Thursday, February 15, 2007

New Header for Paramount Park Sites



I really do not mean to rant, it's tiresome and very overplayed on the web - but in some cases it just feels good. This is one of them.

Was this redesign performed by my mother's 4th grade class? It has the look of children written all over it. For a partnership that can plunk down $1.24 billion for 5 theme parks, can't they do a little better? Let's look at exactly what we can find here in this new design header:

1) Inverting ship silhouette, a picture of which is all over Carowinds brochure and site. Okay, it's a ride, it's at one of the parks, i'll take it.

2) Coaster hills. WHO MADE THIS. Did they use MS Paint? Why isn't the hill on the right even smooth? Why do the supports not go all the way down? When I was 8 I used to draw coasters in school. They looked like this. Serious.

3) Two pointy things. Are those large crayons sticking up? Houses with witch-like pointy hats? What does this have to do with theme parks?

4) Finally, we come to two flags. Are those pixels sticking out that I see? Could they not even find images to use that are as smooth as those on the Cedar Fair home page?

5) Stars. Pretty stars that are on an angle. These stars scream children. They are the kind of stars you find on diapers, and in coloring books. Why, why these?

In summary, there is no discernable level of professionalism in this redesign. They'd have been better off leaving customers thinking they were still paramount parks with the old header than thinking they are visiting Sesame Place.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Regarding the ugly new header on the Paramount Parks web sites..

1) Inverting ship ride is only at certain parks, but given the position of the silhouette, it could be one of the non-inverting ship rides, too.

2) The hill on the right isn't smooth because you're looking at a lift hill. On that particular coaster, the train crests the lift, drops slightly, rounds a corner, and then drops. Cedar Point has a mine train which is an extreme example, although the ride in the banner ends up looking more like Mantis:TCFKAB. Which, yes, does have its first drop set at an angle to the lift hill.

3) What ARE those pointy things, anyway?

4) Why only two flags? They are oddly shaped because they are pennants and they are flapping in the breeze. But if this is Cedar Fair, why not FIVE pennants, which, while not an official park symbol, is very common in Cedar Fair graphics

5) Er, maybe it's night time?

I agree, the banner is hideous. But I can kind of see some of what they were getting at in the drawing...

NewsPlusNotes said...

Thanks for reading and posting a comment as well. You made some good points and I agree with ya.

I didn't cover this in that post - but I'm still wondering if the former paramount park sites will get brand new ones within a year and to a degree this is just a 'for now' change.

Anyway, thanks for reading - I've followed your posts on several boards for years and years now!