I R Sam

So, I woke up this morning and logged into Word Press to check my comments log and saw that I had endured a sudden burst of linkage to my website. After checking the stats I discovered that I had been featured in a few website galleries including lightondark.com.

I never asked to be included or sent my design out for review but I was never-the-less flattered at the attention I had received, especially for a design I consider to be temporary (I’m doing the May 2007 reboot). I hope people enjoy the site and come back. There are many exciting things that will be taking place in this space over the next year.

Oh, and 10 points if you know what the title of this article is referring to.

So, I was catching up with a friend the other day via the phone and the topic of her Myspace page came up. As a designer I consider Myspace to be the bastard child of Satan, you know, it all happened when he was touring with the band and had a lot of groupies hanging around. The user interface is clunky and hard to follow and yet millions of people, of many ages sign up for accounts, set up pages, and continue to fuel the market value of the site.

I have a feeling that the reason that Myspace became successful was because it allowed people to keep in touch with friends all while maintaining a cool, exclusive (at the time) community that just about anyone could get into.

But, instead of telling you why Myspace is successful, I figured I’d just put it up to you to tell me why you like Myspace.

What a sweet way to wake up on this Monday morning! I sleepily browse through the list of blogs I read and find that Derek Powazek’s 8020 Publishing has launched a new version of JPG Magazine. I spent a good 30 minutes reviewing the site and reading the new programs that they have implimented into their already excellent magazine and am now convinced that this is a magazine that is essential to any photographer’s reading list as Flickr is to storing your photos.

JPG has also reduced the cover cost for the magazine from $20 to about $6 a price that just about anyone can afford. I believe I would have bought it at $20 but I’m not going to pretend that I want them to change their mind.

From the looks of it the general plan is to have people upload their photos which are voted on by the community. The pictures that make it through the voting process are then reviewed by the JPG staff which pick the best to be displayed in the actual Magazine.

One of the coolest things about this version of JPG is the ability to interact with other photographers and maybe even get your work featured in the magazine itself. Imagine that, pictures you take could end up published in a honest to goodness magazine… on purpose.

On a serious note, I think this is a smart decision on their part as there is so much untapped talent in young photographers who just need a chance to get their work shown in order to break into the field of Photography.

For a more in-depth, serious review of the new JPG, visit Derek’s Website for a great review. Best of luck with your endevors Derek!