5/28/09
Yellow versus Chartreuse
I just listened to George Saunders's interview on The Sound of Young America again; it's becoming a staple for me. Because we all love notebook pages, here are my notes, of a writing exercise by Saunders:
5/22/09
Four-column Web sites
Four column Web sites? I love them.
I just discovered The Brooklyn Rail through a happy Google accident, and it's great.
I can't do justice to the niceness of this site in a blog picture, so click on the link above and take a look. It's a great example of how readable and usable multi-column Web sites are.
I took Edward Tufte's day-long course last year on presenting visual information, and even though Tufte's Web site has just one column (and a very, very long scroll-down), I think he would like multi-column formats.
Tufte believes in letting the reader read, let them explore and interact, instead of trying to guide them by the nose through a flash presentation and then a drop-down menu and then resized windows and then etc. and etc. Having a lot of quality content up front and center (headlines with teases) makes me want to stay a while.
A couple more examples of nice, multi-columned Web sites.
Coudal Partners, an advertising firm that has a lot of fun (check out the Museum of Online Museums). How does one get a job there? Three columns.
826 Valencia, which benefits from Dave Eggers' pretty excellent design sensibilities. Much more pleasant to read than McSweeneys.net. Three columns.
The Stranger, Seattle's alternative newspaper, home to Dan Savage. Also home to Paul Constantly Right, who's great. Three columns of variable width.
Changing topic from format to content:
I also love the way the editors of Brooklyn rail talk about their publication. It's distributed free in print in Brooklyn and was started as a service for riders of the L train. The "About us" manifesto is a LOT longer than most "about us" sections on the Web, but the artist/editor who wrote it is a thoughtful, interesting writer.
Post Script about format
Coming soon to Yeah, Yeah, O.K. Read Petty: More columns.
I just discovered The Brooklyn Rail through a happy Google accident, and it's great.
I can't do justice to the niceness of this site in a blog picture, so click on the link above and take a look. It's a great example of how readable and usable multi-column Web sites are.I took Edward Tufte's day-long course last year on presenting visual information, and even though Tufte's Web site has just one column (and a very, very long scroll-down), I think he would like multi-column formats.
Tufte believes in letting the reader read, let them explore and interact, instead of trying to guide them by the nose through a flash presentation and then a drop-down menu and then resized windows and then etc. and etc. Having a lot of quality content up front and center (headlines with teases) makes me want to stay a while.
A couple more examples of nice, multi-columned Web sites.
Coudal Partners, an advertising firm that has a lot of fun (check out the Museum of Online Museums). How does one get a job there? Three columns.
826 Valencia, which benefits from Dave Eggers' pretty excellent design sensibilities. Much more pleasant to read than McSweeneys.net. Three columns.The Stranger, Seattle's alternative newspaper, home to Dan Savage. Also home to Paul Constantly Right, who's great. Three columns of variable width.Changing topic from format to content:
I also love the way the editors of Brooklyn rail talk about their publication. It's distributed free in print in Brooklyn and was started as a service for riders of the L train. The "About us" manifesto is a LOT longer than most "about us" sections on the Web, but the artist/editor who wrote it is a thoughtful, interesting writer.
Post Script about format
Coming soon to Yeah, Yeah, O.K. Read Petty: More columns.
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