99.

I’ve been mulling the future of design for the past few days, as I’ve had a few brief but turbulent encounters with clients around cost and deliverables. Most of my worries have been around this incredible rapid race to the bottom. Every day I receive emails from (semi-legitimate or real) companies in India, Russian, or Romania that, in essence, are offering web design and/or development services for $8.00 per hour or less. I fully understand that, in this race, everyone is hungry, everyone need to make money and that developed countries (e.g. Canada) has an inordinate leg up on against developing countries.

Where it gets incredibly messy and grotesque, in my opinion, is on sites like 99designs.com. There, clients don’t need to argue with designers to provide a lower price for high quality service. That’s simply the modus operandi. Clients go to 99 because they only want to pay that amount and, from my observations, it looks like they’re all getting a good deal. The designs are competent, the quality is quite high, and the timing may be on. But what’s missing is that inexplicable construct which comes with truly great design - a personality, a spirit of assurance or a logic that escapes the traditional. Does this mean that only well-heeled and monetarily blessed individuals and organizations can afford enlightened or unique design? It does. And the reality is that this is how design (and aesthetic production more generally) has always worked. Because nearly anyone with a computer today can be a knowledge or culture worker (or both), the playing field is level. The same goes with video editors, journalists, and programmers. But, because this has happened so quickly, we still don’t have mechanisms to rule out what is merely good from what is great.

Sites like Haystack, recently launched by 37signals, make an attempt at helping people choose a design firm that matches their requirements. But their model, where some agencies and designers can pay for an elevated position on the site, belie and undermine their intention. Taking money from companies that may or may not be better at communicating prospective client needs and showcasing those companies is not a useful proposition. Instead, Haystack takes the 99designs.com model and turns it around; the wealthiest and most marketing-focused design firms are provided leverage in the competition. In this way (and in this way only), I believe that the latter is, ethically, on more solid ground; 99designs.com, at least, honestly allows multiple entities to compete for a given (albeit low) amount of business.

What is missing here, in this novel short-sighted design context, is the relationship. I’ve always said that, for my little company, the relationship is everything. The auctioning or advertising of services (two sides of the same ugly coin) won’t buy long-term design, unique imagery, or usable and accessible production. In this supposedly “democratic” connectedness, it’s not connection that buys good design, as nearly everyone has that. Rather, and simply, the best design today stems from relationships and the unfolding of solutions through dialogue and time.

The Last of Newsweek.

I promise that this will be the last post on Newsweek (probably) for some time, but I figured it was worth following up after having attempted to redesign a few pages of the magazine.

First off, a number of other sites picked up on the design and their reviews are worth reading. In particular, magCulture.com writes in Newsweek relaunch: “Unless I’m missing something here, this is a bit of of tricksy over-design that doesn’t suit a magazine claiming depth and intelligence.” I think this sums up the entire experience of the magazine. Further down the page, a commenter writes “I feel like I lost a close friend.” My sentiments exactly. Great site, magCulture, by the way.

Second, it appears that the design was executed (my word) by Number 17. I can’t speak to their other work, which looks fine enough, but they have a lot to answer for with this project (or their client does). (FYI, Number 17, your site doesn’t work on the iPhone and isn’t accessible.)

Next, I found some interesting commentary by James Robinson about the size and losses of the magazine, which is sad on top of sad. Writer and art director Mark Porter writes about the design’s fundamental randomness on his site. As well, a really nicely crafted new design blog called idsgn writes Newsweek, can a redesign save the dying magazine? and pick up my redesign.

Font identification update: It appears that the redesign uses Village’s Flama for headlines. Most of the magazine’s new text itself appears to be using Christian Schwartz’s Farnham. And then there’s Hoefler & Frere-Jones’ Archer used for much of the body text in the front of the book. On their own, each of these typefaces are elegant, unpretentious, modern, and extremely legible. Mixed into the cauldron of the Newsweek redesign, they look like hell.

Finally, some inquired as to where I work. I run a small design firm called MANOVERBOARD. I’d be happy to hear from anyone with thoughts or questions.

Oh: I cancelled Newsweek and I was kindly sent a check for the remainder of my two-year subscription.

Redesigning Newsweek.

A few weeks ago, I kidded on Twitter that I was redesigning Newsweek because I was so utterly disgusted with the publication’s recent redesign. You can read my full venting on the subject, if you’re interested.

Newsweek’s new design takes relatively staid stock imagery, some very well written content, and a few strong typefaces and somehow manages to ruin all of them in one fell swoop. The totality of the presentation is a mess, with sloppy layout, poor typography, inconsistent styling, and a seeming lack of interest in engaging the reader.

So, I decided to redesign to Newsweek—or at least a few pages of the magazine.*

I had the following overarching objectives:

• Use the same or very similar fonts
• Make use of the general look and feel of the magazine that I’ve known for many years (and even capture some of the nuances of the current magazine)
• Ensure that the presentation could actually be used by the magazine

These objectives were defined to better put myself in the shoes of the art director and to feel that the assignment would have a result that would be useful and utilizable.

Concomitantly, I set up the following limitations:

• I would not spent more than 2 total hours on the project
• The redesign would use exactly the same copy as in the original magazine
• No truly new graphics (e.g., icons, textures, etc.) would be introduced

These restrictions would ensure that I felt that I didn’t have free license to do whatever the hell I want. Rather, as the Fake Art Director, I had to make use of the same basic resources available to the real one.

The Original

I chose to use the Crazy Oprah issue of Newsweek (June 8, 2009) because, in part, the cover felt so angry, and even mildly racist. Here the magazine used an unflattering photograph of a powerful and influential person and subjected her to an unsubtle and unsophisticated visual presentation.

I also chose two interior pages from this same issue that interested me. These were Fareed Zakaria’s “Boom Times are Back”, a piece about the potential decline of influence of the United States, and an back-of-the-book article on Elvis Costello by Seth Colter Walls entitled “He’s a Little Bit Country.” The latter also had a strange column at the bottom of the page called “The Prognosticator”.

A Revision

I started the revision by reworking Zakaria’s piece. I wanted to try to use, as much as possible, the exact same font families that are in the original design. Included was Hoefler & Frere-Jones’s beautiful slab serif Archer for headlines, which does not work at all for the magazine. I believe the main font used for the body is a grade of H & FJ’s lovely Mercury Text, but I’m not sure. I wanted to see if I even had a chance of making it work.

As you can see, I failed. It’s no better than the original.

The Revision

I looked through my toolbox and found that two relatively new font families would work beautifully here: Christian Schwartz’s Stag for headlines and callouts and Veronika Burian’s fabulous Karmina for the body. Stag is a sturdy but smart slab face with roots in the magazine world; it was originally commissioned for Esquire. Karmina was developed for difficult print conditions and it reads crisply and elegantly at small sizes.

