitely a step in the right direction.

kluger said on January 9th, 2007

i’ve always enjoyed visiting your site because it’s so easy to navigate. i understand it gets old looking at the same thing for an extended period of time but change is not always good. love the site as it is, please just tweak it as is because it’s a nice blog.

Nigel said on January 9th, 2007

I’m surprised no one has commented on the new logo, which I really like, BTW. Coolly minimalist, just my thing. As for the new site, it gave me quite a start initially, but the second time around I definitely “got” it. Nice use of images, some cool transitions. It certainly gets my vote.

Freddy said on January 9th, 2007

Thanks for the comments so far. Im kinda trying to move away from the blog feel, and more of a “magazine” type.

I get your concern with the easy navigation, and i will try and add some more post content to the main page for more of an overview.

I want to divide the the homepage into sections
1. advertising (print, outdoor, etc)
2. design (logos, branding, typography etc)
3. interactive (websites, online campaigns, etc)
3. various (for anything else like gadgets, art, etc)

You will still be able to view the seperate categories the way you are used to. Try the Billboards http://www.frederiksamuel.com/blog2/category/billboards/ category to see what i mean.

Martijn said on January 9th, 2007

Spiffy new design!

katka said on January 9th, 2007

i thing now it is better, because i can see, which ad is new…

Daldianus said on January 9th, 2007

Woaw, looks great! I’m impressed

Rasmus said on January 9th, 2007

I really like the new design!
But at first I was a bit disapointed with the new way to to expose the news but now since you posted that billboardpage im feeling really pleased. Keep up the good work! Big up from Sweden!

Akotan said on January 9th, 2007

I felt lost too with the new site design. I understand your desire to split advertise and design contents but it didn’t feel “updated”, the feel I get when I visit the actual site design. Maybe you should use some “Show more” buttons to each content box, or have tree or four news items instead of only two. I don’t know: I’m trying to list only the things that fast got my attention…

mr. t said on January 9th, 2007

Yup. It sounds better. I propose to delete that crappy graphics in right corner

bloom said on January 9th, 2007

freddy, I might wish to keep the old simple blog, but I have to agree with travis and yourself too – if you want to grow bigger, you’re moving in the right direction. I just wonder how you get the time to keep such a huge site updated. for example, the guys over at k10k failed at that – they are also just posting news – not much movement in the other sections over there…

what I don’t like in the new design is the way the posts look, if there’s a lot of content in the post, the page seems to be out of balance…

edward said on January 9th, 2007

looks cool!

but do not forget to post one big idea a day, that’s what attracting me.. each day another great idea instead of ‘find out yourself where the cool ads are’…. looks great!

Lonnie said on January 9th, 2007

At first glance it reminded me of http://moluv.com/ – not that there is anything wrong with that.

I like the look overall but it does seem less reader friendly than what you have now. I like coming in here (from the RSS feed) and finding exactly what you posted easily.

Jerome Dahdah said on January 9th, 2007

I really like the new design and the logo but I agree there is WAY too much info at once. It works for the front page but single post pages really seem to suffer under it. Have a look at this page: http://www.frederiksamuel.com/blog2/2007/01/head-shoulders.html

There’s no focus on the content here, the right columns are catching much more of my attention than the left.

But as I said I like it and with some tweaking I think it’ll turn out great.

Mark said on January 9th, 2007

Why would you want to move to a more magazine feel when magazines are moving to a more blog feel?

People are busy, they don’t have a lot of time to check out sites specially while at work. Your current site allows us to come in and quickly see whats new and leave. We don’t have to click anything which is practical.

Your new site design isn’t practical and it will take us readers more time to browse and read whats new then your current site. Thats not moving forward.

anyway you want to see a nice site revamp check out cool hunting
http://www.coolhunting.com/

Deanna said on January 9th, 2007

Take Bloom, Jens and Blah’s comments – combine them – and ditto it for me.

Too much searching on the new design. Not enough quick info. I’d rather see a re-design of this site.

Shelby said on January 9th, 2007

ditto on most of those comments. I like how simple this site is to keep up with. It’s actually easy to see what’s new. To me the new one just has too much going on.

Jess said on January 9th, 2007

I really love the new logo and site design but I can speak for everyone who regularly visits this blog that change is hard to get use to â€“ even when itâ€™s a good change. When you redesign a site that people are already comfortable with (and was already good to begin with) then you gotta expect some opposition of some sort.

The new design is missing the thing I really love about this blog…the middle column that shows all your posts (most recently posted on top) and I can just scroll down and view the most recent posts where the images are a good size. I like that I don’t have to click around and open new pages to view all the new ads you put up.

Other than that, as much as I really like the design, it’s a tad too busy for me (personally) even though its a clean design. But I understand what you’re going for, and in that sense, you hit the spot

Leandro said on January 9th, 2007

Freddy,
i liked a lot the new design!
Good work.

Leandro

Scott said on January 9th, 2007

I have to agree with the people who say the new site is much too busy. The reason I come here is to quickly see a few new ads, and then leave. As it was said above, it’s very important that I don’t have to click on anything to view a new campaign. The new design has way too many boxes without having emphesis on any of them.

