• Temporize
• Web log
  2009
• 05/01/09

This morning my first issue of Voiceworks magazine went to print. Due to not managing my time well enough, and learning the ropes of a new publication, I was up until 4am getting it ready for collection this morning and came across a hurdle I had not anticipated. Poetry.

Laying out pages containing poetry proved to be a lot trickier than I had expected. I had designed a system and styles which I thought would work across all content of the magazine, whether it be a fictional pieces or part of the columns, and could work without the heavy use of graphics or supporting images.

Unfortunately poems did not fit into this system as well as I had hoped. Instead of being a piece of copy to be moulded and crafted to fit on a page, a poem already has its form and needs to be placed ‘as is’ onto the page. As I found out, this tends to cause a problem with space and the relationship with other elements. I still managed the get everything done, but I think this will need revision before I start on the next issue, and I’ll need to do a bit or research on laying out poetry.

I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has come across a similar situation.

Waaaaaaay back in the early 21st century, when I had just finished studying and had landed myself a job with London based Hoop Associates, surfstation.lu was THE design portal. Sure DiK was pretty cool, and INfront was my home grown portal, but with its ‘Pick One’ user submitied photo gallery, free grunge fonts and ever updating design news, to me surfstation was the bee’s knees.

Unfortunately, as the web progressed and sites became more advanced, surfstation stayed as it was. The news became less frequent, the fonts out of date and then flickr came along … and I did what any other designer hungry for news would do. I moved on.

But – as they say – better late than never. After 6 years I’m happy to see that rather than being pulled down, Surfstation is back with a clean new look. And while there aren’t as many sections as there used to be, the guys are looking to expand the site ‘as time goes by’.

Just don’t make it aother 6 years …

In a bold move, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has confirmed that they are planning to re-brand, which will see the end of the famous ’squiggle’ logo that has served them for more than 40 years. The plan is to bring the original channel in line with the two new digital networks, ABC2 and ABC3. More here.

Smashing Magazine, primarily a web design blog,  have put together a great post on award winning Newspaper designs from around the world in order to highlight how some design principles, such as use of white space and grid based design, are used over both print and web based media.

Melbourne based blog Now Now has put together a freely distributed magazine called WON. Distributed quarterly, the publication is available in most capital cities around the county. There is a complete distribution list here.

Luis from BladBlog emailed to let me know that he has just updated his blog, which is looking great, and that he has also updated the url, which is now http://bladblog.nl If you’re not already subscribed to this site, I suggest doing so.

I’ve been waiting for this for some time now, so when I saw a post over at Computerlove that Hi-Res! had finally updated, I was quite excited that at long last I would get to see so great new flash mastery … Not quite. While the guys have a good new showcase of work online, apparently the ‘proper’ Hi-Res! site is, um, coming soon … At least there is a new Hi-Res! book to tide me over in the meantime.

I just stumbled upon Joe Kral’s Flickr page, which houses a massive collection of magazine and book covers. Very nice. Via the most excellent Bevel and Boss.

If you haven’t clicked the link in the previous post, I suggest you use this one! My friends Tin&Ed have recently updated their website which now houses an amazing array of work, including their ongoing work for Crumpler, which I have to say is some of my favorite (make sure you watch the Cinema Advert).

Adrenalin was probably the first magazine that really made me want to design magazines. I came across the first issue while I was studying in 1999 and fell in love with it. While in London in 2001, I went to visit the Adrenalin office, and meeting the team behind it all only seemed to affirm it as my favorite magazine ever. After leaning that is had been bought by Diamond Publishing in early 2005, I became a little worried. I noticed the change in the publication itself before ever hearing about it. What had happened to Mickey Boy G’s select use of Helvetica, Helvetica Condensed, Citizen and Dot Matrix fonts alone throughout the publication? Gone. I then found out about the acquisition and it wasn’t long after that the magazine disappeared off the shelves completely. Sad times.

But the show goes on. Mick Gibbons, then Creative Director of Adrenalin, now runs The Stool Pigeon along with Phil Hebblethwaite. The Stool Pigeon is an independent tabloid sized music newspaper. Printed 5 times a year, the publication is distributed throughout the UK, as well as France and the US.

The rest of the Adrenalin crew have stuck together and now publish the surf/skate/snow magazine Huck, which comes out 5 times a year and is available across Europe in English, German, French and Italian.