Using wider margins and gutters and larger images and these typefaces, I restyled the same copy with cleaner, clearer headlines that actually spoke to me.

I then replicated the general styling of this page for the piece on Costello and “The Prognosticator” section.

Finally, I tackled the cover. In some ways, this was the easiest part of the redesign. Through the power of Google, I found a much more flattering photograph of Oprah Winfrey. If the editors wanted to insult her or her fans, at least they could do it in a more subtle way. Using DINSchrift for the knocked out headline, I placed it over the mouth, which is also the central spot of the book. The sub-header is less important but I gave more prominence to the byline, which to my eyes should have more weight.

I found an older version of the Newsweek logo for the masthead, which I prefer. It’s chunkier, thicker, and feels more honest, somehow than the leaner, Slim-Fast version on the newsstands. Related, I extended the red masthead left and right to bleed off the page; this makes the cover feel more full, more serious, and brighter. Finally, I centered the dateline above the logo and placed the coverlines at the top that showcased top stories within the magazine. (While I appreciate the simplicity of a minimalist magazine cover, by not indicating featured content, I’m not sure what I’m buying in a magazine besides for a cover story.)

The end result is not perfect by any means. My revision, if anything, feels a bit too colorful and too People-magazine for a Newsweek audience. At the same time, I can honestly say that I’d rather read my redesign than theirs.

If you’re interested, you can download a PDF (quite large at 2.6 MB) of the redesign to see some of the details.

*Disclaimer: the logos and all content used in the redesign are copyright Newsweek, Inc. Photos of celebs and other images used in the redesign were gained via Google and are copyright their respective authors.

I Want You Back.

It didn’t get much better than this: the Jackson Five play for the first time on Dick Clark’s Bandstand. I’m guessing this is around 1970.

R.I.P. Michael.

Video Spectacle III.

Third in a series of videos that I feel represent a change in the way motion pictures are working online, via The Ministry of Type, I discovered this beautiful reel of the recent works of Rob Chiu. (AKA The Ronin, Chiu is a photographer and videographer based in London.)

What makes this short video compilation of stills and motion so compelling are two things. First, the extraordinary use of Radiohead’s “Videotape” song, which has the following lyrics:

This is one for the good days and I have it all here In red, blue, green Red, blue, green

Second, unlike the high-speed and high-drama of most videos today, this one focuses on the slow human motions of walking, sleeping, eating, reading, killing, and watching. In a few short moments, we watch days go by, words fly by, people working and collapsing, as they themselves watch the world watch them go by.

Video Spectacle II.

A new magazine about Judaism and Jewish contemporary life has launched. It’s called Tablet and I quite like the idea of the English-speaking world reading a more thoughtful approach to thinking about Jewish thinking (pardon all the redundancy).

My peronsal hope for Tablet is that it fills the gaps between the often hilarious in-jokes of Heeb, the earnest progressivity of Tikkun, and the newsiness of the Jerusalem Post.

The two designers who crafted the over-arching and specific identities around Tablet speak about their decision-making process, their research, and their presentation of designs in this video (I can’t seem to embed it herein). I don’t particularly adore the aesthetic of “big ideas in the 70’s” but I identify with the designers’ approaches to the task and their efforts to present strong design, good typography, and reasonable client access to their thought process. It’s something I aim for in every design project, as well&#8212large, small, and in between. Nice work all around.

Video Spectacle I.

Video has exploded and has become the most interesting medium on the Web for me, though I am just learning how to use it, produce it, and edit it.

Over the next week, my goal is to show spectacular examples of video from around the globe.

I. I-Movix SprintCam v3 NAB 2009 showreel by David Coiffier.

1000 frames per second on a supremely high resolution camera pushed to slow motion. (Via daringfireball.)

I-Movix SprintCam v3 NAB 2009 showreel from David Coiffier on Vimeo.

Hint: Check it out in HD at this actual link to video.

Weak Newsweek.

For many years, I’ve been a fervent subscriber of Newsweek magazine. Started in the midst of the Great Depression, the magazine always felt, to me, like a more settled yet liberal version of Time. Its stories were rich in detail, its editorial passionate, its photography and illustration solid. I always enjoyed getting my copy of it in the mail, and even after our move to Canada a few years ago, I kept up the subscription, despite the hefty additional cost and the extra time it took to arrive on these northern shores.

I eagerly waited and was very excited to see the new design that Newsweek, going through its own fits of journalistic and financial challenges, orchestrated. Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham, on Charlie Rose, a few weeks ago spoke eloquently about the need to reinvent journalism, to ensure that the magazine survives amidst the oncoming shakeups and shutdowns, and to find a new way to build circulation and revenues. I saw the website and, while it was less than stellar, I figured that the magazine had put most of its efforts into creating a new print style that would match its new editorial outlook.

Then “it” arrived. I call it “it,” because my first and ongoing reaction to the new print edition of Newsweek is one of profound disgust and mild horror. The thing is just ugly, from beginning to end. Here’s what’s wrong with “it”:

It’s almost impossible to discern (even with these discerning eyes) the editorial content from the advertisements and the advertisements from the advertorials. Everything, and I do mean everything, is fused into a wall of non-hierarchical content.

It’s primary new typeface used, Hoefler & Frere-Jones otherwise lovely Archer, is so over-used and inelegantly styled that reading the magazine is an exercise in futility. I started reading one article - and about half the way through I put the magazine down and closed its pages. I became so focused on the slabs and dots of Archer’s slab serifs that I could no longer focus on the meaning of the words. To me, it’s like reading a garden. (I even own and often use Archer for clients; it’s a great display face, but it doesn’t work for Newsweek.)

The cover is so tremendously overwrought, I thought I was looking at a 1980s throw-back. Putting the red solid banner at the top and center, lurking above the content looks wrong. The large photo beneath it is nice, but the transparent overlay of text is either illegible, cute, or worse, both. Oddly, I typically like this treatment of transparent text over color photographs; in this case, the designers took it too far.

I don’t know if Newsweek changed its printing facilities or is using a new paper throughout, but it doesn’t work. It’s a bit nicer quality of print and that is appreciated. But it goes against the grain of the entirely advertisement-like cheapness of the interior.

As a newsweekly with the name “Newsweek,” there’s no News section. As Jeremy Leslie writes in his review in magCulture.com: “Unlike rival Time, which relaunched last year, this weekly news magazine no longer has a News section. Brave stuff, and the decision is getting plenty of comment online, including a withering comment from US editorial design guru Roger Black to the effect that the magazine could now afford to change it’s name as it was no longer about news nor needed to be weekly.” In fact, Time did an utterly stunning job in its recent redesign; while the content is more shallow and temporal, the design is extremely functional and elegant in its use of space.

This brings up the last point: space and time. Given that, as citizens of the new world, we all feel cramped against so little time, it’s critical that the “idea space” our magazines provide is clear, compelling, and pleasurable to apprehend and understand. Most of us need help making sense of the world’s newsworthy complexity - and a newsweekly helps summarize and punch up what might be forgotten amidst the headlines on CNN.com and the increasingly boring NYTimes.com. As a Michael Kinsley writes his in his review of the newsweekly at TNR, Meacham says about the new magazine:

“We are not pretending to be your guide through the chaos of the Information Age,” which concedes a lot of ground from the get-go. Why not at least pretend? Why else would people pick it up, let alone subscribe?

I, for one, will give Newsweek one Newsmonth to get its visual and editorial act together. If it doesn’t succeed, I’ll be giving myself the gift of Time.

Old O's.

Lest this blog be posts about Barack Obama only (and I have a few more to go), I might as well blow my wad now: Logos that were not ultimately chosen by the Obama campaign. (Thanks to R.J.)

Amazing how most of them are average and that the right decision was made.

Lorem 2.

A few weeks ago, we launched Lorem 2, a small website that, I believe, provides a better way for designers and developers to capture Lorem ipsum content. As you can read on the about page, having used other people’s Lorem sites for far too long, my hope is that Lorem 2 is antidote to the current Lorem inanity.

Designer.

I’m happy to say that I’ve been accepted into the The Society of Graphic Designers of Canada a few days ago. It’s cool. I’m honored. I’m even listed on their site now, though I have yet to put my portfolio. Much like the much more massive AIGA in the States, the GDC helps represent designers, enforce standards, and promote ethical business practices. I’m in the mix—American, Canadian, designeran.

Help wanted.

<self-promotional-post>

So, I posted this position today for a CSS developer at Authentic Jobs. If you know of anyone who might be applicable and who might want to apply, please send forward this to them? Thanks.

</self-promotional-post>

Postscript: Help wanted was gained at The Royal Mint. Check out these beautiful, beautiful designs for the new coins by 26-year old Matthew Dent.

Paul Rand.

This was an amazing interview with Paul Rand.

“I’ll solve your problem for your the best way I know how.”

As a designer, I’d like to get to this point professionally. “I’ll provide one design for you that I believe will help you. If you want other designs, ask other designers.” In case you don’t know Rand, he’s the total master of corporate identity in the 20th century.

Architects.

Someone seemed to have forgotten to get an education on their way through architecture school. By the number of cars in the lot, this retirement home, somehow built in the shape of a swastika, is quite popular.

Sheet.

One sheet of paper.

Van.

I like the way this guy narrates a funny, angry tutorial, called “You Sucjk at Photoshop.” Obviously, he must have done this for a paycheck previously. Thanks to my friend, K.F., for the lead.

Rancid.

It’s neat. You can write a ransom note on a pretty yellow piece of paper these days without having to look through magazines and newspapers, worry about the glue sticking, or think about the kerning of the individual letters. It’s also cool that you don’t have to take anyone hostage or kill or murder anyone. Old days be gone! Joy to the world!

Store.

This is a store I would not mind shopping, so long as the staff can keep their hands to themselves.

Tiny Hands.

There are currently two spots airing right now about men with tiny hands. One is for Burger King and it’s okay; it plays on the stereotype of small hands and small members and the revelation of inadequacy among men. The second is more powerful and funnier, if more pretentious, spot for Herringbone; it features the short history of a boy with small hands who grew to be a beloved tailor throughout Europe.

These give hope to the world.

Helvetica Two.

I had one last opportunity on Thursday to see Helvetica, the movie. It was good, in a Helvetica kind of way. Here’s how the film and the typeface are similar:

• They obviate the need for explicitly delving into history. They stand on their own feet, which, in turn, stand on the heads of invisible giants.
• They purport to be well-rounded, neutral, and fun-loving. They ask to be seen as straightforward, honest, and open and they present themselves as the definitive and conclusive.
• They define themselves through requited love. They love to be loved and love you back for loving them and for being in love with loving them.
• They are fat in the middle and end somewhat squarely.

Postcript: It was great seeing the faces of some of my favorite type luminaries on a big screen.

Saddest Cubicle in the World.

When people ask me how I can afford to not work full-time at some kind of design agency or for a bureaucracy because I don’t get benefits or a pension, I think I will point them to this, a winner (or runner-up) of the saddest-cubicle contest sponsored by Wired Magazine, whose redesign is quite lovely, by the way and quite opposite to the office world of Mr. Smuckaluckovich depicted in these images.

Corbis Buys Veer.

My favorite stock imagery company, the inimitable Veer, was apparently bought for some crazy amount of money by Corbis, a larger and less designer-friendly corporation.

This statement today in the press release announcing the purchase tells it all:

“We’re bullish about the future of the stock photography industry and are seizing this opportunity during a period of market disruption to take bold steps toward capturing momentum,” said Gary Shenk, CEO, Corbis.

Blech. A sad day for relatively independent stock agencices, commercial photographers and illustrators and type designers, and the designers and creators that look forward to their guidance.

P.S. I will continue to regularly patronize Veer so long as the company continues to offer solid, useful visual intellectual property within a superb interface.

Bigger.

I admit that I’ve only had a few clients that could have used this, a cream to make your logo bigger. I only wish there was a “Make My Links Disappear” as well.

Humble Arts.

Not only is this a beautifully designed site, but my friend, J.F., is in the recent Group Show, Number 19 in the series.

Looking through this site makes me very glad that people are continuing to curate art exhibitions online. Way back in 1997 (wow, 10 years ago!), I started The Site at MANOVERBOARD. (It used to be housed at the .com domain and is now at the .net one.) I’ve promised myself that I will update The Site someday but a sugar daddy would be of assistance. The site went through many, many versions. Nearly every page was designed and built by me. And I continue to stand by every single decision I made in featuring artists on The Site. Included were Jason Kottke, Ruth Root, Lynn Talbot, Melissa Gould, and Zbigniew LIbera.

Over the period of a little over five years, the site featured over 35 artists. At one point, probably in 2000 or so, I actually thought that I might be able to sell The Site to an investor or venture capitalist. The market for online properties was so hot. The Site, in my estimation, was worth approximately $500,000 back then.

Gorilla Coffee.

It just so happens that my favorite coffee these days is Gorilla Coffee, a newish micro-roastery bean sent to us in Winnipeg by our Brooklyn friend J.F. It’s fully awesome—bold, tough, and fresh yet somehow gentle, just like Brooklyn itself. And it just so happens that they have the nicest website I’ve seen in many, many days—bold, tough, and fresh and yet, also, somehow gentle.

Pixel Implosion.

A few months ago, when I was playing with a nice little Mac application called Notae, I started to set about trying to find the designer of the icon itself. It’s gorgeous. Spare, dark, simple, rounded, lovely. The application itself is okay but the developer hired one of the very best icon designers, Pixel Implosion’s Bobby Anderson, 19.

Taking a good look at some of the best of his work, I can more fully recognize the sheer beauty of contemporary icon design. These little images need to look good both small and large while also representing the inherent qualities of an application. They need to look “realistic” without having feeling photographic and “smooth” without being cheesily rendered with too much shading and fat gradients. (There only icon designer/illustrator that comes up to this level of skill is Jasper Hauser.)

Importantly, for many years, I’ve thought that illustration (whether via the medium of pixels, paper, or popcorn) will be the real refuge of great Web designers. A strong photograph, a nice new font, and a bright color can make for a pretty nice website these days. Almost anyone can do it. But illustration, the fine art of crafting something from scratch and melding various visual components together into a meaningful whole, is harder to come by, anywhere. And especially on the Web.

Andrew Simpson.

Tomorrow I see The Simpsons Movie. I'm very excited. Today, in preparation for this event, I went to the mall and purchased a green shirt with a three-eyed crazy fish on it and a new pair of bluejeans. It set me back $84.53. The results speak for themselves:

New Deck.

We actually got a new deck last weekend and it's quite nice. Well, it's not really a deck. It's more like a landing that takes you outside the house to the yard. Well, it's not really a landing, exactly. It's more like a stairway that's made of wood.

In that same spirit, I've recently upgraded the hardware and software of Deckchairs on the Titanic to the latest and greatest, thanks to my friend and colleague, Michael Barrish. Thanks, Michael! It's working beautifully and it will inspire me to update the site in the coming weeks. More posts, more design, and better, faster bionics coming soon.

Apple Redesigns.

Apple redesigned its own website today and there are many kudos to go around. To wit:

• A nicely unified top navigation with, amazingly, only seven tabs at the top. I can't imagine how hard it was for Apple's marketing, sales, and technology executives to agree on these final top categories. There was probably blood on the large, wide conference table up until launch.
• It's been predicted for a long time that Apple was going to lose its aqua-look interface and tabs (which Vista adapted in the past few months). Apple did so with its brushed metal theme. But here's the brilliant part: They didn't overdo it. The metal shines, just gently, and it doesn't make its way into every little aspects of the rest of the site. For instance, there's no brushed metal hanging on to every subnavigational element, nor is there brushed metal gradients on the background of every section or page. I don't love it, but I do like it a lot.
• Apple has a whole new section called Downloads. This is a huge big deal, akin to opening a new store within the site. It puts the company in direct competition with two sites that I visit a bit too often (okay, once a day): MacUpdate and Version Tracker. Both of these sites detail and track the latest independent and corporate applications developed for the Mac. For Apple to have gotten into this game means that third-party software is now critical to their business model; too, my guess is that it will help further differentiate the company from Microsoft and its Windows operating system in that it directly points visitors to a range of powerful and inexpensive third-party solutions.
• The new iPhone is front and foremost on the site, with its own little item at the top. I wish that tab well.
• A lot of things are the same. Same widespread use of the Lucida Grande font, thankfully. Same cute, discrete headlines: "Hello, tomorrow." "Mail. Think outside the inbox." Same three column Store.
• Safari, the native Mac browser, is now available for Windows. More brilliance. If it works as well on Windows as it does on OS X, a few million people are going to have the ability to see what makes looking at websites a pleasure.
• Downgraded is Apple's .Mac service. In fact, upon a quick review of the new site, I can't even find .Mac. Quicktime, too, got whacked.

My first impulse, still unacted upon: buy something. I just wish it could be Apple's stock.

Postscript: Apple's Canadian site still has the old look. So does Bulgaria's.

London Boil.

There's a been a lot of online hubbub about the new identity of the 2012 London Olympics: in the design world, the dailies world, and even the medical world [thanks D.C.].

Me? I think there are two ways to explain this logo. First, it was designed by a team of novices who didn't know what to do and came up with something as a joke and decided to see how far they could take it. This little team got it to go all the way to 11, with investment banks now jumping on board the happy bandwagon. Go team! Second, the logo was designed by a very earnest set of designers who were deliberately attempting to break some non-existent mold and ended up delivering just that: mold.

The resulting logo is not only butt-ugly. Worse, to me, it's illegible and intellectually thin.

New Banner Ads on My Yahoo!

During the past few weeks, My Yahoo!, which has remained my homepage for over 8 years despite everything, has changed its banner advertisement style and service. It hasn't been noticed much in the media, for some reason, but I've really paid attention to it.

First, the banners appear to be the same size as a typical, large rectangular banner than you might see on other sites: 728 by 90 pixels. But Yahoo! is serving them in Flash instead of JPEGs or GIFs. This is unusual for banners that are static. It seems to be a waste of resources but I'm betting that Flash is allowing Yahoo! to measure rollovers and other visitor behavior that more static media will not.

Second, these are designed to be modular and similar in style. It looks as if there is a small team of Yahoo! designers that take the advertising specs from a sales person and then build the banners to look alike, but not too alike. For instance, the banner I'm looking at now says "home theatre systems" in large type on the left and "Everything You Need to Know About home theatre systems. Find it here." And then there is a smaller link on the bottom left reading "home.informationking.net" and a dark arrow points to it. Why is the first part of the sentence in title case and the second part in lower case? It's either because the sales person didn't write it down correctly, the client didn't approve the final copy properly, or the designers are pumping these things out. Or all of the above. Or, it's just some cool way of writing copy these days.

Third, there are no images in these ads. Because a design agency isn't art directing the banner ads, there's no muss and no fuss. No product images, no logos, no fat heads rolling their eyes.

Fourth, these ads use the same typefaces throughout. The font is a bit thin for my tastes but works very well in the context of these banners.

I don't mean to be critical of this methodology of advertising. Google pioneered (or, actually, simply popularized*) the use of plain text ads. We've gotten quite used to advertisements looking the same but reading differently. For Yahoo!, I think it means that they've come across a semi-novel way of consolidating their advertisement display while not making it plain text, which necessarily takes the shape of Verdana or Arial these days. Yahoo! is on to something here - keep the banner ads clutter-free and clear but compelling to read because they're distinctive. Because these ads are unlike anything else, my eye gazes at them, in part thinking they're news and in part thinking they're of interest.

