Less than 24 hours after my blog post, Amazon changes the Askville logo. ‘Nuf said?

(Thanks to the Askville guys. I owe you a beer!)

During my last full-time gig, I designed the Eventful logo.

So, I was amused to see that Amazon “borrowed” my design for Askville, their new question and answer service that intends to compete with Google Answers.

What’s similar?

• Arial Rounded MT Bold? Check.
• Tighter font-spacing? Check.
• Lowercase type? Check.
• Use logo on plain-white background? Check.
• Switch colors for each morpheme? Check.
• Use only two colors? Check.
• Blue on left? Check.
• Green on right? Check.

What’s different?

• The Eventful logo uses more compact letterforms (86% of normal width).
• Eventful uses a brighter blue and darker green than Askville.

Is Web 2.0 running out of logo gas?

I freely admit my design wasn’t the world’s most original logo. And a year plus later, it’s hard to remember my exact influences, but I certainly was inspired by Flickr, MySpace, SimplyHired, and Apple’s penchant for tweaked-out versions of public fonts.

Now, of course, great design is always influenced by that which came before, but the Eventful logo is fairly well known. It pops up on all Web 2.0 logo lists and was featured in Font Shop’s Web 2.0 logo roundup as an example of “the softies” (described as text-heavy logos with a human feel).

Sure, the similarity is probably is just a coindence. But I’m surprised to see a company of Amazon’s caliber making this sort of mistake.

Final thoughts

So, if anyone from Amazon is listening, I suggest creating a more compelling brand for Askville, regardless of the logo similarities. But, hey, no hard feelings… you’re still my number one.

Congrats, btw, to Jeff Bezos on today’s Blue Origin rocket launch!

…

(Oddly enough, Amazon isn’t the first. PodcastReady.com has a similar logo, though they used a slightly different typeface and added an earbud-inspired mark.)

Whoa…. looks like the New York Post just launched a redesign. Sneaky bastards.

If you ever used the old Post site, then you know how much of a miracle this really is. It was a big stinking pile of crap. Blinking font tags, insane numbers of banner tags (sometimes, they’d even prevent pages from loading fully), and a tacky design that smelled like 1996.

But here’s my favorite new feature. The Page Six Star Map. It’s got Google Maps integration so now you can see exactly where your favorite celebrities were spotted. Our first victims… I mean celebrities: Bill and Melinda Gates!

What I like

• Layout optimized for 1024 x 768
• Improved branding — the website design is now almost identical to the print version of the paper. Big fonts and images. They even add faux scuff marks on the edges of the layout. I love it.
• Better ad placement — advertisements are now tastefully presented and no longer overwhelm site content
• The site isn’t valid HTML 4.01 yet, but the markup is reasonably well-formed. Believe it or not, the Post (126 errors) is more valid than the New York Times (479 errors). Do conservatives write better markup?

What I don’t like

• News articles are broken into “pages”. Can you say “we need more pageviews”?
• The main stylesheet is bloated with lots of repetitive declarations
• Some of the Flash content has classic bad UI design, like tiny unmarked paginators. (Are next and previous buttons really so bad?)
• Do we really need a weather bug in the header? Cute, but unnecessary. Removing it would let the other elements in the header breathe a bit.
• The search “Go” button in the site header is too small and illegible.
• The Opinion section could use a more contextualized layout, with more prominent placement of editorial headlines and bylines
• The Post is still a shill for the Bush administration

Final word: it’s not quite as good as the new Vinh Khoi powered New York Times, but this is a solid redesign.

Everybody says how much the JBL Creature II speakers look like Darth Vader.

So here’s how to do it for real.

MATERIALS

• Vader mask image (I used this one.)
• Printer
• Scissors
• Roll of tape

INSTRUCTIONS

Print out the Vader image and then follow the diagram below.

RECOMMEND USAGE

• Don’t own these speakers? Try pranking a friend or office buddy.
• Try playing Star Wars music or Vader sound clips — Vader on Vader!
• Print out “little Vaders” for the satellite speakers

CREDITS

• Thanks to Eric Miller for being my first victim
• The Vader image is from an auction on eBay.