magazine design quirks.

One of my least favourite common elements of magazine design is the quote (usually edited in an odd manner) repeated somewhere on the page, as a visual element.

I guess I just don't get it.  If the point is to emphasize the quote, wouldn't it make more sense to do so completely, and in context?  Or to have some kind of visual link between the large image / quote and it's original place in the text?

I'm not saying this space should always be used for images, or that pages should be pure text.  I'm just arguing that this 'text as a visual element' think could be better used to add information, rather than just repeat it out of context.  Imagine using this space for footnotes with images, or for background information on the article subject, or further information on an abandoned tangent in the interview.

As it stands, I still think of this as something done purely for a visual boost, without being optimized.  And, frankly, the magazine industry isn't doing so well that they can afford to regularly put out a product with examples of waste by design on every other page.

Then again, I seriously doubt anyone gets as irked by this as I do.

a soon to be unpopular opinion.

I actually quite like the new Facebook layout.

moo cards and social objects.

After agonizing about it for several months, I decided I should get some ‘blog cards’ that I could give to non-professional contacts that I meet in my random social endeavours. I think it’s important to keep my personal life out of my work, as similarly I don’t think it makes sense to give non-work contacts my work card (with office number and work email address).

After talking with my friend Lindsay (the same friend who introduced me to the Tumblr platform) I decided to try Moo cards.

The process was quick, easy and simple. For the relatively low total cost of 28 dollars (including shipping) and less than 20 minutes of my time, I have 100 cards (in three varieties) that should arrive in the next few weeks. I’ll post up pictures, etc. The cards I purchased are very simple, a line of text on one side, and 5 lines of contact info for me on the other.

The interesting part of this is that the format Moo operates in allows you to design 100 different minicards for an order of 100, if you wish. It’s inspired me to start doing editions (for as long as I need the cards, or for as long as Moo still offers the service).

Each edition (after the first set that all have the same text) will feature 10 copies each of 10 phrases, usually snippets or quotes from the blog. I figure this will serve as a both a conversation piece (each card having a fairly cryptic or argumentative line on it) and as a timeline – each sentence will be for that edition only, so people will be able to track what edition they’ve met me during.

Really, I’m just impressed at how simple Moo has made it to create a social object that is designed to be shared with everyone you meet.

ipod touch.

Oh god I played with an iPod touch for 10 mins at the Eaton Centre yesterday.

I know it's first gen, I know it's overpriced, I know no sane person browses the internet on a 3 inch screen.

I Want One. Desperately.

(For extra geek points, first think I did with it? Surfed to BrokenGent and saw how it was navigated via multi-touch.)

Apple has developed a severely customer unfriendly business model in it's non-pc business, and yet they continue to grow based on an unmatched ability to create pure consumer lust.

I am Steve Jobs' bitch, and I have a problem.

this is a gimme.

Maybe it's just me, but there are certain barriers for whether or not I want someone's opinion. At the very least, please don't give me cause to assume you are horribly out of touch before I read a word you've written.

This just popped up in the RSS feed. [via MIT Adverlab]

I have to ask... Is it really a good sign when a book on in-game advertising, with the words 'next generation' in the subtitle, chooses the frankly ancient Super Nintendo controller as the indicator that gaming is the subject matter?

Come on, people. Work with me, just a little.

ground war: fixing protest.

The pdf magazine is shoddily done, and I (yet again) have a new found respect for designers. If only I could be like you, you talented, aesthetically gifted few.

Well, by done I mean the version to be handed in to the prof is finished. The version for me, however, is going to go through several revisions before it is released. The first step in these will be for me to actually learn to use indesign WELL, as opposed to semi-adequately.

Anyone who knows me, and wants the ugly, but livable version, say the word, and I'll email it. Anyone who doesn't know me will have to be convincing.

Now to write a 6 page paper about a 22 page mag-ifesto.

love affair with paper.

While laying out the ground war pdf mag idea, I've began to appreciate paper more than I have in a long while. A blank moleskine and pens/pencils is pretty much the only way to work, when it comes to brainstorming layouts, both in terms of text/notes, and in terms of images and how they will be used. I'm starting to wonder if the complete lack of education I have in terms of design is evidence of horrible decision making abilities on my part.

At the same time, I cherish what I can do with words, and I suppose at least part of that is the english major experience. Still, fourth year university seems to be the time for 'what might have been', even more than previous years were.

Text on a page is a beautiful thing, and it makes me happy that I have found a way to present it which makes at least one of my theories a little bit more plausible, at least in my head. I have notebooks dating back years with the phrase 'text is a visual medium' scrawled in the margins. It's nice to finally take that and put it into anything resembling action.

Digital text makes white space a design choice, and not a waste of resources.

[If windows XP was willing to accept my card reader without nonexistant drivers, I'd even be including some pictures of my notes / layout concepts with this whatever-it-is. As it is, just trust that I mixed my major influences of hypertext, magazines, and comics together until something that worked for me, and is accessible, came up.]