What is disappointing about Yahoo is its total lack of care for potential customers. When I click on the "Advertise with Us" link at the bottom of the My Yahoo! page, I'm taken to an outdated (the copyright date is 1994-2004), uninformative, relatively useless page that requests much too much information. It's no wonder that Google, whose clearly written and constructed advertising page, earned $3.66 billion last quarter.

Yahoo!'s profits during the same quarter dropped seven percent. Couldn't Yahoo! spend $10,000 to revise its advertising page and hire a couple of copywriters to review their new banner ads?

--
* It was Metafilter that got the ball rolling way back in 2001 with its TextAds, a system homegrown by publisher Matt Haughey.

P.S. A little further digging shows that Yahoo!'s main advertising page is different from the crappy My Yahoo! one. It makes me think My Yahoo! is not being updated or upgraded and that iGoogle and Netvibes really are the future of portal homepages.

Design vs. Art.

I've been trying to explain the difference between these two things (design and art) for, oh, about 20 years, but Joshua Porter does it way better and more simply than anyone else I've seen. The differences are perhaps not as stark as Porter desires but his point, that design is about usability and art is about expression (political, social, psychic), rings.

In case you're skeptical, here's the firstmost of his Five Principles to Design By (and I really recommend reading the rest):

Technology Serves Humans. Too often people blame themselves for the shortcomings of technology. When their computer crashes, they say "I must have done something dumb". If a web site is poorly designed, they say "I must be stupid. I can't find it". They might even turn to a book for Dummies to get it right.

This is horrible! People should never feel like a failure when using technology. Like the customer, the user is always right. If software crashes, it is the software designer's fault. If someone can't find something on a web site, it is the web designer's fault. This doesn't mean that the designer has to hang their head in shame...they should see this as a learning opportunity! The big difference between good and bad designers is how they handle people struggling with their design.

Technology serves humans. Humans do not serve technology.

New MANOVERBOARD.

It only took over a year of (part-time) work, but I'm thrilled to announce that MANOVERBOARD is redesigned, revised, and renewed.

It was a huge ordeal because designing for oneself is a bit like being a psychoanalyst trying to gain insight into one's own parents' dysfunctions. I spent hours and hours anxiously thinking about what kind of company I wanted to project, what kind of voice the content should produce, and which clients to feature and how. Because the site has to appeal in equal parts me and the universe of potential clients, I sweated and squirmed my way through nearly every stage of the design and the content development. I spent a few mornings at various non-wireless coffee shops, getting away from email and folders full of projects, so that I could write simply and simply write. I came up with at least six potential designs for the new site. Some of them sucked a lot. Others were so good that I almost ended up using them, though I'm thankful I did not.

The resulting website forced me to really think through some of my core beliefs about design. They are as follows:

• Create a beautiful container. I learned this when I designed the Barneys New York site a few years ago. There was no need for me to emphasize the decorative, the typographic, the obscure, the bizarre, or the visual form. I knew that Barneys would consistently present beautiful, unusual, and striking product and editorial imagery. My job was to create a gorgeous frame that could showcase the company's photography and then get the hell out of the way.
• It's not about you/me. Too often, designers work hard to over-represent themselves and their cleverness in their designs for clients. Some clients might appreciate this but I suspect those that do will probably fail. A designers' responsibility is to present his or her clients' work in the best of many possible lights. If, coincidentally, the designer gains kudos for their work, that's nice. But the focus of the design should always be the client—and their customers.
• Everyone is equal. I'm a huge fan of Web accessibility and I feel it's my responsibility as an educated designer to make sure that most of my clients' content is accessible to most people. I know I can't always do this, despite my best attempts. But keeping accessibility in mind in designing sites makes me feel that I, in a small way, am contributing to the democraticization of information online.
• Make it easy. Too many websites, even today, ten years after the commercial Web's birth and growth, are hard to use. It's sad, really. Bad technical practices, lack of foresight, and plain old laziness on the part of designers and developers make the Web a sometimes overly complicated experience for the average Joe. When designing, I always try to get in the head of a potential visitor to a site; I know I don't always succeed but I have a brilliant colleague that can set me straight when I stray from the path. Making it easy for visitors means, to me, making potential visitors' lives just a little bit easier.

Extra special thanks to Michael Barrish for helping with every phase of the site's design and development, including producing the stellar CSS code and markup.

Illustrating Yorke.

I used to be able to draw. Someday soon, I plan on getting back to it.

In the meantime, there's design.

In the interstices, there's digital illustration:

Time, Redesigned.

As an avid Newsweek reader, the new Time is simply lovely. Almost makes me want to subscribe.

A Cup or Two.

I really want these two cups. Even better is the photograph of one of these cups in context.

Thoughts in Grey.

I'm redesigning my business' website. A few weeks ago, I tried converting the new design into pure gray and it looks really, really nice. (I don't even know the proper spelling of gray/grey, and it still looked nice.) Lately, I've been thinking that everything will soon be in shades of grey/gray.

One of my favorite Mac/technology blogs has been in battleship gray forever. The author, John Gruber, and many others, believe that Apple's new operating system, due out early next year, will sport a fine new graphical user interface that takes gray to the next level. Gone will be the translucent and transparent iconography that Apple and Windows users have come to enjoy. Gone, hopefully, will be red, green, yellow, fuscia, and lilac. (You can see a little of what the future holds by downloading Disco, designed by the Dutchman Jasper Hauser.)

Other things are grey. Mice are gray. They have been on the planet a lot longer than we have. Cockroaches, too, are often a shade of grey. They have been around longer than mice. Elephants and dolphins, who are probably smarter than humans are, are gray.

A few years ago, VW came out with a beautiful shade of gray for its Passat and Jetta cars. That gray had a blue feeling. I don't know what grey does for driver visibility on the road. Probably not too much. This is probably why you don't see too many of those grey VWs anymore.

I used to know somebody who worked at Grey Advertising. Grey has a terrible (and sadly ungray) website.

Sometime during the time I wanted to become a doctor, between the ages of 4 and 21, my grandfather gave me Grey's Anatomy. I poured over it, but apparently not enough.

In Poland, there's such a thing as a grey market. It was essentially a means for newly liberated citizens to find and get work without having to pay the government immense taxes. It worked. Perhaps it still does.

It's said that when someone's skin turns gray, they're dead.

The aura that swamis and other priests see around people is usually a beautiful shade of some color or another. I understand that smokers cast an aura of grey.

I also think that we cold all end up as Grey goo. That might be fun. But I hope Apple comes out with its grey operating system first.

The Look and Feel of Cars.

I recently glommed on to the new car blog, Jalopnik. The site is, overall, okay in terms of both design and content. (My real theory about this site is that it will drive better ad revenue for owner Gawker Media, of whom I'm a huge fan more generally.)

