Sean Tice

This American TV Show

When Ira Glass’ “This American Life” debuted as a television series last year, there was a lot of skepticism within the NPR community. Much of the skepticism probably stemmed from the fact that the NPR set doesn’t own televisions, but listeners also took issue with how the radio program would be visualized.

I was apprehensive too, but the Glass team and series director Chris Wilcha have done a wonderful job a) matching the pace and balance of the radio program with equally tranquil cinematography, and b) mastering what I call “sync”, or the moments when the narrative or verbal discussion slightly align with what you’re looking at. Syncing is an art, and some of the most successful edits let the two elements criss cross over each other without seeming forced, while still fleshing out more meaning.

The TV series is not the radio series, or at least it’s the radio series with something to look at. That makes it different, and at times draws out more meaning than previously existed. It also affords moments like this one here.

Season Two premiered on May 4 and Season One is now out on DVD.

Three Reasons to Not Use Disqus

Commenting systems for blogs can be finnicky - short of some custom development, they never do exactly what you want them to do.

Enter Disqus, a young start up that’s providing an elegant solution to the commenting dilemma. Fred Wilson offers an interesting look on why the serious blogger should use Disqus in place of a blog’s default commenting system.

Fred’s reflections are valid and sound, but I’ve got a few bones to pick with the company. Granted they’ve gained major traction in a little over a year, but if you’re a serious blogger with serious needs, I’m not sure that Disqus hits the mark - yet.

1) SEO Bust
Comments are useful SEO juice, as they help flesh out and contextualize a page. And assuming you have consistent discussion within your posts, they help keep pages fresh and more relevant.

Disqus is essentially a javascript application, meaning that you drop in a line of code to replace your commenting system. Everything - from the actual comment form to the comments - are housed on your Disqus page (i.e. myblog.disqus.com), meaning the actual comments don’t truly “live” on your site. The result? None of those conversations or threads get indexed as being on your blog.

2) Linkbacks
Linkbacks fall into the blogger love category - you write something interesting, another site links back for whatever reason, and your link love goes up. Disqus does not recognize linkbacks (at least ostensibly), so while your site still benefits from the link juice, there’s no way to display those linkbacks on your site.

3) Hang time
This is the real killer for me, and yet another limitation of relying on a third party app.

Disqus takes time to load. It’s not a lot, but it’s additional time on top of all the other content that needs to load each time a visitor goes to your site. It isn’t the end of the world, but it does speak to the limitations of developing your product as an application.

In the end, Disqus is making a smart by housing everything on their site - it makes Disqus a destination, in some sense. However, commenting is blog specific and should be blog native. I’d like to see more integration down the road.

Logos and Helvetica

Under Consideration offers an in depth look at Ford’s revised identity, recently unveiled and set for full integration by 2010. As a company, Ford has gone through various transformations and shake ups in the past few years; revamping the logo only seems logical in the group’s ongoing effort to compete.

But is it? A while back I was working with a client who asked me, “What makes a logo timeless?” He cited the Morton Umbrella Girl as an example of a logo that has, despite minor revisions once every ten or twenty years, retained its original look and message. I do feel that the Umbrella girl is antiquated, largely because it relies on a dated convention - a drawing - rather than on the logo name itself to convey the brand.

The bottom line is that only good design makes a logo timeless. Paul Rand, Saul Bass, and Massimo Vignelli all come to mind - consider how little the identities for IBM, UPS, American Airlines, United Airlines, and AT&T have changed since their respective inceptions.

The Ford logo stands among these other brands as a testiment to logo immortality. The logo certainly doesn’t invoke masculinity as much as the company’s slogan - “Built Ford Tough” - but it has and continues to speak to the brand historically: strong, classic, and American, with a unique italicized font that calls to mind the curves of a car or the open road.

Over time a company’s mission and objectives may change and slight cosmetic changes are consequently in order. But to revamp your logo from scratch indicates either a) flaws in your initial logo to begin with or b) a disregard for how a logo is perceived over time. How will the new Ford logo fair in twenty years from now?

Logos signify strength; professional success over time siginifies strength. Ford’s almost rash decision to switch gears demonstrates a problem more symptomatic of the company as a whole: lack of foresight.

Great logos are like Helvetica - love them or hate them, they stand the test of time and continue to broadcast a strong message.

Note: Ford is adopting Meta as its corporate font (note “Motor Company” above). Meta was designed by Erik Spiekermann, a fantastic font designer who speaks out vehemently against Helvetica.

A new moblogic.tv unleashed!

Today we release a new version of moblogic.tv. In addition to a below-the-fold layout that surfaces more content relevant to what you’re watching, we’ve added a low resolution version of episodes to accommodate older computers and, in particular, Mac G4s.

We’ve also added a cool new application called the MobLogic Tip Jar. If you have a cool idea that would make a good MobLogic or just want to share an interesting article, drop a tip in the form and your recommendation appears across the site in real time. All articles are syndicated as an RSS feed, making it easy to keep tabs on the recommendations of other viewers.

Most of these new features are in response to all the viewer feedback we’ve received over the past month and a half. I can’t stress how important your thoughts are, and we always take all suggestions into consideration. The site will continue to evolve, and we want to know what you think! Keep ‘em comin’.

Republicans and Hippies

Last night the team behind new web shows Braxton Price and Leif Garisson threw a launch party.

Braxton Price is like FOX News’ defunct The 1/2 Hour News Hour but funny. Leif Garisson is like VH1’s Behind the Music series, and has successfully deployed the most questionable juxtaposition in the history of web cinema: