The Art Of The Passive-Aggressive Redesign

Source: d1hfzzcaiqc5zu.cloudfront.net

Spec redesigns are the frenemies of the web. They happen when a hungry outsider decides to rework someone else’s site, without worrying about boring stuff like ad space or click rates. It’s awkward, but the result is a look into a world ruled by graphic designers. It’s a terrifying place, with lots of muted colors and Helvetica. Behold!

3. Wikipedia

Source: wikipediaredefined.com

Sure, Wikipedia’s cool and all, but it’s got a few too many lines and columns for our taste. Shame you didn’t think of that, Jimmy — but I guess that’s why we’re here.

5. American Airlines

Source: dustincurtis.com

This is the gold standard of passive-aggressive redesigns, offering calm measured advice like, “fire your entire design team, if you have one,” and calling out the CEO by name.

7. The New York Times

Source: andyrutledge.com

Oh man did people get mad about this one. But to be fair, he did suggest fixing news websites by removing all the ads.

9. Facebook

Source: behance.net

Your group, “Make Facebook Look Like Gmail,” has 37 members.

11. Google

Source: behance.net

Google’s homepage is one of the cleanest major sites out there, but it would still look better if the search bar were lost in a gray ocean of negative space.

13. Cash

Source: richardsmith.posterous.com

Like green money? Too bad, because now all your bills look like issues of Businessweek.

15. Amazon

Source: behance.net

They didn’t even change anything here. They just made everything softer and added Helvetica. Take that, Bezos.

17. The Boarding Pass

Source: passfail.squarespace.com

This one is banking on a serious upgrade in airport gate printers.

19. IMDB

Source: behance.net

When in doubt, add Transformers.