Jalopnik inspired me to think about how the idea of "look and feel," which typically applies to and describes websites, might telescope to automobiles. As a thought experiment, it might be interesting to see how (recent) cars connnect to an individual (e.g. me) and how that might be described. I've been in quite a few cars in the past five years, so, vrooom, here goes:

• Honda Accord: Tight overall apperance and drive with very sealed interior. The ride is tight but there is a consistent feeling that the machinery under the hood is overly complicated. If broken, G-d help you.
• Toyota Corolla: Sharp looking exterior hides a boring interior with little personality. In contrast with the Accord, however, the engine feels like it will go forever - a perpetual motion machine.
• Saab 95: Superbly tight compartment with incredible sound and air environment. While the engine purrs, one drives with the tacit knowledge that one dent, one blown tire or one new alternator will set you back $1000. You drive it, though, and you're feeling safer than anyone on the road. Except for those in Volvos. And H2s.
• Audi A6: Beautifully detailed car that sits in a driveway looking like a souped up VW.
• Ford Focus: Opening and closing the door feels like a mistake was made; the company used edge-thin metal thinking that this would be "cutting edge." The interior looks nice from ten feet away but one worries that there will be death involved if the car crashed.
• Honda Civic: Clean, strong body and well-fitted interior. However, sitting inside, one gets the feeling that the car is made for anyone, everyone, and no one in particular.
• Subaru Outback: Tight. Drives tight. Acts tight. Looks uptight. Shows an unclear personality: not sure if this is an SUV or a car or a station wagon. But when driving in it, you know you're "good."
• Mercedes-Benz S-Class: Class is all it is and that's pretty much what one wants it for. One can't help but feel like a person of importance; it's as if the car, upon entry, injects you with genetically superior DNA.
• Hyundai Elantra: The immediate feeling is that this is what the Chinese are going to do someday. Good superficial overall look and feel, but, underneath the copycat design, you know there's only a few pennies of quality material.
• Lexus LS 430: A serious car for serious people. There's nothing fun, funny, or funky about this car but when you're in it, the car commands a kind of respect people like me don't have. My guess is that this car would prefer someone in their early 50s.
• Mazda 3: A working vehicle. Everything works. The car works. The stereo works. It all works. Except for that one rental I had, in which the trunk wouldn't close.

Barneys.

It's the end of a small era. A few days ago, Barneys New York launched its new site, leaving behind the designs I created for them over the past three years. I'm trying to gauge how I feel about the recent departure of my work.

I had a tremendous amount of psychological energy vested in the old design, which was Barneys first e-commerce site and was built by a team of us - myself, a Flash designer, an information architect, a project manager, and an e-commerce group. But, as my wife reminded me recently, I'm "in advertising." People who create print advertising campaigns that last one day or one week move on to the next subject, project, and client. They may have spent months, like I did, working to make sure that the "campaign" was perfect, compelling, and managable and met all of the branding, strategic, and commercial requirements of its client. At the end, when the magazines are put into translucent, blue bags, they have their work to show for it and their passions moved onward.

Web design is no different; in fact, in some ways it's better. After my "engagements" with clients, I have a digitally extant object to show again, while a print advertising designer has only a set of pressed pages to exhibit.

Having said all that, I wish the organization, its new site and its new audiences well.

Trump Watches

Blech. They're unbelievably ugly. Today's paper showed an ad for the Trump watch.

They have all of the neo-historical styling of other popular watches but none of the appeal. The logo itself, with a brash serif "TRUMP," looks about as fake as any Citizen, Bulova, or Rado sold on the streets of Canal. Trump obviously thinks he can sell $125 watches to the masses. But the designer of these time pieces of crap ought to be hung out to dry. Gag, ugly.

TAB at bat

I promise not to overhype my new little venture called THE ART BUREAU but I'm really honored to be mentioned by two of my heros in the Web design and development world: Jeffrey Zeldman and Dave Shea.

The site is starting to get picked up by the Web standards community, a small but fiercely dedicated group of folks making the Web a better place to learn and play, and many thanks go out to Michael Barrish for his fine, fine coding of THE ART BUREAU.

A Lion

We took out of the Brooklyn library a newish book called If I Were a Lion, a children's book by written by Sarah Weeks and illustrated by Heather M. Solomon. The book's illustrations are incredible moving and beautifully rendered - a small child is shown imagining, during her time-out/punishment, that animals are inhabiting her home. The furious detail of the watercolors and gouache (I believe) by Ms. Solomon are full of incredible observation, passion, and knowledge of animal fur.

What always strikes me about such lusciously illustrated books is that the top billing goes to the writer. I don't know if this is a historical remnant of the publishing world, an artifact of written culture, or is it a sign of some kind of half-hearted respect for the creators? The book is well written. But the illustrations are what make the book the book.

P.S. I believe that one of my favorite fonts, Emigre's Filosofia, is used for the titling of the book on the cover. Specifically, it looks like Filosofia Small Caps.

P.P.S. Nope - just checked. It's not.

The Art Bureau Opens

I'm proud to announce that The Art Bureau was (soft) launched on Saturday, April 9, 2005. We've been getting some traffic and a bit of buzz here and there but mostly, it's been a total joy to see this site come up from nothing.

In case you're interested, here's the scoop: In 2004, photographer Jennifer Fiore and I determined that what the world really needs is a unique royalty-free collection of stock photography. We were so exhausted at looking at the same ads, bookcovers, trade mags, and websites which use stock images of a boy in horn-rim glasses smiling into a telephone or a busy mother cooking while holding her child or beach sunsets with too-large suns, etc. So we put our skills together, worked with a great programmer and coder, and built (the first) Web standards based royalty free online stock agency.

I'll spare you the rest but if you think your work would fit at The Art Bureau, please let us know. Oh, and if you have any problems, comments, or recommendations for the site, please let us know that, too.

Rearranging Deckchairs on The Titanic

I'm working, slowly, on Version 3.0 of Deckchairs on the Titanic. I want the site to have the following characteristics:

• Iconography should be funnier
• Colors should be less garish even if they are less historically representational
• Site should probably be centered
• Text should be even more legible and more white/beige space should exist
• The color black should be prominent
• It probably shouldn't be called a "monologue" anymore

Your thoughts, suggestions, and recommendations are welcome. And no, I won't be providing iPods, cash entitlements, favors, lovesongs or other somesuch for help in the matter.

