Does Quid Have The Most Pretentious Website of Any Startup Ever?
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
Including a colophon is a fairly common practice, especially in the world of print design, when a publication has been artfully assembled and polished by a professional designer. I hardly think it's fair to use this as a point of criticism; it just means they have a designer on staff who: a) might have a history in print design b) knows his typography c) was thinking about the culture of the business when making design decisions
It's no mistake that all the typefaces they've chosen have long, strong histories firmly rooted in England. They are Bulmer, Baskerville, and Underground (of London underground fame - most of us have seen the old signs from the subway).
Furthermore, wccrawford's earlier assertion that their name and typeface choice has nothing to do with the business is obtuse; if you check out http://quid.com/team.html, you'll notice that most of the hackers involved are either from, or studied in, England, which makes their branding choices eminently appropriate in the context of their shared history.
The page is titled "the quid story". If the best you can do there is some branding drivel, then that's a huge red flag. The quid story should tell us something about the company, what it's goals are, why it was started. Not why some branding consultant chose a god damn font.
http://www.ted.com/talks/sean_gourley_on_the_mathematics_of_...
There isn't much substance there, but the company appears to be in a pseudo-stealth mode where they don't especially want to tell you exactly what they do or to sell it to you. They do, however, want you to know that they're all very clever, and that's exactly the impression which their site manages to convey. They use the word "lacuna" on their front page, for crying out loud! Who uses the word "lacuna"?
Actually, I thought that this:
Oh, and I almost forgot, good news for those who have recently finished their Rhodes Scholarships in Classics/Particle Physics and are looking for a gig in between singing in an Art Rock band, learning their 16th language and joining the French Foreign Legion! Quid is hiring.
sounded sufficiently enticing that I thought about applying, but turns out you also need to know Javascript and Rails.
When I visited the site a few days ago, I wasn't quite sure if it's real.
The team's record is impressive but I hope they get it why people think their site is pretentious.