The Mario Blog

Update #4: Saturday, Feb. 12, Oslo, Norway, 17:05h

TAKEAWAY: A Friday night dinner with the editors of Upstream. Where? Sydost, a chic restaurant in the old industrial part of the city. The food? Try the three-course menu, and savour the lobster wantons with beans. The lesson? Young chefs have elegant recipe for passion PLUS: More about mini posters at Il Secolo, GP. AND: Weekend updates

Mubarek leaves: mini posters tell the story

Front page of Times of Oman, the design award-winning newspaper from Muscat, Design director Adonis Durado shares this “poster” concept used in a broadsheet. Notice timeline of the 18-day Egyptian crisis above the photo.

This is how today’s Il Secolo XIX covered the exit of Mubarek. Massimo Gentile, design director, tells us it was a tough front page to do, with many stories to cover in addition to Egypt.

Anders Goliger, news editor, Goteborgs Posten, sends us this Mubarek departure front page of the Goteborgs Posten, where the mini poster principle was applied.

Note: for more about mini posters on Page One, scroll down

Passion served with a smile

As soon as we entered Sydøst, smiles welcomed us, a large room with tables quite closed to each other, giving the place the aura of a living room with two big fireplaces that witness the faces of men and women enjoying a Friday night out. With a glass of champagne in hand, I was ushered to my place at the table, and, fortunately, I was facing the open kitchen that is the real stage of Sydøst .

I don’t cook, although I wish I knew how, and don’t lose hope of learning one of these days, especially if I can master Thai and Indian cuisine.

But I love people who do whatever they do with a passion. Tonight, my ring side seat allowed me to observe the young chefs of Sydost at work.

Coincidentally, a few minutes before we sat down, the editors and I were talking about having fun in the newsroom, whether it is writing a headline or caption, designing a page, or just plain discussing the news of the day, like only journalists can when they are going off the record. We need to play in the sandbox more than we do, I said (soundling perhaps like the old man I am to the young ones in front of me). Editors who have fun producing the product normally create products that readers enjoy more.

The chefs in the Sydøst kitchen provided the best testimony about fun and passion on the job.

I watched them carefully as they went about their work: lettuce leaves were not thrown on a plate, they were selected, spiraled, caressed and then dropped gingerly, the fingers of the chef moving like those of a magician ready to reveal something unexpected; the orange sauce to decorate the plate was applied like Picasso probably did on his canvas (and this chef licked the big spoon he used to do the trick when he finished); small potatoes emerged from the fingers of the woman chef as if she was dropping coins in the hands of a child, and, parsley, the ultimate green surprise on top of a pyramid of white rice, not just placed there, but positioned with the care some use to clean a contact lens.

All along, smiles on the faces of the chefs, not necessarily for each other, but the type of smile that comes from within; enjoyment with oneself; pleasure of playing in the sandbox with passion.

These guys did not play for an audience. It was the intimacy that exists between those who practice passion and the subject on which they apply it.

These chefs could have been musicians in an orchestra, ballet dancers, opera singers, or, why not, newspaper editors and designers.

They were cooking happily. As I always say to editors everywhere, let’s do what we do happily—-and the rest takes care of itself.

At Sydøst the happy chefs’ passion pays off handsomely: go there and try the food next time you are in Oslo.

(And, if you can, get a ring side table by the huge, well lighted kitchen that is like a stage).

At Sydøst , there is a master class about passion on the menu. Go sample it.

If you go:

Restaurant Sydøst
Trondheimsveien 5
0560 Oslo

email: bord@sydost.no
Telefon: 2335 3070
http://www.sydost.no

From their English page:
Südøst is situated on the outskirts of the trendy, former working-class district of Grünerløkka, overlooking the river Akerselva. The spectacular premises, which served as a bank between World War I and the late 1970s, measure six metres from floor to ceiling and have two bare brick walls. At the far end, beyond the centrally positioned bar and the open kitchen, are two open fireplaces. It is here, on a bed of Norwegian birch charcoal, that the chefs roast the organic pork that has become Südøst’s signature dish. Thanks to the fact that the pigs, who are specially reared on behalf of the restaurant, are fed with shallots and juniper berries, the meat has a distinctive taste that makes it especially suitable for roasting.

TheMarioBlog post #711

Il Secolo XIX’s mini poster prototypes

TAKEAWAY: The front page mini poster packaging various aspects of a story is about to become a daily part of Il Secolo XIX, so here we show you the prototypes created for practice purposes.

Most of this week we have been presenting the mini poster concept and page one, not only through our project with Il Secolo XIX of Italy, but also Sweden’s Goteborgs Posten, and The Nation of Thailand.

Today Il Secolo design director, Massimo Gentile, who is working with our Garcia Media art director, Christian Fortanet, sends us the work they have completed the past two days, in preparation for Il Secolo’s launch of mini posters as a systematic part of its front page design. The idea is to bring together various visual elements, sometimes related to one story, as well as two or three, with some elements that are consistent: headline, a summary in narrative style and a Mondrian-approach to the mini poster’s architecture. See the examples that follow here.

The vertical miniposter: an entertainment story inside

Here is the 7-shape mini poster: Two different stories form the combo here

Here is the 7-shape mini poster: Three different stories including sports

Here is one of the most effective mini posters, completely rectangular, with one lead piece (in this case the follow up story on Silvio Berlusconi sex scandal), with a sports promo at top

An effective, single story treatment for this rectangular mini poster: Various stories related to the Silvio Berlusconi sex scandal

The mini poster as lead element on the front page

The mini poster attached to the promo (blue, far left), with several stories to promote

Today’s pop ups

Frank Deville talks you through this Bild pop up app

Bild’s pop ups today Friday: This first one is all about an audio pop up. It is in the sports section, and it says: The Hoffenheim team is ready for the Snoring/Sleepy Bayern Team. Hear the snoring in the background!

The snoring pop up in Bild’s Zeitung

The entertainment pop up: when bad ratings plagues show, they blame the presenter and shot down the show. Bild has fun with the story, with a headline that says: Shoot him down from the screen

TheMarioBlog post #710