Episode 10 - More about the American man’s life, and the history of Led Zeppelin’s album covers
Yes, I made it into double-digits, finally. Without going into a long explanation, the podcast is taking its next evolutionary step. I want to slim it down to 1-2 main topics and go deep on them for most of the time, still keeping each show around 30 minutes. Episode 10 is a transition.
This time, I revisit Esquire’s 50 Reasons Why It’s Good to Be an American Man and The Laws of (American) Style. I love these lists because they’re a good mix of funny, true and absurd. I may dedicate a whole future episode to one of them.
I know I promised to get through the Third Circle of Hell in Inferno, but there was no time. The next little ways on this journey really deserves an episode of its own, too. With the Question of the Week gone from the line up, I should have the time.
This week’s design discussion is all about Led Zeppelin’s album covers. The early ones are sort of hit-and-miss, but in the middle of their history they really put out some very artistic stuff that really still holds up today. They really started moving beyond art and into design towards the end. And several covers have interactive features that are not only ahead of their time, but also they represent the peak of album cover design from the end, and the pinnacle, of the 12″ vinyl LP era. Photos are behind the link…
50 Reasons Why It’s Good to Be an American Man
The Laws of (American) Style
Punchline at the Podsafe Music Network
Punchline on the web
Punchline on MySpace
TiFFcast
Ramblings of a Married Man
I
II
III
IV
Houses of the Holy
Physical Graffiti
Presence
The Song Remains the Same
In Through the Out Door
Coda
Once again, another great Podcast. Thanks for the shoutout. I’d have to disagree with you about your moment about MySpace being an ugly website. Granted, personal user profile pages can be extremely gaudy and ridiculous, but MySpace as a general site is quite well designed - in my humble opinion. I think the defaulted MySpace profile page is easy to read as well as easy to navigate. Of course, it gets nasty when people start throw shit up there… but I think one of the reasons why MySpace is so popular is how easy it is to use. Of course, this is from a design standpoint. The way it slows down your computer and how the servers are always down.. that’s another thing entirely. But for a page that relies A LOT on adverts, I think it’s well laid out.