I really love the look of this website. The clean lines and blocky grid look just give it a nice feel. The way the text is overlayed on top of the main image is a pretty good and matching look. The home page is a nice “dashboard” look into the team’s news and events, surprisingly without too much noise in other elements like ads and such. I also really like how they’ve done the shopping cart drop-down in the header.
Brutalism: The Beauty of Breaking the Rules
Brutalism in web design rejects perfection for authenticity. Stark grids, raw type, and honest structure create interfaces that feel human, intentional, and impossible to ignore. Break the rules, on purpose.
I like the symmetrical grid layout and subtle lighting effects. The design is part of a welcome trend that I’ve noticed; more designs are featuring really large photos, square corners, minimal gradients/dropshadows, and occasional translucent elements.
http://inside.nike.com/blogs/nikefootball-en__EMEA/tags/bootcamp
http://www.mtv.com/?source=CTY_CA
http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/
http://smashingmagazine.com
Sites with this style tend to have hip content and cater to web-savvy people. Hopefully laypeople will start to favour this style over the (in my opinion) trite Apple-inspired round corners, gradients, and relfections.
The only complaint I have about the Man City site is that the Arabic-site link is at the bottom of the page. A user who can only read Arabic would want to change the language before doing anything else; so the option should be in the upper righthand corner.
Considering how bad most football websites are, this is a really nice and refreshing change. shame I don’t support man city.