Google.com.kw has changed its masthead to celebrate Kuwait’s Independence and Liberation days. The logo now shows the colors of with flag along with the Kuwait Towers replacing the letter l. Some bloggers are complaining that they corporation has got it wrong and it’s not on the dates. But, if you want to commemorate for an entire month, now is when you start. At any rate, it’s a nice consideration.

Better clear a huge, year-sized window in your busy schedules for this one: Interplay’s upcoming post-apocalyptic MMO, codenamed Project V13 (almost certainly the Fallout MMO) will have a public beta, but not for another two years. Blast!

Interplay’s press statement claims that the game will feature “many unique features”, and that they have been working on it since November 2007. The statement is actually about the finalisation of the deal between Interplay and Masthead Studios to collaborate on the title. Masthead’s own post-apocalyptic MMO, Earthrise, is currently set for a Q2 2010 release.

[Interplay via Eurogamer]

By John J. McCarthy–Q Intern, Brain Ninja, and Attempted Potato Farmer

A “typical” day as a Quiddity intern is as ordinary as celebrating your grandmother’s birthday on the moon with a pool party…Yes, there are the routine tasks that must be carried out with Marine-Corp precision, but there are also the extraordinary moments filled with things like getting to hang out with a Pulitzer Prize-winning author like Douglas Blackmon or a performance poet like Tyehimba Jess, or getting to attend a class taught by an artist like Sacha Newley.  Attending and participating in the AWP Conference—the largest creative-writing conference in North America— is a huge bonus, too.

Working with Quiddity is the toughest yet most fulfilling of literary internships.  Being a Quiddity intern is also a great way to get those biceps you always wanted.  The submissions arrive in bundles daily and must be hauled from Dawson Hall to the historic Brinkerhoff Home on campus, a Victorian behemoth where the Quiddity offices are located (including the interns’ office—high in the tops of the campus trees). 

The Brinkerhoff Stairs to the Q Offices

Although the intern office is small and shared, its floor-to-11’-ceilinged windows proffer a terrific view worth every spiraling stair that must be climbed to reach it.  Hauling all these written thoughts to the intern office becomes a journey in itself—one that realizes the importance of healthy calf muscles as well as toned biceps.  Once the physical workout is complete, it’s time to enter the database wormhole.  String-theory mastery is not required of Quiddity intern applicants, but it is helpful toward understanding the parallel universe that exists within the Quiddity submissions database.  And that’s all I’m going to say about that, except to add: I dare you to enter it and come back the same. 

The God Particle

A highlight of the Quiddity internship is the tremendous freedom to flex your creative muscles as well.  You can quadruple your amygdalaic strengths if you so choose.  One former intern, the admirable and tiny but mighty Nikkie Prosperini, who mastered the database and is now smashing atoms somewhere near Geneva, decided she wanted to tackle a multimedia project during her internship.  The project involved combining a highly-produced story by Asha Vose with visual art.

Nikkie spent days and nights in the throes of synthesis.  Adobe Audition became her bosom friend and tormenting enemy.  When daylight winked and white noise laughed at her labors in the intern office, she transported her efforts to a basement office devoid of windows and fortressed with thick concrete walls.  When fluorescent lighting still somehow seeped into sight of her lens, and when the high-pitched shrill of digital nothingness continued to invade her audio, her diligence dug in.

At one point, she literally walled herself in and then padded the walls.  Corrugated and serrated cardboard emerged as a significant part of her overall design.  Duct tape also played a leading role.

Observers became exceedingly concerned.  But we interns knew better. 

Quiddity means the real nature or essence of a thing—that which makes it what it is.  And we knew that Nikkie’s perseverance was rooted in the quiddity of artistry—a combination of imagination, passion, and exquisite, dogged exigentialism that permeates the deepest imaginations of the soul.  Even when it appears on the surface like the recycling efforts of a masochist who runs with scissors.

Interns read and comment on (using Vince Gotera’s poetic model for response) a number of submissions—and even though we don’t get a “vote,” we are afforded a tantalizing glimpse into the world of peer-reviewed journals by attending monthly Editorial Board meetings that could also be referred to as professional and erudite throw-downs.  If cage-fighting had a respectful scholarly counterpart, Q Ed Board meetings would be it.

