JKR

I was told today about ‘digital nostalgia’ – a trend of ‘old school early nineties digital design’ that is again becoming stylish. It’s amazing how quickly the recent past is starting to look antiquated and ready for misty-eyed reappraisal.

With slight serendipity I stumbled across a homepage from 2000 today for ‘The Nametron 3000’ – take a look to remember how websites used to look a whole ten years ago (click here). It’s amazing how ancient a decade old homepage looks. But it’s the content I love – this is a spoof site lampooning the corporate gobbledygook of branding, the lazy ‘make up a silly name that sounds classical’ strategic clichés and the generic nature of so many ‘will this do?’ logo designs.

The Nametron 3000 comes from the era when The Royal Mail was re-branded Consignia and the world beyond agency land groaned. Looking at it today, I guess my feeling is that the website might have dated fantastically quickly but sadly, ten years later, the subject of the parody still feels pretty topical. Anyway, give it a look – it will make you laugh (or cry)…