November 13th, 2009

Is this the future for newspapers

I run into a tweet from a friend about this new newspaper concept.

"We at McSweeney's love newspapers. We love the internet , too. But we believe that print newspapers are an invaluable part of the journalistic landscape. So we've spent five months collaborating with dozens of reporters, designers, photographers, and authors on a 21st-century newspapaper prototype"

The result is a fantastic newspaper that I would most certainly buy and read. Bravo to the team. More images here.

McSweeney's is the site of writer Dave Eggers

October 25th, 2009

Redesigner

It’s been a long time since I wrote something on this blog but work has been too much the past few months. That and my new role as a father have made me lose control over things.

I am managing well lately hence the little time available for this post.

I have a new permanent job as a Group Creative Director on IMAKO Media and I am head of Nitro magazine and Esquire Greek Edition. That takes a lot of effort and time and along that I have a very challenging project to manage. It concerns the need of a 5 regional newspaper consortium to change the look of their newspapers. The newspapers are under stuffed due to the circulation being very small and advertisement very low. The key is to design elegant and clean newspapers that both journalists and designers can work with.

What I have to give them is not only a new design in their newspapers but a hole system that they will follow in order to produce and design the same newspaper everyday and manage to keep the standards high.

It is my first contact with regional newspapers and the difference it has to work with a small group of people.

I will be posting results as they finish. At the moment I have completed the basic design and prototypes for the first one, currently designing a complete stylebook and finishing the prototypes for the second one. It is a very tight schedule and complicated workflow.

September 7th, 2009

Elections in Greece: Newspaper tragedy

The prime minister Mr Karamanlis declared elections in Greece nearly 2 years before the end of the 4year normal period. I am not to comment or debate on the reason that pushed him to do it earlier.

I am going to comment on newspapers. What I have seen already is an immediate turn to wards the political party each publisher supports. The masks are down and it is so obvious that every newspaper publisher in Greece has his own agenda in mind and not the reader.

We have newspapers that started to circulate again after months just to get the government advertising. And of course the publisher will fire all the people again after the elections. And no one says or does nothing about that.

We have newspapers that act as an everyday advertisement of the political party they support. The idea of journalism simply does not exit. It is so funny to see all this frontpages every day. Today I laughed at Eleftherotypia's headline that quoted the pre election campain of PASOK's leader George Papandreou catch frase like that:

"George Papandreou: This is the government I am planing"

And of course we have design. No we don't. There isn't any.

It seems like every time we have elections something happens to the planet and newspapers become word documents with cliparts attached as mugshots of politicians.

He who gives me the best explanation on why this happens, gets a years subscription to all those newspapers/political-voices I am talking about.

I remember fighting when I was working on ET during the elections of 2007 with the editor exactly about the same thing.

Design would alter what his headline would say.

That is what I was told!!!

He preferred to "sell out" his name as a Director in Chief to serve the agenda of his publisher writing exactly what he was told rather than trying to find the best way to tell the same thing without being soooooo obvious. Yet we managed to have some very good front pages during that period given the circumstances.

I will be watching everyday and I will post my results when this fair ends on October 4th.

August 24th, 2009

A pity for Athens

It is raining at my house in Halandri. But it is not water that drops. It is ashes.

It's like dusk, only it is noon . But there are not any clouds in the sky. There is only smoke.

Again, after 2 years, no one can help us.

No government, no fire department, nothing. They should have helped before the fires. They had 2 years time to organize and act.

Now they only blame the wind and the hard terrain of the area. And our forests are dying.

They will say they were successful. This time no one died (yet) in comparison to the 70 dead from the fires in 2007.

But this is a slow death. We will suffer from the consequences in the years to come.

I can't express what I feel by words. This is a time to show not tell. I did that in 2007 after the fire that burned half the mountain of Parnitha was out.

The title says "rage and responsibility". I would have said it differently: we have been burned.

August 24th, 2009

Michael Jackson's fake photo on the Guardian.co.uk

I was reading about the death of the King of Pop as Michael Jackson was known. What a tragic life story this man had. I too believe that he was a sick man, in need for love which he couldn't find.

Any way the link-hopping, while reading, got me to the most resent news about his death caused by a lethal combination of powerful sedative drugs which I read at the portal of the Guardian

I noticed a strange thing at the photo that accompanied the article.

It is a fake!!!

And the caption says Kevin Mazur/AEG/AP!!! That's Associated Press!!!

I don't know who among the 3 in the chain did it but it is a very bad photoshoped image.

See

Next time you make a clipping path watch out for your islands

I know this is a tricky one but the photo editor of the Guardian should check better next time.

But most importantly AP should check much more better the photographs they give to the media. Credibility is crucial if you are probably the biggest news agency.