Mobile Branding: Nokia Smooths the Road Bumps

For all the inspired talk of the Web’s promise as an engagement medium, we’re still at the point where the Internet terrifies brand steward types more than it excites them. And the mobile marketing revolution promises to be much worse, as the already appalling lack of visual control in digital environments meets a vast sea of screens the size of post-it notes.

Assuming for a moment the wireless revolution does occur, brands are going to need better ways of designing for the medium.

Nokia’s taking a step in that direction with the release of new tools letting UI designers create branded themes for smartphones, including everything from background graphics to colors, sounds, navigation tools and morphing effects. Carbide.ui Theme Edition has support for third party graphics, multiple screen resolutions, drag and drop compatibility with PhotoShop, and a half dozen other functions that would only make your eyes glaze over were I to list them here but matter a lot to designers.

Simplifying as it does the process of creating customized graphical environments for handhelds, the tool suggests an easier way to export graphical elements. Marketers will need more of this sort of thing to be induced to play in the wireless space.