January 18, 2006

Blog design.

Andrew Sullivan has a nice new blog design (marking his alliance with Time). I understand why people are attracted to the elegant dark background with white letters. It looks pretty from a distance, but reading it is oppressive enough that you don't notice it while you're reading it, but you experience great relief when it's gone. It's a bit like the way you feel when you get new-prescription glasses.

I like the little cartoon logo, too. It's not surprising that the at-home, casual style of the blogger is emphasized at the point when he joins up with the big magazine.

IN THE COMMENTS: We talk about Andrew Sullivan's appearance on "The Colbert Report" last night. I say:
I thought it was very interesting that Colbert dropped his right-wing-pundit persona when the subject of gayness was reached. It was clear that he either didn't want or didn't see how to be funny being obtuse about understanding gay people. He started to with the question "When did you choose to be gay?" But then he kind of just went silent and let Sullivan talk.

13 comments:

Meade said...

"I like the little cartoon logo, too."

Yeah but I find that "X" in his ear disturbing.

Nick said...

Dark background with light letters hurts my eyes so much after I leave a blog... that when I go to a blog the first time, if it has such a format... I just don't even bother to read it at all... I just leave.

SippicanCottage said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bearbee said...

No difficulty with black on white but softer background with coordinated color text could mute glare:
theoubliette

Palladian said...

Sullivan's logo is very much in the Wonkette mode, without the "why is she lying on her desk" thing that always bothered me about her logo. It's also good that the cartoon Sullivan is using a laptop rather than an old Smith-Corona. A typewriter always seemed a strange choice for a blogger's logo.

reader_iam said...

Sippican:

I like all those things on your list (except, tellingly, the Playstation controller--couldn't care less, there), and Sullivan's new design as well.

The older I get, the less hip I am, I guess.

For some reason, the cartoon logo makes me think of the intro to "My Three Sons." Maybe he should animate it.

MadisonMan said...

Sippican: are you listing icons or things that are obsolete?

Peter Hoh said...

Sippican's list is things that were better before "they" tried to improve them.

At least that's how it seems to this old fart.

Ruth Anne Adams said...

Did you catch Andrew Sullivan's interview on "The Colbert Report" last night? It was pretty good. And by that, I mean funny. Two Catholic guys duking it out about marriage.

P_J said...

What happened to Sullivan's cartoon legs? Either they've been terribly shortened and the laptop is sitting on his ankles, or they just disappear below the knees (and they're not behind the desk - the chair is in front of the desk edge).

Otherwise, I like the redesign and the little cartoon, too. Now if we could just freshen up the content...

I'm Full of Soup said...

Ruth Ann said.."did you see Sullivan on Colbert".

Yes, I did and was amused when he claimed he writes about everything on his blog. I would have added ...if everything includes torture, gay rights, torture, gay marriage, torture.

And Ann, does "alliance" = sellout?

P_J said...

AJ - my point exactly. Until today, I hadn't read Sullivan in a year or more. But I didn't feel like I'd missed much - except the "King George" bit. I guess that's new.

Ann Althouse said...

Yes, I saw Sullivan on "The Colbert Report." I thought it was very interesting that Colbert dropped his right-wing-pundit persona when the subject of gayness was reached. It was clear that he either didn't want or didn't see how to be funny being obtuse about understanding gay people. He started to with the question "When did you choose to be gay?" But then he kind of just went silent and let Sullivan talk.