Category: Design

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Magaziner

I’ll be pretty busy this week, getting the May issue together. We launched the magazine in 1999, and I’m a little embarrassed that I’ve yet to do any sort of redesign since then. But dammit, Jim, I’m an editor, not a designer!

Except that we all do our own designs at my company, which is why the mags tend to look like they were laid out by editors. Anyway, to make myself feel even more inadequate as a designer, I read this long, engaging interview with “British editorial design icon” David Hillman.

To compound my sense of half-assing things, I read this insanely in-depth article about the design of Monocle’s magazine and website.

I’m glad I was able to get some laughs from this gallery of The Onion’s Sunday magazine covers. (link via macCulture)

(If you’re interested in what magazines I subscribe to, here’s the list.)

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What it is: 4/14/08

What I’m reading: Locas, by Jaime Hernandez. Just feeling sentimental for Maggie & Hopey, I guess.

What I’m listening to: She and Him, Vol. 1, but not getting into it.

What I’m watching: A marathon of The Deadliest Catch, in preparation for the premier of the new season.

What I’m drinking: Guinness Extra Stout (bottled)

What I’m happy about: That Starbucks’ new Pike Place roast isn’t anywhere near as offensive as its old coffee. I mean, I still wouldn’t choose to stand on line behind a bunch of people ordering orange mocha frappuccinos, but at least I know that if I DO have to go to a Starbucks, at least I’ll be able to get a decent black coffee. Oh, and here’s an article on their retro mermaid logo. This is not a mermaid.

What I’m sad about: That DirecTV’s installer messed up the installation of my new dish, so a bunch of my HD channels are badly digitizing/artifacting. Now I gotta work at home today so they can get someone out here to realign it. But it’ll be pretty sweet to have all those extra HD channels.

What I’m pondering: Why LeBron James is getting so much MVP consideration, given that his team is barely over .500 in a terrible conference.

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Mental Health Day

I don’t really believe in the term, “Mental Health Day,” but this qualifies. It’s a gorgeous day, so I decided to take a vacation day, run some errands, hang out with Rufus, and otherwise not do any job-related stuff.

One of the errand-class activities was upgrading this site to WordPress 2.5. The new administrator interface is different enough that it made me averse to writing anything this morning, but I figure I oughtta post something on it before the dog & I head out to Ringwood Manor for a little meander (with cameras, of course).

Here’s a little double-whammy I’ve been waiting to post. I’m not getting anywhere in my ruminations on them, so I offer them up to you, dear readers. I hope they coalesce into a little something that you can share with me.

First, Ron Rosenbaum offers up some ruminations on Hiroshima in the 21st century. (Of course, Ron being Ron, it’s “what we talk about when we talk about Hiroshima.”)

Then, Steven Heller examines the history of the CND symbol, and how it may stretch back a lot further than its official 50 years.

I’m gonna head out with my dog; don’t work too hard.