London – Mobile-first agency Somewhat_ has created an app for sportswear brand New Era that celebrates the early aesthetics of the internet.
The New Era Cube app features six areas – Street Style, GIF Builder, Collection, Heritage, Game and Social. The season’s new looks, a game and a GIF-builder are all combined in the app.
Somewhat_ was inspired by our Netstalgia macrotrend. ‘Using Netstalgia as a basis for design gave us the freedom to take tactile interfaces somewhere that they haven’t been before,’ says Thea Frost, strategy partner at Somewhat_. Using the retro-styled Cube rather than iPhone buttons, designers turned the interface into part of the content.
The New Era Cube game was created in partnership with the NFL, and combines an 8-bit aesthetic with 3D graphics. It’s another example of Netstalgia-meets-contemporary-technology aesthetic.
For ways in which to incorporate this trend into your brand, see our Netstalgia Toolkit.