And although the folks at the top of the masthead are the ones who get to throw down, Quiddity would remain only a divine idea if it weren’t for us interns.  For it is we who are in charge of making sure the world’s ideas are brought forth to be intently considered by the throwers-down.  Let’s face it, many of the literary world’s magnum opi like Quiddity would grind to a halt were it not for the mighty intern.

St. Benedict and his CV

And in turn for our efforts mighty (chiasmus alert), we not only attain a priceless and immersive experience surrounding the process and framework of literary journals, but both physical and creative muscles get stretched and honed, and editing-software skills from the printed page to the sonic boon of the public-radio program are mastered.  This guarantees a halo around your résumé and an educational experience that is truly extraordinary.  ~John J. McCarthy, qintern@sci.edu

Dezember. Schnee und Bohei.

Besinnlich soll es bitte zugehen, das suggerieren Tradition und Werbung. Und doch hat man nur drei Wochenenden zur Verfügung, um Wohnungen zu schmücken, Termine zum Plätzchenbacken mit den Freundinnen zu finden, Geschenke zu basteln, Projekte abzuschließen und sich übers neue Jahr Gedanken zu machen.

Wie kommt es, daß ein willkürliches Datum wie der 31.12.  für uns zu einer so magischen Grenze wird? Diesseits türmen sich alter Ballast: schlechte Gewohnheiten, ungeschriebene Briefe, nicht verwirklichte Zukunftsversprechen. Jenseits, geläutert durch Raketenknall und aufgeputscht durch Sekt, steht unser neues Ich im neuen Jahr, the New Me™. Es wird weniger völlern, mehr Sport treiben, wieder eine Tageszeitung abonnieren, früher zu Bett gehen, weniger bloggen, mehr Tango üben, weniger an sich und mehr an Andere denken, weniger auf Andere und mehr auf sich achten etc. etc.

Geht los, wie der Sachse sagt.

Meine Freundin Petra, eine warme, patente Frau, die ich vor zwei Jahren in der Tanzstunde kennenlernte, hat gerade ohne Kind & Kegel eine fünfwöchige Reise durch Nepal gemeistert. Der Abend mit ihren Bildern und Erzählungen war ein unvergeßliches, inspirierendes Erlebnis (nicht zuletzt, weil ich unter den Menschen aus ihrer Reisetruppe einen Tanguero entdeckte, den ich erst am Vorabend auf einer Milonga kenngelernt hatte: „Petra, tanzt der Tango?“ – „Ja, wieso?“ – „Ach, nur so, ich hab’ ihn gestern nach seinem Aftershave gefragt!“)

Das Foto mit den Gebetsfahnen stelle ich in diesem Monat als Seitenkopf über alle Einträge in meinem Blog. Unsere Wünsche vom Anfang des Jahres mögen bunt sein oder verblaßt, fadenscheinig und zerschlissen, so daß wir uns ihrer kaum noch erinnern. Aber irgendwann haben wir sie einmal an einen Faden geknüpft, in der Hoffnung, daß sie flattern und leuchten, um uns daran erinnern, was uns wichtig schien.

Niemals geträumt hätte ich, wie sehr dieses Blog in den vergangenen Monaten mein Leben umgekrempelt hat. Ich habe viele wunderbare Menschen kennengelernt, denen ich andernorts nie begegnet wäre.

Danke, Petra, für das schöne Bild, in doppelter Hinsicht.

Den Masthead (d. h. den Seitenkopf) im Monat November ziert ein Detail aus dem Portfolio des Photographen Lane Coder, der zur Zeit rauf und runter gebloggt wird, so daß ich mir weitere Ausführungen spare. In meinen Augen ist die allseitige Begeisterung gerechtfertigt, er macht wirklich ansprechende Bilder: Landschaften, Menschen, Mode.

Mir haben es natürlich vor allem diese Wald- und Wasserwesen angetan:

[Mit Dank an die Kalaschnikowa; die erfuhr davon (wahrscheinlich) hier.]

I woke up this morning to learn that CNN has a new look and feel.