Google Icons

If you have ever accidentally (or purposefully) clicked on Google's more link at the top of its pages, you'll be confronted with something called "Google Services." This has to be one of the least finely designed pages I've seen by a company of this size. It's as if Google, forever cutified by its occasionally changing holiday logos, came up with a few unrelated stock illustrations to represent some of their very powerful services such as "Answers" and "Scholar" and "Alerts." A few of the icons on this page are designed well but it's always suprised me how little research Google does regarding icon design.

Hey Google: check out a few of these guys.

Related: Right now, Google appears to be in some hot water with a lot of folks regarding its new autolink feature in its new (beta only) toolbar. Zeldman covers it: essentially it seems that Google can somehow create new links within your site without your permission. Google does a lot of things right but it's still only one click away from those influencing and designing the Web.

Also related: I'm starting to try my hand at high-end icon design and am excited about it.

Movable Type Not Org

Finally, it seems that the good folks at Six Apart, the company behind Movable Type, have knocked the ".org" on its head. I still don't understand the appeal of commercial ventures having a non-profit .org address -- with a redesigned site and reincorporation of movabletype.org into the fold, the company is starting to make sense to me and probably to many users who might fear the oddity of a technology company with identity issues.

Jay Allen writes about the new design and so does Mena Trott, co-founder of the company.

Regarding the design, it's just nice. There's nothing sharp about it, literally. All of the edges have been sanded down, the colors are awfully dull, and the typefaces used look so friendly that I feel like gagging. In terms of usability, it's fantastic -- much easier to read, recognize information, and find new knowledge. Mule Design did the job.

Winning Design To Lose

I love the Airbag blog and buy into most of what Greg Storey has to say. He's a wonderful designer and commentator and he gets tremendous amounts of traffic, as can be witnessed by the 163 comments about his "contest" to design a logo for his buddy. Greg isn't the first one to ask designers to submit their work (called "on spec" because there is no pay) for credibility and a gadget (he's giving away a $99.00 iPod Shuffle). But I find it rather grotesque that even beginning designers would want to help a business design a logo for some shilling and a t-shirt. It's my humble opinion that if a business wants to do business, they should do business with other businesses and not look for handouts. Anyway, the comments in this post do better justice to the injustice than I.

B and A

It's been a not very interesting week so I'll end it in the middle with a not very interesting set of designs for Boxes and Arrows, an online group that focuses on information design and user experience for the Web.

Click through some of the designs, including the winning one, and you'll be able to see the full range of possibilities people are offering up for the future Web. None are bad, some are good, but none are grabbing and perhaps, as the comments indicate, perhaps this is what you get when you get for free.

In better news, a happy and peaceful and joyful Thanksgiving to all. I plan on reading a book.

For Me

For anybody who has ever created a website (or built a house) this little ditty may strike a chord: If Architects Had To Work Like Web Designers.... This has been making the rounds for a while, but it's so completely right on. Thanks, Jake.

Using Black

As noted in yesterday's post, I made the transition from a predominantly blue, red, and white design to a blue, beige, and black design for MANOVERBOARD.

In order to take away design elements, though, I lost some things that I'm happy are gone, though it took almost three years. They include:

• The strange, red-colored outline of a man holding up small business cards near a board. He served not so much as a brand but as a mascot and I was soo, soo tired of him. Of course, I have tremendous fondness for him and he'll make a return someday.
• The shades of transparent color over a photograph of waves that just looked pretty but felt increasingly meaningless. I still adore transparency and the unusual effects it can have on light and image density but I'm done with it for now.
• Too-light gray color text. While I find gray text inherently sexy and sharp, I have a real hankering for darkness (not The Darkness, though) on sites. Douglas Bowman's Stop Design site is beautifully, richly dark, and his work is always an inspiration.
• The color red. For the longest time, the MANOVERBOARD logotext was treated in a dark, bloody red that registered passion, strength, and ardour. But black is better. Now the the same logotext in black feels strangely impersonal yet more secure and historically oriented. The color black (and I *still* say black is a color and not the absence thereof) lends punch to the overall feeling of the site that was lacking before.

Redo

I won't be ashamed. I won't be admonished. I won't be adjectival. But I am happy to announce a kind of successful redesign of my "corporate" website MANOVERBOARD.com.

YWCA

I'm fascinated with the YWCA's new branding, which includes (nay, is a tagline. This is a veritable first: the tagline, set in Helvetica bold (or a slight variation), acts a signpost for the logo, which is "ywca," set in Helvetica bold, or something like it.

Branding and identity consulting firm Landor put the whole shebang together and wrote about it: eliminating racism, empowering women, ywca.

Design Signs II

Subscription-based PDF magazines have now begun to hit their stride. I'm fascinated by them because they offer tremendous possibility with regard to design, content, and format and are inexpensive to produce, easy to carry, and are archivable and searchable; well, they're all the things that companies have been promoting for years.

A new design-related title is coming out called Design In-Flight. The first issue will feature recent luminaries like Armin Vit and Damien Newman, who I like quite a bit.

Having said all that, I hate reading long PDFs and I find having and storing them on my computer means I'll never get to them. Printing them is painful as you watch the wads of color ink dispense from you printer. And the lack of tangible goods in a subscription just seems well, odd. Yet, it's interesting that this format for distributing ideas and images has taken on new life and I'm paying attention to new PDF publication dispersal methodologies.

PDFs Abound

Although PDFs have been around since 1991 (the technology was originally called Interchange PostScript and we're all thankful for the name change), PDF files continue to litter my desktop like tiny red-bannered bunny rabbits. I download at least one or two of them per day from many different technology, design, and other sites, and half the time, they go unread. The other half the time, the PDFs are read and promptly discarded. For some reason, the ones that go unread end up in a file on my desktop called "useful."

Two recent design-focused PDFs that may be of interest are:

10 Years of Photoshop by Jeff Schewe, which can be found on Design by Fire's site. The PDF itself is rather ugly in a designerly way but the history is rich. There's even a photo of the off-the-shelf Adobe Photoshop 1.0 box, which looks surprisingly like the Adobe Photoshop 8.0 box.

Budget Design by Didier P. Hilhorst and Daniel S. Rubin, which can be found at Sinelogic Press free for another few days. The focus is on workflow, which is boring, but I like the design of the document.

Design Signs

Very interesting that after yesterday's post about the paucity of online design group weblogs, I noticed that three features indicating that design itself is becoming an increasingly viable profession, a respected career, and a potentially lucrative job (well, let's hope so).

They are: Today's Op-Art piece in the Times by W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm called Where the Jobs Are (in case it's gone, here's the graphic from the piece); Fast Company's cover story Masters of Design which I can't read perhaps because it's all about industrial design and you might not read perhaps because the magazine's online content is limited to subscribers; finally Doug Bowman, the smartie of Stopdesign, has rebuilt with much fanfare and deserved kudos Blogger.com. The new Blogger interface is quite luxe and is a tribute to the possibilities of our collective online future.

