Trustee snubs new Web site, card design

Municipal Web sites have evolved through the years, and Hoffman Estates' is no exception.

The village Monday gave preliminary approval for a new design for hoffmanestates.com. The redesigned site will be tweaked before it goes live, perhaps later this year. The site will have more photos that would automatically refresh.

Village Web sites have increasingly become more important to inform residents about events and deadlines. There are planned tabs for the village's entertainment district, online payments and the village's newsletter.

The site could also be used to post newspaper corrections. However, there was no "corrections" tab shown in the mock-up page provided to board members for their review, which also showed the page in a widescreen resolution.

The Web site was designed by Vision Internet, which Trustee Gary Pilafas told board members is award- winning, having created sites for towns all over the country.

Contrary to the thoughts of his colleagues, Trustee Cary Collins voted against the redesign. Collins wants to keep things simple, he said.

Collins also voted against redesigning the business cards for the village staff, in a debate that lasted about 20 minutes. A proposal had the village's 50th anniversary logo on the back.

Collins said the card designs didn't exude professionalism, and he didn't hide his feelings about the matter. Keeping in mind that Collins is an attorney, I Googled "attorney and business cards." More than 375,000 results spanned topics like "15 business card sins lawyers commit," and debates about a cards' effectiveness. When Collins said Monday he had several thoughts about the matter, he wasn't alone with his legal brethren.

Trustee Anna Newell warned that change is difficult but was enthusiastic about the possibility.

Personally, the debate reminded me of a scene from the Christian Bale movie, "American Psycho," the 2000 adaptation of author Bret Easton Ellis' 1991 novel.

The dark comedy-thriller features a scene at a boardroom table with friends, and they all start comparing business cards, in a classic "keeping up with the Jonses" scenario.

Some showed cards with embossed typefaces on an assortment of different card stocks and backgrounds, including eggshell. Bale's character leaves the room with an empty and dejected feeling. He's disappointed because his business card wasn't as fancy as one of his friends.

"Oh, my God. It even has a watermark," said Bale's character, Patrick Bateman, to himself.

The card designs in Hoffman Estates haven't been finalized. There's still debate whether there should be lines on the back for notes.