But first, some miscellany!

Morbid comics from ManEggs!

And… Some Gremlin goodness from Designkins (via DesignYouTrust). I’m aware of the fact that I don’t wear caps. But hey, I also own a Hello Kitty Toaster. SO! FUCKYEAHUSELESSSHITBITS.

AND ONWARD!

Which word in the dictionary is most tainted with adolescent shame? Hand’s down, no-doubt, it’s goth.

Anyone outside of the cult of moody knows the goth look is designed to fug everyone. Statistically, chances that any given person looks good with pale face paint, greasy blue hair and a pin-cushion face is next to none. But don’t be harsh, it’s surprisingly hard to resist when you’re an angry tween. I wallow in shame every time I recall all the (now destroyed) evidence of my time as a confused clubbing gothchild.

But strangely, things like Tamagotchi and pokémon die, but Goth RAGES ON! Look, Disney’s finally declaring the moody-moody-slash-wrist market mainstream. Wall Street Journal declares: “Walt Disney Co.’s consumer-products division is aiming its marketing firepower at young women and teenage girls, particularly those who gravitate to darkly romantic entertainment like the Twilight series.”

” [Disney's] zeroing in on Hot Topic with jewelry, shirts, and other baubles while a Los Angeles location is becoming a miniature Wonderland. There will be a mingle-with-the-stars event for fans, and “goth-pop” bands from the soundtrack will provide the tuneage.” (via Cinematical.)

Sure, Disney’s investment in black lipstick isn’t anything new. They’ve always has Burton in their stable, but now, with the King of dark-cute leading the march with Alice in Wonderland, Mickey’s household’s gonna see some changes.

Just a couple of weeks ago, a cute chinese teen girl with a little Avenge Sevenfold backpack showed up at my home (family friends visiting from Sydney) and asked me if I knew where to buy Slipknot tees in Singapore. Man. After much ethical debate on my part, we skipped to Far East Plaza to complete the mission. I couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt as I let her purchase those horrid, unflattering black t-shirts. How did I ever wear these baggy shirts with tacky band logos emblazoned across both the front and back for maximum fug? But ah, well, she was full of glee and I wasn’t about to rain on her little black parade.

If I could tell her one thing, it’d be that the worst of skank is more forgiving than a goth FAIL, plus you get laid more.

Seldom does the world collectively experience a disappointment so great, it is humorous. Then again, as we sober up from the punchline, we begin to wonder if there is more to the iPad than a flub. Apple is, after all, the industry game-changer. It wouldn’t be wise not to watch closely.

The iPad could shift the rules of advertising, graphic design, blogging, journalism & publishing from right beneath your feet.

Iconic design house, Pentagram, has published a great trend-watch article, “5 Ways the iPad will Change Magazine Design“. Indeed, the iPad will, as an e-reader (as opposed to a half-assed excuse of a smart-phone-laptop hybrid) may revolutionize reading itself.

Magazine content, online and in print, will be influenced by the screen, interface, even processing capabilities of the iPad. Think this is an exaggeration? Just look at how graphic design both on- and off-line has been influence by the mouse and resolution for the past decade:

• Images got smaller and took the form of pop-up slide shows
• Content structure became dominated by overviews, excerpts and short articles while longer pieces sit on a lower hierarchy behind “more” tags or further into the heart of the publication.
• Video content flourishes and demands integration with text and still (often with awkward results).
• Advertising copy and images became miniaturized to integrate into layouts.
• The miscellaneous (archives, categories, similar posts, about-the-authors) became necessary browsing tools, equivalent to running one’s fingers through the pages of a magazine.

And all of the above will be changed, again, with the iPad. People will spend considerably more time, well, reading, than on a laptop or a computer. Trends that came about to adapt to people’s shrinking attention spans and patience will be, again,transformed. The screen real estate also changes when scrolling is eliminated or re-integrated into user interaction, or when reading patterns change.

Come to think about it … the iPad has even influenced the market as we know it before it’s release.

And of course, the iPad might just be the nail in print’s drawn-out descent into it’s coffin – with an iPad on every coffee table, where will print stand?

the iPad might just be the nail in print’s drawn-out descent into it’s coffin

But while the iPad’s potential is formidable, it must first, like every product, be purchased. And even as the kind of consumer who’s willing to part with a little more cheddar for a little more shiny, I must say that the iPad just won’t cut it. Lack of multi-tasking, limited processing power and no usb at that price tag? It’s almost vulgar.

Hopefully, all that speculation about Apple having something more up their sleeves is right…

EDIT: Haha,  Stanford does not heart the iPad.