TAKEAWAY: Some of my TweetsByDesign this week dealt with the subject of newspapers visiting a psychiatrist. You asked for more. ALSO: Starting July 1, we publish Pure Design book entries here. PLUS: The new iPhone 3G S is out today.
Newspapers in therapy
It is the era of the Oprah confessional. One out of five persons you meet immediately tells you about his relationship with his therapist, etc.
So, inspired by that thought, this week I posted several TweetsByDesign imagining that, if newspapers were people, many of them would be seeing a psychiatrist for consolation, advice, and to try to straighten themselves out.
I have received more than a dozen emails from people who asked me to expand on the subject. Honestly, there is nothing else to say. This was just a series of fun entries, inspired by the fact that everyday I hear editors lamenting the plight of the newspaper industry, yet I see many newspapers worldwide that thrive, with editors that still believe in print and show it.
Actually, I was in one specific newsroom where gloom seemed to be in the air, and I had this momentary feeling that perhaps it is NOT the newspaper the medium that is so much in a crisis but those in charge of producing it. So, if the newspaper could talk, and if it would sit with a therapist, it would probably tell the story of becoming a victim to those around it who don’t know what to do with the newspaper, how to adapt its use to the realities of today, and who bask in despair more so than in solution-driven strategies.
If the newsroom people feel inspired and positive, the product will show it.
Here are the original Twitter entries:
If newspapers were people, many of them would be visiting a psychiatrist right now
“What would the newspaper tell the psychiatrist,” someone asked me just now! “Had a glorious childhood, vibrant adulthood, not aging well”
Newspaper to psychiatrist: “those surrounding me don’t think I am useful anymore, I am the old horse in the farm”
Newspaper to psychiatrist: “But I still have it in me to be what I have been, give me a chance, let me reinvent me (like Madonna often does)”
Newspaper to psychiatrist: “Don’t prepare my wake yet, I am still here, and can kick ass if paid attention to.”
Psychiatrist to newspaper: “doesn’t look to me like you are the one who needs to be here, send me some of those editors you talk about”
Pure Design comes to the blog
While my last book, Pure Design, is now out of print, I have decided to publish the various, short entries from it in TheMarioBlog starting July 1.
As readers of Pure Design know, I was inspired by Aesop’s fables to write short, all inclusive entries on a variety of design-related topics, from color and typography to white space use and page architecture.
My plan is to add new thoughts to each of the “fable entries”, to update the topics whenever possible.
Pure Design’s pages will be available as PDFs through the Issuu viewer (http://issuu.com/) embedded in the blog.
No more waiting: the iPhone 3G S here now
France’s Le Figaro gives full coverage to the arrival of the iPhone 3G S on page one, then devotes entire inside page to describing the new phone
If you are like me, and can’t live without your iPhone, today is a special day, as the new (and greatly enhanced iPhone 3g S) is here. Faster, allowing you to copy and paste, not to mention to make videos, will be available from today.
I did not pre-order, which means long lines at the Apple Store in Tampa either today or tomorrow, but I hope to own one before the weekend is over.
It is not only Americans who are crazy about the iPhone: in France, the daily Le Figaro, today displays the news and illustration right on Page One.
Related links:
– USA Today Publisher Says He Regrets Not Charging for Paper’s iPhone App
Fans of British newspapers now have a marvelous source to tap into, and we thank Jeremy Weate, of the Nigerian daily, NEXT, for sharing this with us.
The British Library now has an online archive of newspapers going back to 1800 (a mixture of free and pay-for content). Among the offerings (The Penny Illustrated Paper from Saturday, November 23rd, 1861 – with stories on The War in America, A London Fog and the Death of Mr Thomas Duncombe):
Father’s Day
It is Father’s Day Sunday in the United States. I am home to celebrate with my four children and 10 grandchildren.
In the past four months, three of the designers I work with have become dads. In each case, I told the new dad that the child born to him would be his best project ever, and, of course, one that does not disappear into oblivion.
I have four such wonderful projects myself, and I am proud of each of them: Mario, Brian, Ana and Elena. In turn, they have given me 10 grandchildren ranging in ages from 10 years to six months, each special in his/her own way—three girls, seven boys.
The great Mahatma Gandhi said that “grandchildren are God’s dessert to men”.
Wishing all the dads (and grandpas) out there a very special day.
I know mine will be sweet times 10.
TheMarioBlog posting #283