In addition, I have to say that I _hate_ the fact that you have integrated google ads into the middle of the layout so that they look like site content. Part of me feels like you’re trying to trick users into clicking the ads when they are only interested in navigating YOUR content.

If you do go with this new design, please make one of the boxes bigger than the others and fill it with content laid out like the center column of the current site. Then rearrange the boxes so the google ads aren’t so important.

Christian Klepej said on January 9th, 2007

love your work. and so here is a BIG THANK YOU!

to the new side: well, hmm, less is more …

Christian Klepej said on January 9th, 2007

sorry, the main part of my post:

4 columns would be enough. thanx.

Dragos said on January 9th, 2007

Yep, lots better!

An idea though: can you turn the white space in the header into a big colage banner with bits and pieces of ads? Just to continue the branding of the old blog with the Michelin man and Coke stuff in the header.

Just a thought…

Also, can you move the “popular posts” module up, above the “textlink sponsors” module? I think it has more importance than some links, don’t you?

ivan said on January 9th, 2007

Looks great! Good luck!

Dam said on January 9th, 2007

Sometimes when a proyect grows, and a community gets bigger, changes are inevitable to satisfy the public demand and ocasionally quite a few at the beginning are lost on this transition, but in this case after analysing Freddie’s rationale behind his makeover, it definetly makes sense. He’s got more space and areas to improve on.

Its just a matter of a few days of getting used to and realize it is much better. Like a class you hated at uni and then realized you can use it.

Cheers, and keep it up Fred

theadshow said on January 9th, 2007

I prefer this one, better navigation.

Alex said on January 10th, 2007

I like!

Travis said on January 10th, 2007

bloom mentioned k10k which got me thinking about a community I run with one of my partners.

We spent several months working on developing a community reminiscent of k10k, newstoday, etc… for the business market. A glorious masterpiece with 8 featured sections of specialized content all on one great page.

Or so we thought. We had a custom application developed so we could maintain each of the sections. But we couldn’t.

The admin was too hard to use. RSS feeds weren’t available. Images had to be a certain size to fit in the iframes, the content read like a pocket phone book in its width, there were no easy ways to share the content, and most importantly we cast ourselves into the abandoned island of anti-search engine optimization.

We made a big mistake trying to reinvent the wheel and lost some pocket change and truckloads of time while doing so.

So weâ€™re throwing it all out. Over the past 8 or so days weâ€™ve rebuilt the entire site on the WordPress platform and will launch the new version to surprise our members in the next day or so. Itâ€™s simpler, faster, easier, prettier, smoother — talk about using Sethâ€™s Edgecraft!

What Iâ€™m trying to get at is, Freddy, just make sure the new setup wonâ€™t make you lose any passion you have in maintaining the site and sharing all the great ads you do. At the end of the day, content is king and everyone will absorb it in their own ways, no matter how you present it.

John said on January 10th, 2007

Hi, everyone! My english really sucks. Sorry. And i don’t know how to tell politely around the corner that the new site is really BAD!

This ” OLD ” site has cached my eye since i saw it the first time back in 2006, i think it was February. during the time by now i have never ever thought that this site is old looking and so on… its super simple and i adore it because of that, i really do!

You don’t have to mix up information and look like every site do. Some times it’s best to leave the way as you have started instead of radical changes no one will understand you. From my point of view, if You started SIMPLE, than you must continue be SIMPLE.

jeanpaul said on January 10th, 2007

good! that’s cool site
I suggest reemplace the imgs from left side by a small cut or the original image.
best regards
JP

Grace said on January 10th, 2007

i love your blog the way it is. like everyone has said, its so easy to navigate and even easier to get caught up on old posts. while the new version is nicely designed and organized, its just TOOOOOOOOOO MUCCCCCH INFORMATION!!

KSDS said on January 10th, 2007

I like the look of the new site
It’s clean, and still simple to navigate.

joey said on January 10th, 2007

Use the 10 sec rule. and 3 columns.

I am here for 10 seconds,

1_What do you show me.
2_What do you teach me.
3_ Will I come Back.

Blaise said on January 10th, 2007

Way too much clutter.

The beauty of the old design is it’s quick single focus quality. Freshening up the graphic is one thing, but in my humble opinion your new design is a step in the wrong direction.

Cal-vin said on January 11th, 2007

I absolutely agree with Blaise. I do love your site, I’d hate to see it take a turn for the worst.

On different note, here is another name/logo idea.
Ad Goo
Advertising that sticks.

Just a thought.

ricardo said on January 11th, 2007

Do you now what’s the secret of google and blogs?

They are simple, clean and naked.

Your new magazine touch is a corporate move, you want that serious “i mean mbusiness” look, but you don’t need it at all.

Sorry.

nick said on January 11th, 2007

what i like about the current version is i can scroll down the page and see a bit of everything, quick, simple, no choosing thumbnail and clicking…. why change something so good

The Name Inspector said on January 11th, 2007

The new design looks GREAT, though I agree that it makes navigation more complicated.

What I’d really like to comment on is the name change. I think it was an excellent move to go with something shorter. More to the point, the new name is easy to pronounce, which is an important part of name design (yeah, names are designed too!). The old name was tough because people don’t know how to pronounce words separated by slashes. If you don’t have a clear aural impression of a name it’s less appealing and harder to remember.

Long live AdGoodness!