TAKEAWAY: The state of how newspapers utilize the multimedia potential of their operations fluctuates from great to non existent. PLUS: Two photo exhibits open today in two different cities: Chicago and Camaguey (Cuba). AND: Pure Design download #56: Photos vs. Illustration ALSO: Bob Newman and more of the great “VOICES” from the past. —- Water on the moon: your pages?
Think multimedia daily
Three that do it right when it comes to multimedia packaging: Aftenposten, The Telegraph, The New York Times
What is the multimedia potential of that story?
That is the question that should be heard more frequently as editors of newspapers gather to discuss the “agenda” of the day.
I am beginning to realize that it is not enough for convergence to exist as a “project”, or even as a physical set up in the newsroom, or available through the greatest technological advances that the management has secured for its company.
No, sir, multimedia approaches are a state of mind.
First, journalists in the newsroom have to buy into it. They have to accept it as part of what they do. Multimedia thinking IS the mission. As such, I always recommend to editors to go through the gymnastics of multimedia thinking, EVEN if their newspapers are not equipped to do it yet.
Multimedia thinking is NOT something one can push a button one day, and, presto, the entire operation responds, and the readers get video, photo galleries, audios, chats, blogs and the rest.
It requires discipline. With it comes the systematic approach to multimedia.
In the best newsrooms, think The New York Times, The (London) Telegraph, Norway’s Aftenposten, among others, multimedia is fully integrated. When a story idea lands on the table for its first time discussion, already one can see the wheels turning for the possibility of how that story can be enhanced in a multisensory, multiplatform way.
This is not mission impossible, by any means. But it must be considered a mission before it becomes systematic.
Pure Design download: Photo vs. Illustration
More of the Robert Newman VOICE collection
Those who enjoy a little bit of VOICE nostalgia, our friend Bob Newman has posted more items from his collection. This time, Bob shows us a 1994 Village Voice r powerful graphic reportage piece by illustrator Sue Coe. She spent time in The Infectious Disease Ward, a hospital for the indigent in Galveston, Texas. Many of the patients had AIDS. Originally assigned for the New Yorker, for some reason they didn’t run it and Sue passed it along to the Voice.
From India: Water on the Moon special page
Special page of from India’s Kerala Kaumudi devoted to discovery of water on the moon
Sajeev Kumar T.K, visual editor of the Indian newspaper, Kerala Kaumudi , Trivandrum, Kerala, sends us his page devoted entirely to the recent news that there is,indeed, water in the moon.
Send me any interesting pages your newspaper/website has done on the subject.
Tale of two photo exhibits, in two cities, this weekend
Chicago: Ron Reason’s captures his summer’s highlights
Images from the Ron Reason exhibit: a tour of the Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial
Ron Reason spent much of the summer balancing newspaper design work (including collaborating with Garcia Media on the launch of the daily NEXT in Lagos, Nigeria) and personal pursuits, specifically, his growing interest in photography.
As some readers of this blog may know, last year Ron expanded his passions for the art world by running a part-time gallery out of his design studio in Chicago. Over the course of a year he hosted 10 exhibits, ranging from paintings to fiber arts to screen printing, as well as a bit of his own photography. Six of the exhibits were selected as highlights by the Galleries pages of the Chicago Reader. (An entertaining overview of some of the featured artists can be found here: http://www.artwithinreason.com/gallery/index.html )
This year Ron takes his interests to the next level: fewer exhibits, focusing more on his own work, and narrowing his subject matter. Exhibits will be less frequent (he says: “the day job beckons!”) and move out of the design studio and into other spaces around Chicago, in hopes of reaching more diverse audiences. The first effort is this weekend, opening Friday Sept. 25, 2009, when Ron co-hosts a group benefit show for the second year with Chicago’s innovative Firebelly Design firm. (Check out their innovative designs on their web site, starting at the “portfolio” link: http://firebellydesign.com/) Last year Ron and Firebelly raised $2,000 for arts programs in Chicago public schools.
“History’s Playground”: Ron’s lens focuses on Holocaust Memorial
The exhibit this year will be an anchor of the Pilsen East 39th Annual Artists Open House weekend. All proceeds from their show will benefit two charities dear to Ron and Firebelly: The Hope Library, which Ron helped start in the slums of Nairobi while working on the redesign of The Standard newspaper last year, and a foundation started by Firebelly to lend a helping hand in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood – coincidentally named “Reason to Give.” (web: http://reasontogive.org/) Just one of the many synergies between Ron and his friends at the socially-conscious Firebelly. “Their motto is actually ‘good design for good reason’ – at one point I realized I either had to sue these people or join forces,” laughs Ron. “Joining forces has been more fun.”
Ron’s photo work in this show is titled “History’s Playground” and focuses on a narrow slice of his observations from the summer.
“While touring Berlin, I visited the Holocaust memorial – actually titled Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The site itself is quite moving – solid stone structures that depending on the vantage point, from outside or within, can resemble a graveyard, canyons, a futuristic maze, or a cityscape.”
Ron adds that no specific meaning is implied, according to the site’s creators. More on the memorial site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_the_Murdered_Jews_of_Europe)
“While making my rounds on the site, I noticed a group of school kids darting about – suddenly appearing here or there, playing hide and seek, not concerned at all, at least for a moment, with the solemnity of the place. I thought: that’s life, we honor what comes before us and simultaneously move forward. I just started shooting and had to be quicker than the kids. The finished images, about a dozen, for me recall the final lines of ‘Angels in America’ – the world only spins forward …”
Ron says “work from the Firebelly crew will appeal to type and design nerds of all kinds – they’ll show letterpress prints, type drawings, font design, collages, engraved wooden speech bubbles, 8-bit art, t-shirts, posters and more.” The exhibit is free and open to the public. For those in Chicago, see website below for more about the show, hours and directions: http://www.artwithinreason.com
In Camaguey, Cuba: At the Larios Gallery
An image from the many that will appear in the Cannatello exhibit at Galería Taller Larios this weekend
The gallery of renowned Cuban environmental artist, Orestes Larios Zaak, is a busy place these days. This weekend, Larios opens a photo exhibit titled “Sardegna: Una Isla Por Descubrir” (Sardinia: An Island to be Discovered), with a collection of photos by Italian photographer Alfredo Cannatello. Curator for the exhibit is Lic. Pavel Barrios.
The exhibit opens September 26 at 8:30 pm at the Galería Taller Larios, in Camaguey, the eastern Cuban province. According to Larios:
This is a special collection, unique in its perspective about landscapes and interesting people of the island of Sardinia, a place where medieval traditions are kept very much alive. It is a place where one can still see a horse and carriage, slowly moving us from here to there, as if time had stood still, which, in some ways, it has here. This is Cannatello’s first Cuban exhibit and we are very proud that our Galería Taller Larios is the host for a very special event.
For photography lovers, two great occasions to celebrate.
Who is Jacky?
Jacky belongs to Frank Deville. The Luxembourg-based pooch is an “avid reader” of the German newspaper, Bild Am Sonntag. Every Sunday Jacky picks stories and interesting graphics in Bild Am Sonntag , the German newspaper.
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TheMarioBlog post #377