The Navigation Exception that Proves the Rule

Via Tangerine Toad's post, I came across this website for The Brooklyn Brothers, which, as far as I can tell from a brief look, is some sort of marketing agency. In a lot of ways, the website is unfortunately typical for a marketing agency. However, they do something good that a lot of companies are afraid to do -- that is, inject an interesting personality.

Usually I caution against getting cute with symbology and navigation names. It rarely aids in navigation and ease of use. I have to admire the personality they injected into their work, though. They're not goofy, but they don't take themselves too seriously, either.

None of it is really persistent navigation anyway. It serves as the content -- which allows them to get away with being more clever within the context of page than typical persistent navigation would allow them.

Of course, the first thing I clicked on was the skull and crossbones icon warning users not to click it. How could I resist?

Some of the payoff the site offers could use some work, and I can't hyperlink past the home page because they didn't build their Flash file in a way that would allow it. However, that's not to take away from the positive lessons we can learn from it.

For more on how to find and incorporate your personality in your marketing communications, see Rohit Bhargava's excellent book, *Personality Not Included. - Cam Beck