One of my blogging buddies Toby Bloomberg of The Diva Marketing Blog (blogrolled) has just changed her design. I took the screenshot above to show her snazzy new design for her PR business. From a matter of pure aesthetics, I like the new design much better than the prior one.

Minor technical gripe: fully maximized at 1024×768 in Internet Explorer the body text doesn’t show. See red text above. In Firefox, naturally, the text is the way it should be, even with my desktop sidebar in place and a shorter width (see below). Yeah, yeah, I know — don’t use IE, use Firefox, but a lot of people still do use Internet Explorer so a site still needs to look right in IE. I use it almost exclusively on my Tablet PC, for example. I didn’t check rendering in Safari on the Mac.

Now for the design itself.

Something I immediately questioned was the use and prominence of the martini glass. Not just one glass above the Home link in a prime real estate space but another bigger one more than twice the pixel height of the logo (see the red arrows). My comment was more of curiosity than complaint in that I wondered if a professional PR blog should have an alcohol reference so prominently positioned in the design? It struck me as a very bold move.

But Toby is a bold marketer and she is the same PR person who took a bunch of flak over character blogs and grew from it — perhaps even benefitted from the exposure of it. I think her design is either really stupid or brilliant and with each new look I’ve been trying to figure out which one it is.

If Toby’s business was a small corner store bar or a liquor store owner’s blog, or perhaps even a fine dining restaurant with upscale lounge, the design seems to work, but for a PR business blog? This is how Toby describes her business:

Diva Marketing is a state of mind. It’s an approach to marketing that’s fun, bold and savvy … but always strategically aligned with your brand’s objective.

In response to my inital comments on Toby’s design at her blog, someone by the name of Allan Jenkins posted that his cousin ‘Tallulah’ “… would would have sent that T David boy out to feed the dog, and would have locked the door behind him.”

Darren Rowse who runs problogger also likes the martini glass just where it is:

I think the martini glass is cool. Change that you might as well change the whole thing because it fits perfectly. ‘professional’ is good but the tone of this site is both professional and ‘cocktail like’ in my opinion - they’re not mutually exclusive by any means. Fit’s Toby’s personality perfectly from what I can tell.

Darren - having not met Toby personally or professionally (virtually, yes) I’m not sure whether or not this fits Toby’s personality “perfectly” but then I don’t envision her as the happy hour martini type, either. Maybe cutting high end deals with a couple of martinis are the norm in the PR business world? There’s no sarcasm meant or intended here, just curiosity, I really don’t know because I’m not in that business. I do trust Toby’s expertise and experience in understanding her core and prospective clientele, though.

Darren, I notice you don’t use a beer stein or roll out any keg graphics on your business blog, nor does a six pack of Bud appear on your $325 pitch here. So I guess this doesn’t work for you, yes/no? Yeah, I’m teasing you.

I am certainly not a saint and don’t mind people drinking in moderation and hey, maybe even getting blasted once in a (great) while, as long as they are being responsible about it. Heck, a recent study shows that 14-28 drinks a week is actually better for brainpower than complete abstinence, so don’t anybody think I’m getting on some anti-alcohol tear here.

But wait, I do have a bias that needs to be disclosed, just so all the cards are on the table.

In October 1996, I lost my mother to conflicts related to alcoholism, so I’m admittedly biased to what I feel might be extraneous or unnecessary alcohol references in advertising and branding. Again, if it’s a liquor store, casino, lounge, etc, something related to a business that serves/makes alcohol or promotes partying I think it makes good sense.

Are there others out there who have lost parents or children or friends to alcohol and/or drug abuse that understand where I’m coming from? It’s a terrible addiction that grabs hold of not only weak but strong people alike and can quickly consume and destroy their lives. Not to mention making their loved ones feel completely helpless about the situation.

So it’s a possible red flag for me in business when I see this type stuff at anything other than dealing with the alcohol industry.

Just being honest and constructive. I’m not about ‘rah-rah’, ‘me too’ comments or lying just to be nice when someone asks for feedback on their design. If I didn’t care or think my comments were helpful, I wouldn’t bother at all.

Again, I do like Toby’s design and of course wish Toby the best of luck with everything she does in business.

Now it’s your turn.

I’m wondering what other readers think about this design? Does an alcohol reference like this in a business blog have any impact — positive or negative — on you? Or do you not even care because you read blogs in your RSS aggregator and don’t pay attention to the design? Does a site design change your perception about a given website, business or personal? How important is the site design to you?

Did this post make you go hmm?

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