Hive of activity: Site aims to make the web weird

The new creative platform, which came out of private beta in February, enables users to post text, video, audio and GIF files to a group of followers. Each post – NewHive calls them ‘expressions’ – takes the form of a single, full-screen webpage. Users move from expression to expression by clicking the sideways arrows at the side of the screen.

NewHive resembles microblogging platform Tumblr, but whereas Tumblr is primarily a means of communication, NewHive is mainly for artistic expression. And unlike on Tumblr, users can post many types of media on the same page. The resulting creations combine embedded videos, GIFs, text and images in ingeniously tasteless mixes.

‘We want to make the web weird again,’ Zach Verdin, NewHive co-founder and CEO, told The Verge.

As consumers tire of moderation, they are reaching out for extremes of ugliness and beauty. For more on this social shift, watch our preview film on The Polarity Paradox, and buy tickets for our Spring/Summer 2014 Trend Briefing.