Frankly, lets not overreact.  We as humans are naturally resistant to change and the first impression is always going to be a jarring experience, particularly since you were not expecting it.  Fortunately, I was as I got my mashable! newsletter this morning warning me about it.  Nonetheless, since the look and feel and experience is significantly different, it would have been nice for CNN to have warned me and given me a preview.  Others choose the transitional approach where the site is changed slightly over time and that, in my opinion, does not require any advance warning.

I really need to give this a few weeks to react appropriately.  However, here are my off the cuff top 3 observations of what they do well, and top 3 observations of what they could do better.

What they do well

1. Good navigation of the main categories in the masthead.
2. Nice way for them to introduce their “NewsPulse” concept to customers with the beta badge on the nav bar
3. Nice job moving into a wider resolution

What they could do better

1. While main category navigation is good, I find it curious that they chose to center their logo and waste a lot of space that could be used for utilities such as login, register, etc.
2. I know they have to make money through display advertising, however, I do not like ad placement on the upper right, and “deceivingly” inserted in the editors choice section on the middle of the screen.  I think they can achieve better flow and advertise with a less intrusive experience.
3. The information I normally look for is around hot topics and weather.  These are very much towards the bottom of the screen.  They probably put this through usability and I am the exception to the rule.  My preference is that they either move it to the top or give me the flexibility to move widgets around on the screen for a personalized experience.
4. I said 3 but have an extra one.  Not all their sister sites moved to the new look and feel.  CNN Money has not changed and hopefully it is on their roadmap to do soon.

Bottom line, nice job with their redesign.  It did not take me long to get used to the new site and know that they will continue to evolve it over time with customer feedback.  I am proud of them for putting a feedback button on the upper right for users to easily let them know what they like, and what they don’t like.

kind of plain and simple but yeah…

Tanner Morrow, »The Last Fall« (2009)

Den Masthead (d. h. den Seitenkopf) im Monat Oktober ziert ein Detail eines Kunstwerks des bereits vorgestellten Tanner Morrow, einem 26-jährigen Illustrator aus den USA. Wie in vielen seiner Werke, sprach mich auch bei »The Last Fall« die Schönheit, die lyrische Stimmung, die Mischung aus Stille und Aufruhr an. Und natürlich ist es immer eine besondere Erfahrung, wenn ein Kunstwerk die persönliche, momentane Gestimmtheit einfängt.

Was mich freut: Tanner Morrow beruft sich bei den Inspirationen zu diesem Bild auf einen anderen, ebenfalls von mir verehrten Künstler, den ich hier schon vorstellte!

i’ve really wanted to redefine who and what i’m doing as an artist. i love vintage. i love old things. the smell. the texture. the taste….everything about it.
this piece is very much inspired by the artwork of John Tenniel. as well as future works i have coming. if you’re not familiar with his work, be sure to google him. he is nothing short of amazing.

~ Tanner Morrow

Update:

Ein Leserkommentar (Martin, s. u.) brachte mich darauf, daß hierzu eigentlich nur ein Song paßt …

]]> http://webgazettes.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/the-corowa-free-presss-masthead/ Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:11:59 +0000 chelsness http://webgazettes.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/the-corowa-free-presss-masthead/

The (Corowa) Free Press masthead isn’t exactly attention-grabbing, but something about it that does raise my eyebrows is it claims to be “your community newspaper”.

What is a community newspaper? In a reply to a comment on my first blog post, I claimed that in Victoria, community newspapers and regional newspapers are different.

And, here we are with a regional newspaper that claims to be a community newspaper. Was I wrong to exclude community newspapers from my study?

I don’t think so. The Free Press claims the newspaper “[Pages] everyday life in the Corowa & Indigo Shires”. Here, I think The Free Press uses the term “community newspaper” as a description of its newspaper, as opposed to a classification.

Newspapers like Melbourne suburbs’ Leader newspapers and Fairfax’s Community Network can be newspapers classified as “community newspapers”. They can also be described as “community newspapers”, since they’re concerned with the life and concerns of a community.

But newspapers like The Free Press, The Ovens and Murray Advertiser and The Colac Herald are classified as “regional newspapers”, since they’re based in country towns; although they can also be described as “community newspapers”.

