Comments on: cork’d

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:44:03 +0000

I do love the color schemes that Dan seems to choose, a lot of times they are brighter colors wrapped in a more mellow contrast. A lot of people make the mistake of putting bright color schemes onto a white background, which then increases the ratio of contrast, and makes it overly-bright or often owwy to the eyes. I am not a huge fan of icons for portions of Web sites, but I think cork’d needed it, and I think it looks really good. Dan Cederholm really made a name for himself in many situations. I would love to be in that place, like many others I know.

By: Sketchplanet

Sketchplanet — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:22:50 +0000

I think it’s unmaintained due to Dan selling it on many months ago

By: kevadamson

kevadamson — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:54:04 +0000

Aye. I remember being impressed when I first saw this site. I love to see a bit of illustration in sites as well - adds personality.

I think there is much about this site to admire - not just from a typographical stand-point, and it’s great to see it standing the test of time in an industry which can make sites that are 6 months old look dated, never mind 3 years!

Like great wines, I would say that “Cork’d” has matured well.

By: Kevin Zak

Kevin Zak — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:04:41 +0000

Very astute choice on the design, Ryan. The color scheme, as you said, is very well thought out. Elements that need to differentiate themselves from the rest do so wonderfully, and the eye is not strained yet still drawn. As LesK pointed out, the site would be wonderful if it was more active and better maintained (although the latter might affect the former).

One small area of note that I believe could be improved on is the format of Tasting Tags in the single-wine view. They are brought out with a more defined right/bottom border that gives them an appearance of a button or some such thing. This, in my opinion, undermines the very purpose of tags: to navigate readers to similar posts. This is a job of a link, and a button just adds a layer of confusion to the system. It’s a minor detail, but it annoyed me somewhat when I gave the site a look-over.

Other than a few minor flaws here and there, Cork’d presents an impressive design. The site itself could use a bit of love, but the design is still solid. Once again, very nice choice.

By: LesK

LesK — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:37:34 +0000

Cork’d is a nice site.
Too bad it’s useless and un-maintained. The “wine of the day” hasn’t changed for many weeks, maybe months. The database is small, and the rating system is not relevant to any other standards in place for wine, so it’s of no help when doing research. Oh well.

By: Hamish M

Hamish M — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:46:04 +0000

Your last paragraph sums it up quite nicely Ryan, this site is a real Gem. Mr. Cederholm did a fantastic job — I can actually remember when it was first launched years ago, and it’s great to see the design hold up so well.

Thanks for this great review.