Iraq's New Flag

Reuters/Yahoo today posted the proposed newflag for Iraq. It somehow completely denies the symbology of the former flag (which nonetheless represented course evility) and I can't help but think it looks a number of non-designers pulled it together over a period of days -- the blues are the colors of sleep medications and the yellow the color of mustard. The crescent looks far too much like a "c," stretched and pulled and smashed down. Maybe it's appropriate afterall.

Reserved

It's been a very hectic few days but I'm always eager to give credit where credit is due: the new issue of Reservocation is out and there are some excellent pieces on illustration, typography on the Web, and other good design stuff. Relatedly, I have not gotten to one item on the list from Sunday. Help me, people.

A Story of Lost Love

I've been looking around recently for some new typefaces that I can exploit in my serious and casual design escapades with clients.

Currently in love again with the Nobel font, which I'm using for a z-fold brochure, I revisited its founding foundry Font Bureau, which still has one of the finest typeface sites around. I fell in love with just about every font on the site. Hard to do? Hyperbole, you say? I placed every font in the "cart" and tried to punch out, credit card in hand, and guess what -- my browser crashed.

Macromedia Site of the Day

I'm completely elated that Barneys.com, a MANOVERBOARD designed site, received the Macromedia Site of the Day award today. Flash partner CLR Media got noted, too. Total dream.

Captured on Safari

Using a combination of Web programming technologies, including Python, Applescript, Perl, PHP, and MySQL, Dan Vine has come up with the ultimately cool (and so far free) online tool that shows the benefits of browsing websites on OS X (hint: it's a pleasure). For the next 24 hours, here's a link to what Deckchairs on the Titanic look like.

Hand Hurts

It's not what you think. I've been writing out by hand the addresses of all my clients, colleagues, friends, vendors, and other buddies on envelopes. I'm sending out a few hundred MANOVERBOARD 2004 Calendars (as I do every year now) and I should have produced a nice database for the project instead of tying my hand up in knots.

Alas, if you'd like to receive one of these beautiful calendars, please email me with your address and how many you'd like (under 3 per customer please) and I'll send it out to you pronto.

Some observations:

1. People do not include their snail mail addresses on their website if they are sole proprietors. MANOVERBOARD doesn't either, at least right now.

2. What does one call "snail mail addresses" without calling it that? What were they called before email?

3. I know that typing has played a "hand" in my hand hurting from writing.

4. Printed calendars are still very cool. If you'd like to send me yours, please use the above link. Thank you.

Hard to Work

Maybe it's just me but is anybody else having a hard time working right now? All I hear all day is Christmas music and all I see are large blow-up snowmen and all I feel is cold and chill wind. Helicopters are flying over head constantly. My brain feels crashed out in a land located somewhere between The Wiggles and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

Oh yeah, we ditched our TV.

New Blogs (to me)

The whole family has a bit of a cold. The whole extended family has something. That's not interesting.

What is are some are some of the blogs I've noticed recently, which are really nicely designed. Take a look?

Jamie Oliver, chef guy

Karlotta, pretty

Blog for America, okay design with good blog links

Raelity Bytes, dig deep with this one

New MANOVERBOARD

I'm very happy to announce that, after about six weeks of redesign, MANOVERBOARD.com is now relaunched.

Unless you have an extremely good eye, you won't notice much of a difference, which was the entire point of the exercise. The new site, which features new client case studies, new copy, and slightly updated navigation is done entirely without tables in XHTML and CSS.

What does this mean if you're not a Web designer? It means the site is available to those with visual and hearing disabilities. It means that the entire site is built with structural markup so PDAs and cell phones can see the site easily. It means that the site loads in about 1/2 the time as it did before. It means that it adheres to advancing Web standards and it is very easily managed and updated.

Much thanks go to Michael Barrish for his patient and brilliant XHTML/CSS assistance.

Circus

We put up the new homepage for the Barneys New York site, which looks exactingly fresh, outrageous, mischievous, and maudlin.

When I used to paint <~sigh~>, I worked often with circus imagery, with the disorienting glare of lights and sad carnival delight, and to this day, I'm still strongly attached to the beauty of circus arcania. But I never actually want to go to the circus ever again.

2003 Stamps

Since I was about 5 years old, I've been slowly collecting stamps. The vast majority are American and for the past 10 years, I've only been collecting the Commerative Stamp Yearbooks that the United States Postal Service issues each year. This year USPS released its 2003 book early, which I don't understand because it's now November 4 and it made me wonder if I'm missing the Christmas-time stamps. (The latter has always been problematic for me.)

Some observations:
1 The LOVE stamps are bright and boring.

2. The most beautiful stamps of 2003 are from the American Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes series. Designed by Ethel Kessler, these black and white, square stamps depict, using a surrealist pastiche, the production processes that go into making images move.

3. I can't believe the U.S. Government approved a Cesar E. Chavez stamp. This did not get released at my local Post Office.

4. The First Flight stamp, recaling Orville and Wilbur Wright's flight 100 (Kitty Hawk was on December 17, 1903!!) years ago, is quite refined, lovely, even. I'm still shocked that we've only been flying for one century.

5. There is a stamp honoring the Korean War Memorial. I always thought this realistic sculpture in Washington was treacly but the stamp makes it look very cinematic, moving even.

6. The stamp of Audrey Heburn does not do her justice. Her neck is very long, however.

Validation

I know that there are web designers out there that live to be validated by the World Wide Web Consortium, which inelegantly provides standards for web developers, browser manufacturers, and others to help ensure a relatively democratically visible Internet. I'm all for it! Standards is small news to the advanced web designer, but for most people the W3C may appear less than useless and I'm all for promoting its "interoperable technologies."

Today I can say that this here site is fully XHTML 1.0 Transitional and CSS2 Validated. What this says is that the site upholds the somewhat strict standards being developed for the Web and that the presentation of the site (its colors and effects) are separate from its content (the headlines, graphics, and text). It also means the visually and aurally challenged have a shot at reading the site. Find out more by clicking on those little validating links at the bottom left of this page.

Not Ugly

The redesign is getting there. At least it's not completely ugly.

I've purchased the new Lost in Translation soundtrack today at Virgin Records, which seemed an apropos place to buy it, as I never understood why a media store would be marketed as "Virgin" -- it's not funny and it's not a great name. Perhaps it's a British neologism? In any case, I purchased it just to have the new Kevin Shields tracks on it; Mr. Shields is one of my all-time favorite early 90s musicmen, and the main composter of the once-great My Blood Valentine. He's a Brit and yes, it's nice to have him back, after a million rumors about MBV's "new album" over the past ten years.