Going off the classifications, I don’t think I’ve been wrong to exclude surburban community newspapers from my study.

"The Ovens and Murray Advertiser" in an Old English-style typeface, and "Incorporating Indigo Advertiser and The Rutherglen Star" in Arial

Another Old English-style masthead. Apparently this masthead is new, but unfortunately I don’t have a copy of the old one. (How much older can it look?)

The filigree and old-look typeface is charming, but to me the Old English typeface and the more modern-looking typeface for “Incorporating Indigo Advertiser and The Rutherglen Star” are mismatched.

I guess you could say the same about my blog banner’s title (”Web Gazettes”) and its subtitle (”On newspapers and the Internet”), but I chose those typefaces deliberately because my blog is concerned with the old and the new.

Having been published since 1855, I don’t doubt The Ovens and Murray Advertiser has a history that warrants the Old English typeface, but Arial on a masthead is almost shameful. Even if the masthead designer was going for “historical but modern”, nothing about Arial says innovative. Being a standard (and sub-standard) typeface, on a masthead it gives the newspaper an amateur look.

Funny how a tiny detail can ruin an otherwise attractive masthead.

We’re pleased to announce the release of two new families on Myfonts.com.

Yesterday, Ann Arbor News printed its last edition, following the unsettling trend spearheaded by such established papers as Denver’s Rocky Mountain News, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Christian Science Monitor. Maybe we don’t need newspapers to get our news, but I don’t want to swat flies with a MacBook. Other things you can’t do with a computer, but can with a newspaper:
•Paper-Mache a pinata.
•Create a megaphone for important announcements.
•Wrap gifts.
•Doodle squiggly lines on the front page while talking on the phone.
•Make a pirate hat.
•Threaten Blue Dog democrats into voting for health care reform.
•Wrap fish for cooking. Apparently, it cooks nicely and dinner guests can open their own package of food. Elegant.
•Assemble a ransom note.
•Kindle a fire. Kindles probably aren’t as useful. And they censor themselves.
•Make paper airplanes.
•Line a birdcage.
•Read it on Sundays without worrying about getting bagel crumbs in its keyboard.
•Find a masthead without keyword searching.
•Tear it up in frustration after another headline announces another newspaper has printed its last words.

I was so happy with how well this panorama of Colleen and I turned out that I decided to make it into a new masthead for the site. In case you forgot, this is what the old one looked like…

In honour of the occasion, and the hope that I may get around to making new mastheads occasionally in the future, I have also created a handy mastheads: page (Which you can now find up @ the top of the page).

On my old WordPress, I found some really cool CSS code that let me change the image when I hovered my mouse over it. =D

Problem is, I can’t find it. TT_TT

Well, whatever. I was going to have it display this image:

Really, What are you looking at? =/

AMY O EARNS the honor of first-to-comment on the page posted by Larry See Jr. Her comment was thorough and thoughtful. A free pdf copy of 101 Henninger Helpful Hints hangs in the balance. Check Amy’s comment—and then see if you can do better for Larry. If you can, great. If not…well, Amy will be first to comment and first to win!

Let’s see more!

Designed by Artform

Readers are always looking for the latest  product releases. Interior designers, architects, and consumers use these resources for ideas and inspiration.  

In each issue of Hudson Magazine, “InVogue”  features the latest product releases from designers and manufacturers. “InVogue” serves as a runway for many designers and showrooms in the A & D Building, the D & D Building, and the New York Design Center in Manhattan. In this layout, the descriptive copy was set in a single narrow column with numerals to link text to the images. Lots of white space creates an uncluttered look to give emphasis to the products.

The “What’s New” department section follows the editorial calendar schedule and focuses on a specific product group (in this issue, Outdoor Style took center stage).  In this layout, two different column widths are used maximizing the white space in the center drawing readers to the featured products. A combination of  two fonts in varying weights and sizes, thin hairlines, numerals, and a drop cap add interest to the layout. 

Templates are not used in the ”Catalog” section. Each photo is treated as a single design element. This gives the designers more freedom when deciding on the placement and size of the images. Square halftones juxtapose silhouettes to create a well-balanced design.