A new site for Indigo Design Group

This site was recently completed by fisheye (with back-end help ably supplied by Paul Erickson at Xperimental Studios) for the wonderful women of Indigo Design, Sydney-based Interior designers. We created an illustration of their studio space from a photograph, and decided that this should be used for the site’s navigation. A big site, a lot of consultation and hard work later, here it is!

http://www.indigodesign.com.au

 

Amazon can now bypass publishers

I just found this article from the New York Times which reports on Amazon’s move to directly woo authors, cutting publishers out of the deal. While this could be a good development for some authors who can self-publish e-books with Amazon and make more income from writing, I worry about the potential for publishing standards to drop. Publishing houses apply rigour to manuscripts, with usually multiple rounds of editing and proofreading – leading to a higher quality in the finished product. Not to mention the careful attention to the creation of a great cover!

Would love to hear your views on this hot topic!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/technology/amazon-rewrites-the-rules-of-book-publishing.html

The ugly e-book!

Good typography and cover design – how important is it to the e-book reader?

 

This article from WIRED magazine highlights some concerns that I’ve long held about our new digital world of ebooks. In particular, the loss of the wonderful art of the typographer, not to mention a well-designed cover. Let’s hope that developers are onto it!

 

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/05/e-book-design/

fisheye now does eBooks!

So here’s what you’ve been waiting to hear:

Fisheye can now publish eBooks! We can produce ePub (eg, for iPad) or MOBI files (for Kindle), using the latest InDesign suite of tools. We can either create eBooks from scratch for you, or convert existing digital files to ePub/MOBI format. Easy! Give us a call on 0421 865 843 with any eBook queries you may have.

the fisheye blog

Hello and welcome…

Firstly I’d like to tell you a bit about what to expect here. I will hopefully add new post once a week, and it could be about anything design-art related. It could also be about the vintage chair I’m learning to reupholster, something inspiring I saw or read, something I’m enjoying cooking, or something that I thought you’d find funny. Sometimes it might even be about book design. I would love your feedback of course.

In our office I’m creating a wall of interesting bits designed to distract me in a positive way, if that makes sense. Here it is. As I find things up they go. Among them presently is a favourite multicoloured doily (thanks for that one Jo), a cat I copied from one of my daughters picture books (The Cat with No Name), and a drawing from my son’s Spongebob period (ongoing). It’s a poor photo, complete with old coffee cup, might post some details of the wall using my camera instead of my phone 🙂 Bear with me as I learn more …

 

 

The Tree of Life – movie review

The Tree of Life – movie review

 

Well. I’m glad I’ve had a few weeks to let this one stew. I mentioned I was going to see this movie having heard both rave and damning reviews. I am certainly glad I was warned of how ambitions the project was. An obvious stylistic comparison for me was Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. Long dreamy passages with no dialogue and cosmic explosions … However, ‘The Tree of Life’ takes it much further and for me, was an emotional experience. Perhaps as I’m a mum I react more extremely to a story of a mother’s loss. The remaining son’s dichotomous relationship with his remote father and seemingly perfect mother, compounded by the tragic loss of his brother, coupled with the dreamy retro-lit sequences of the family outside, made it a memorable movie for me. My only criticism is that some of the sequences of the cosmos/volcanoes/clouds/marine life went on too long and seemed ultimately self-indulgent. There were a few snorts and even a few walk-outs during these episodes at my cinema (Dendy, Newtown, so you’d expect an open-minded crowd). All up, I’d recommend it.

4 stars

off to the movies

Hi all,

am off to see The Tree of Life tonight, which has been much anticipated. It seem that friends who have seen it are divided down the middle: love it or hate it. I love its ambitiousness from what I’ve heard. Will let you know what I think and would like to hear your opinion of it also.

stuff we love

Check out the links du jour below.

 

About book design

Sandy Cull’s thought-provoking and entertaining blog on the trials and tribulations of being a book designer.

aboutbookdesign.blogspot.com/

 

The book versus the iPad or Kindle!

Are books still relevant? Can the iPad and the Kindle replace the printed book? Should we feel sadness or excitement at the rate of change in the publishing industry? Jennifer Byrne discusses this prescient topic with Richard Flanagan, Kate Eltham and Richard Watson.

www.abc.net.au/tv/firsttuesday/s3219358.htm

  

The Ship Song Project

If you haven’t seen this yet, have a look. The combination of a beautiful Nick Cave song with our beloved Opera House and all our local Aussie talent is something to behold.

www.youtube.com/user/theshipsongproject

 

 

The Book Cover Archive

I love this site. A collection of the latest inspiring book covers from around the world. The Art of Immersion designed by Jason Booher is a current favourite.

http://bookcoverarchive.com/book/the_art_of_immersion