Touch, See, and Hear

2008 Jul 29
Comments 9
Published In Books, Business, Design, Film, New York, Web
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ALA Survey for People Who Make Websites

It’s once again time to turn the mirror on ourselves and figure out what we’re made of. Of course I mean it’s time to take the annual A List Apart survey.

The survey seeks to give all of us as a community a better idea of where we stand, and now in this second year, we’ll be able to start tracking differences from last year. Like before, we’ll publish the results in an upcoming issue of A List Apart, as well as provide the anonymized raw data for you to crunch however you like. We had nearly 33,000 of you take part last year, and hope to have even more this time. Each year we gather this information, we gain greater insight into our industry, and help those we work for understand us better. Please do your part. Stand up and be counted!

Objectified

The website for Gary Hustwit’s new film, Objectified, went live yesterday. You might remember Gary as the director of Helvetica, the 2007 hit documentary on the typeface of the same name. I put together the site for Gary dead quickly using WordPress, which remains one of the best and easiest ways to get a site online.

Objectified tries to understand “our relationship to mass-produced objects and, by extension, the people who design them.” Just by looking at some of the people in the film so far—Jonathan Ive, Marc Newson, Dieter Rams—you can see this is going to be really interesting. In the meantime, until the film comes out next year, stop by and check out Gary’s introduction to the film, some of the early production stills, or grab a shirt bearing the film’s logo (different than the site logo) lovingly designed by Michael C. Place (of the UK firm Build, as well as one of the stars Helvetica).

By the Book

Last night I had the pleasure to join a local selection of Field-Tested Books reviewers for a live reading event in New York at The Delancey. It was very crowded and very loud, but that didn’t stop us from having a blast. I snapped a few blurry photos from the first half of the event (the second half of the evening thwarted my paltry flash) and dropped them on Flickr. Thanks to Coudal Partners for the good times!

9 Comments

Permalink for this comment Ben Spencer says: July 29, 2008

Thanks for fitting three very interesting stories into one article.

I’ve completed the survey, checked out the film’s website (very interesting to hear you confirming how good WordPress is as I have two or three projects which might be suited for it) and Field-Tested Books is new to me – what a great idea!
Permalink for this comment Christine Rondeau says: July 29, 2008

Thanks for passing on the survey info. I just filled it out and look forward to seeing the results.

I love the objectified logo. Not the one for the shirt, but the one on the site. I’m guessing this is your superbe creation?
Permalink for this comment Jason Santa Maria says: July 29, 2008

I love the objectified logo. Not the one for the shirt, but the one on the site. I’m guessing this is your superbe creation?

Nope, all the artwork was handed to me, I just created a simple design and setup all the WordPress stuff.
Permalink for this comment Adam Spooner says: July 29, 2008

A friend, my wife, and I went to the Field-Tested Readings on Monday night and there was one thing the three of us agreed upon as we left the event immersed in retrospective conversation: Your reading was the most enthusiastic and heartfelt of the bunch. We really enjoyed it because we believed you really enjoyed the book! Zeldman’s reading was also spot-on; he had such an amazing story to tell and told it with such candor!
Permalink for this comment Adam Spooner says: July 29, 2008

@“Christine”:#comment2, I believe the identity (the object form of Objectified, not the lime version) was created by Build
Permalink for this comment Michael Jackson says: August 01, 2008

@Jason: Long time reader, first time commenter here. Interesting to see you singing the praises of WordPress. It’s not the first time I’ve seen you do so, but I haven’t yet seen you explain exactly why you feel that WordPress is “one of the best” ways to publish online.

Granted, it is quick and easy to set up. However, I’ve run into numerous problems getting it to work the way I want it to. One of my current pet peeves is the automatic formatting that, no matter how many filters I disable, I can’t seem to turn off completely. There’s also the software upgrade process that is quite frankly a pain in the arse. I’ve got others but I won’t pollute your blog with them. ;)

I’m on the verge of writing my own blogging platform just to get away from WordPress and gain more control, but I’d love to hear you tell me why I shouldn’t. Thanks.
Permalink for this comment Jason Santa Maria says: August 01, 2008

@ Michael Jackson :

but I haven’t yet seen you explain exactly why you feel that WordPress is “one of the best” ways to publish online. Granted, it is quick and easy to set up. However, I’ve run into numerous problems getting it to work the way I want it to.

Well, all software is like that. The only way to avoid those problems is to customize something for yourself. WP is great because it seems to assume just the right amount when installing. It’s just that simple.

I use just about all the popular CMS platforms, and they all have their merits and weaknesses, it’s a matter of choosing the best tool for the job.
Permalink for this comment Darren says: August 05, 2008

What was your process for creating the theme? Any photoshop work before the templating and css magick?
Permalink for this comment Drake says: August 06, 2008

It seems your design has been featured on Typesites, good stuff!