The Commonwealth Expedition on the BBC
Recently, i helped set up a website for The Commonwealth Expedition, and I noticed today that they have a write-up on the BCC News site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7962311.stm
This is great news for the endlessly-energetic Felicity Aston, who’s running the show, since publicity is always helpful. The idea is to take eight women from the Commonwealth countries to the South Pole.
Good luck Felicity et al!
Delivery of the Cool
In the post this morning courtesy Amazon : Miles Davis’ Birth of the Cool.
Seriously. Look at the typography and imagery. Nothing that looks like this can ever be uncool. It’s the epitome of cool. I don’t need to tell you what it sounds like because clearly, it’s going to be cool.
The Future of Newsprint : Revisited
Three years ago in February 2006, I wrote the blog entry below for a previous incarnation of this site. Having read “The Scotsman’s Insanity is an industry problem” I still think I nailed it. This is a good idea, so I’m resurrecting and “reprinting” it, if only to be able to say “I told you so” if and when it happens.
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The Future of Newsprint (First published 15/02/06)
There was a piece in Creative Review last month regarding the new Observer redesign. All mostly the usual “it’s great”, “it sucks” stuff. Amongst the industry bitchfest though, were some very forward thinking ideas from Jon Hill (http://www.jonhilldesign.co.uk/ [URL Now Defunct]). His premise is that within a few years, amongst other things, you’ll see newspapers being printed sectionally on-demand. This article just takes this idea and builds on some of the practicalities of that.
The current problem for the newspapers is that with the advent and spread of 24-hour news channels, internet news and the ever-expanding blogosphere they’re becoming irrelevant. People consume news online, on their phones, even waiting around for trains on big screens, all for free. The prevailing view is that newspapers will become more focused on in-depth reporting and almost become “viewspapers”.
But what if you could do something a little cleverer than this? Imagine getting a newspaper on your way to work that was right up to the moment, cheaper than what you pay now, and tailored to what you wanted to read.
A vending kiosk at stations, garages etc with a touchscreen interface could dispense only the elements of the normal paper that you wanted, charging accordingly. The paper would be printed A4 on-demand in the kiosk itself. The clever element though would be a web link that would allow the paper to be constantly updated “live” throughout the day, so you’d never have an out-of-date news story on the way home. And in a twist of fate, this would no doubt be done using XML feeds, thereby competing with the bloggers and news websites using their own technology.
A handy side-effect would be the ability to constantly update advertisements within the paper, which would be great from advertisers perspectives, allowing them up-to-the-moment tie-ins with events, as well as a new segment for the creative industry to exploit.
Taking it a step further, customers could sign up for an more in-depth personalised newspaper on a website, and then pick it up on the way to work from the kiosk. Again, this would enhance the advertising potential of the papers, and potentially allow customers to pay a premium to be rid of adverts too.
A system like this would allow news editors to keep their papers up to date, and maybe claw back some of that depleting market share. It provides an elegant and innovative approach to news distribution which could run alongside traditional papers and online/24-hour tv outlets.
Lastly, it’s worth noting that people are still reading newspapers. Why? Because reading from paper is still so much nicer than reading from screen, plus people like them because they mean something to us. Newspapers have a future, and the public want to see it.
Small in Japan
Very pleasing news. The Wonderland Project have their first CD in Japan! Thanks to Kimi for the drop in Fukuoka City!
Safari 4: Where’s my Reload button gone?!
So, like the rest of the known world, I downloaded the new Safari 4 beta the other day. It’s nice; dead fast, some slick new interface features, and it renders the Guardian homepage twice as fast as the last version. So all good. Even the new “tabs at the top” feature, whilst a bit weird, is something I can live with.
What I’m having real issues with though is the lack of a reload button. As a designer/developer type, I reload pages all the time, and I often click to do that, rather than use the keyboard shortcuts. Every time I wanted to do that for the last few days, my mouse has strayed to the place where my old reload button was, only to be thwarted by its absence:
Where the hell is it?
So, I found it. Eventually. It’s in the location bar, away from all the other buttons you might want to click, just for your convenience. And it’s such a handy size too, check it:
Ahh, where else?
I’m trying to like the new Safari, but this is a real killer for me. If Firefox was a bit better and more mac-friendly, I might even be tempted to jump ship. That’s how much this is bugging me. And no, you can’t customise the toolbar to add it back in. Maybe in the final version. Please. Pretty please. With a cherry on top.
Eyelash Album Artwork
In the post this morning I received a prerelease copy of the new Eyelash album, “Recession”, for which I designed the artwork in collaboration with the band’s guitar player, Ru Cook. The design was based on illustrations by the mysterious Hectik, who Ru found online.
I’m a web designer by trade so it always scares the crap out of me to see print work come back, but I’m pleased to say that we nailed it! The colours are true, the type smooth and the disgustingly up-rezzed images look fine, thanks to the good folk at Key Production.
So without further ado, here are some more pictures:
Sarlas Music V2 Now Live
The new Sarlas Music website is now live. It’s been designed by myself, and built by the peerless Phil & Mark Treble. The site makes use of clean, minimalist lines and typography, together with the wonderful photography provided by Carol Kalvonjian.
Chris Sarlas is a happy man. He says:
“The response to the new site has been fantastic!”
We aim to please!
Festive Bits
A rather festive bit of news. A Christmas card for Vicinitee.com. The animation was created in Flash by the lovely Mo MacNeill, and the music was written by myself to create a really gentle antidote to the year’s economic woes.
Altogether… Aaaaahhhhhh.
Happy Christmas everybody!
Pinnacle RIP
The indie record distributor Pinnacle has gone bust. Oops. India labels affected include Rough Trade, One Little Indian and Fierce Panda.
On the ground, I personally know of one band (The High Wire) who are due to support Coldplay on the UK leg of their December arena jaunt who now won’t have CDs in the shops for those dates, which is a massive shame.
On the plus side, The Wonderland Project’s distribution model is immune from everything =)
Adobe CS4 – September 23
So, the next version of the Adobe Creative Suite (4) will be “unveiled” on September the 23rd. Having seen the new Fireworks beta earlier in the year, I’m feeling distinctly like not bothering this time around. In the past, I’ve tended to skip alternate versions of Photoshop or the Creative Suite, on the basis that it’s not that important to my work to be bang up to date. For the last couple of revisions though, I have upgraded each time (mostly because I had to write a book about Photoshop CS3).
Here are my predictions:
1) Integration. Everything will work better together. Seamless drag and drop between applications. Except when you really want it to.
2) A must-have new feature in Photoshop that will make your digital photography workflow immeasurably better.
3) You still won’t be able to mix and match application bundles, and the UK pricing will be outrageous in comparison to the dollar price.
4) Spiffy new packaging. No longer using “Aquo” as the default cross-media demo project, which has almost become a sub-brand of Adobe.
5) John Nack will rave about it like a corporate puppet while appearing to maintain a reasonable “everyman” image.
Or maybe I’m jaded and old. We wait with baited breath Adobe.