Thanks for the kind words, but
@Ric is solely the man who decides what the site looks like. My role is to recommend how best to keep it up, running, and fast.
City have a different target audience than Bluemoon. In my opinion, our site needs to be clean and simple as our main demographic is long term City fans - many of which aren't tech savvy and I'd argue the Mancunian culture is to look at overdesigned sites and think they're, for lack of a better term, try hard busy ****s. We as a culture enjoy directness and we don't have time for nonsense but there's a familial warmth there that shines through. Just like families we go at each other with an unmatched ferocity but even the worst enemies on here will defend each other against outside attacks. I think Bluemoon represents us as a fanbase extremely well in both tone and design. We are the soul of City fans in all of its ugly beauty.
City are now a corporation. They have a Global Style Guide which they are forced to use across every site they have in the CFG. It dictates font sizes, screen real estate, what gestures they can't use as it is offensive in Indonesia, this type of thing. They have Digital Product Managers who have to work with Fan Engagement Managers in a Committee formed by their design partners chaired by the Marketing Director with key inputs from the Communications Manager to put together infographics to make the best Annual Financial Report in football.
Again in my opinion, City as a business culture seems to have collapsed in on itself. Under Cook there was not only an air of engagement that others have covered but also an air of entrepreneurialism. City were the new kids on the block so we got to reinvent the wheel in new and interesting ways. The decision to use YouTube instead of a TV channel was a good example of this. We were willing to be risky because we had the investment to fail and this created a culture of thinking differently. Under Soriano we now seem to do a lot of things by rote - not in the major decisions like setting up the CFG but just in the smaller things. And our ticket website/membership system has been a disgrace for as long as I can remember.
I don't have a single job, instead I work freelance in a couple of different areas which allows me to switch more and less into fields as my interest wanes or peaks (or often how much I need the money!). So I'm probably not the best example but to be honest I wouldn't be interested in ever working with City Digital. They seem to be at odds with how I design projects culturally and thematically.
Ric is obviously his own man and I'd be surprised if they haven't reached out on occasion to take advantage of his skills because he can navigate those waters with ease and would bring a deep understanding of the culture of the fanbase over and above literally every single person currently employed at City.
But it's not my cup of tea now. I'm more of an early takeover City type of guy. I like trying things just for the sake of the experiment.
