EBlog
Zeldman: Email is not a platform for design.
June 8, 2007 | Posted by: Nicholas
Jeffrey Zeldman, the father of… - if I have to tell you who Zeldman is, shame on you - has come out against HTML email. I couldn’t be happier. And he’s not pulling any punches, either:
“Even though it doesn’t work right in many e-mail applications, and even though many users dislike it, HTML appeals to clients because it’s another place to stick their logo. And it appeals to the kind of designer who thinks everything, even a bullet hurtling toward his own skull, would improve if decorated. I hate that kind of designer almost as much as I hate people who hate design. That kind of designer gives all designers a bad name, and is chiefly responsible for the slightly amused contempt with which many business people view designers, art directors, and ‘creative’ people generally.”
Damn! Now that’s passion, folks.
So, designers and non, what say you on the topic? You can’t say I haven’t given you plenty of things to which to respond. (Hell, this whole post is comment-bait!)
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design html email zeldman
Categorized in: Marketing, Design, Technology
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Comments
by Marty
Here Here! I actually think this line is a little more striking:
“‘Designed’ e-mail is just a slightly more polished version of those messages your uncle sends you. Your uncle thinks 18pt bright red Comic Sans looks great, so he sends e-mail messages formatted that way. You cluck your tongue, or sigh, or run de-formatting scripts on every message you receive from him. When your uncle is the “designer,” you “get” why styled mail sucks. It sucks just as much when you design it, even if it looks better than your uncle’s work in the two e-mail programs that support it correctly.”
RIGHT!