READ ME! :)

Just a quick memo from your friendly neighbourhood admin 😛

Name issue: Firstly, I managed to fix the issues with names not displaying on posts. As you can see now, you no longer need to sign your posts since your name automatically appears in the post details along with the date etc. YAY!

DO THIS PLEASE: Please go to My Account > Basic Details and fill in the details for your FIRST NAME, LAST NAME, DISPLAY NAME, and (optional) add a picture of yourself in your ‘Gravatar’ so that we know who is who

Navigation Bar fix: The navigation bar at the top now lets you navigate according to categories (text, rhetoric, screen, manifesto)

REMINDER: And as bit of a follow up to what I just said, please remember to select one or more of the category options (found in the right hand column) when you are creating your posts … this will make it a lot easier for people to search up posts that relate to specific texts.

Theme: This current theme seems to the be the one people liked when we were setting the blog up, but if you have any suggestions of other themes that are flexible and easy to navigate (MUST have option of adding the author’s names to the posts though) feel free submit your suggestions on here.

Thanks! Ladi.

P.S. For any other issues, questions, or queries, you can always find me on Facebook under ‘Ladislava Fricova’ (as well as through the members list on our LCC Graphic Design group)

Esquire Augmented Reality

Here’s an example of publication making use of digital gimmick to boost readership. Instead of moving the full editorial to fit into a digital format (which is actually existing; Esquire has accommodate its ipad version), they are injecting only bits and pieces of the digital interactive through scanned barcodes. It is a combination of 2 platform of technology.

The effectiveness, however, is questionable. Firstly, a software needs to be downloaded from esquire website into a mac computer for codes scanning. It requires an effort on the reader’s part. Secondly, would anyone read a magazine in front of the computer?

It’s unlikely for an ipad reader to look back into reading from magazine. It seems the target market is narrowed to only the new readers.

Nevertheless, the application of digital technology on printed surface to help the sales of the printed product is quite interesting to me. It is a creative effort.

Eunice Gracilia

digital books/ physical books

The transitions from print to screen recently become more visible. The fact that Amazon’s Kindle books outsold real books on Christmas 2009, forms an idea of how screen based is our everyday life and how the future is going to be.

Apple’s iPad formed a new market, the most prestigious publications designed an iPad version of their newspapers and magazines. This new digital experience contains moving images videos songs and basically an interaction that can’t be achieved with printed form. Apple has sold 450,000 iPads so far, 350,000 of which were sold on launch day (there’s a minor discrepancy here as Apple had previously announced  it sold 300,00 on launch day) 600,000 iBooks have been downloaded so far, 250,000 of which were downloaded on day one. Those numbers present the acceptance of the new digital era. iPad adds environs our tube and buss stations all over the UK, with local newspapers and publications creating their own app and advertise it.

Maybe reading a physical book is just a habit that we could easily get over with…

Aristos Christodoulou

Photo of ipad ads on the tube.