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

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 The news became less frequent, the fonts out of date and then flickr came along … and I did what any other designer hungry for news would do.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 …

Today, just as any other weekday, I stopped off on my way to the studio to pick up my morning coffee. But for the first time ever, I actually looked around at everyone else with their little plastic lidded paper cups, and thought about what a fantastic piece of design this little container really was.

I’ve been a fan of this little item for quite some time, often giving them their own little personalities and leaving them to watch on from the window ledge at my desk, but had never thought about who was actually responsible for their initial concept.

Needless to say, Wikipedia  has a good little write up on the origin of the paper cup, but nothing about who actually designed it, which is a shame. Interestingly, Dixie Cups were the first to brand the paper cup, and the logo for their cup was created by Saul Bass in 1969.

Coincidently (or not), I received an email this morning about Objetified,  Gary Hurswits (Helvetica) forthcoming documentary feature about industrial design and the objects we surround ourselves with, and with the people who make them.

The film sounds great, and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing if Gary is able to top Helvetica, though somehow, I don’t think the paper cup is going to get a mention.

I was just reading through a article over at Web Monkey about what they consider does and doesn’t work on the mobile web, which has listed magazines and newspapers in the ‘doesn’t’ category due to screen restrictions and battery limitation.

The interesting thing I find here is that the services that are listed in the ‘doesn’t’ category as see as things “the mobile web isn’t, and perhaps never will be, very good at”, which I find  unimaginative and  short sited. While the battery limitations is one that faces any mobile device, what about the screen size? Yes, I know its no DPS, and I’m sure reading the small text on the go may give you a headache, but no more than reading a novel on the tram might. And while magazines as we know them might not suit current portable devices, as we have seen in recent years, magazines have a knack for re-inventing themselves in order to take advantage of whatever distribution methods are currently available. ( this is a magazine, PDF-mags )

Back to printing world, and Andrew Losowsky over at Magtastic has done a great write up on MagCloud, a POD (print on demand) website for magazines. While POD has been with us for a while, and is currently utilised for magazines such as the Boicozine zine, this is the first POD service that caters specifically for printing magazines. Though, as Andrew points out at $4.00 for 20 pages, or around $9 for 44 pages, it’s currently a little expensive for the average self publisher.

A little while ago (about a year) I published a little article on my take of the future of digital publishing. Since then there has been a number of advancements in digital paper and eReaders. While not a huge step forward, The Kindle from Amazon is one such product that shows us the direction the publishing world is headed. I wouldn’t go as far to say its the iPod of eReaders, but for a company such as Amazon to invest in such a product definitely shows that this is an area in the future of publishing that warrants serious attention.

But, if you’re like me, then a big white brick with a mono display (and a stupid name) is not really what you what to be reading your novels on, let alone a magazine. Where are the eBooks that are exactly that, A book? with actual pages? Thankfully researchers at Maryland and Berkeley Universities in the US have been working on such a device and developed a prototype eBook with two displays that simulate the turning of pages. While still a bit on the chunky side, this humanising of  technology is what is needed to successfully move the publishing world forward in the digital arena.

As much as I love the internet, email and the 100’s of RSS feeds that arrive in my reader each morning, there is nothing that will ever beat receiving a package in the mail, addressed by hand and covered in stamps. Especially when it contains magazines!

I finally got around to ordering a copy of the colophon magazine Colophond, which was the contents of said package. A great little publication to tie in with the 2007 symposium.   The other was What’s Next, the new incarnation of Galerie Papers. As stated on the cover sheet,

“What’s Next takes a challenging new approach to tackling important developments in print media”

One of the main things I liked about Galerie Papers was the discussions opened up between prominent figures in the publishing and magazine industries. Thankfully, this is the main idea behind What’s Next. Conveyed in a series of conversations, the magazine focuses on the future of the publishing industry deliverd as a dialog between leading publishing and printing experts .

Form the 15th until the 31st of May, the Next Wave festival will once be taking place in Melbourne. To find out whats on and where, head over the website, which was built by Barking Sparrows in conjunction with Chase & Galley, who came up with this years amazing festival identity.

As well as Issue 2 of the Now Now publication WON just getting its second issue, I was surprised/happy to see Many Stuff have also gotten their long awaited publication together. It’s quite funny to realise that 10 years ago I was thinking the internet would spell certain doom for magazines, but as we’ve all seen, it’s pretty much been quite the opposite. I’m quite looking forward to seeing what the Boicozine/Millimeter publication looks like. [above: WON#2 / below: ManyStuff#0]

A friend of mine has just set up PATTERNS OF CREATIVEAGGRESSION, an online publication that displays the development and progress of 5 individual projects in the fields of design, writing, fashion and art. Each installment displays the ongoing development and growth of the project, illustrating different techniques used, research and investigations conducted, and how different outcomes are reached.

There is also a printed version due out at the end of the year.

Jeremy over at magCulture has a great section called ‘How similar is similar?‘ in relation to different magazine titles looking the same, but what about when a magazine copies itself? After looking through some old issues of WIRED the other day, I was struck by a sense of déjà vu upon finding an issue from 1997 … Gizmodo seems to have also noticed.