We have a cover (...!)

There's plenty of space for supporting text besides the title (if need be)
It's also got a 0.25" bleed on all sides (fyi, Alexia).

I purposefully left the screen on the device blank in case anyone wanted to put something clever in there.

I'll be sending the hi-res version to Alexia and Geoff once we're all in agreement on the look.

AD #3

this ad originated from my moon, star, and firefly campaign from general electric, with the tagline "we get our ideas from nature"

i took your suggestions, very helpful, and made this one. please give me feedback and i know that this ad should apply to the article about the cavemen? if i remember correctly. so im trying to keep the layout and sequence of our magazine in mind when designing so ....comments suggestions would be very helpful~~thanks~~

Music industry article

Here's what I have, in the process of writing more: this is almost 1000 words. Let me know what can be improved.

The music industry, for most of modern industry, has been known for being a hit-maker, harnessing the power of recorded music, radio, television and film to make the unknown sensational. The answer was simple, big labels were good, they plucked musicians out of obscurity, put in the studio with their producer, told the radio played what we the public wanted to hear, and questions were few. That is no longer the case. Today, anybody can have a studio in their house and release their music under their terms. The meaning of ownership and the worth of music has changed. The power is back in the musicians’ hands. The ivory towers that major labels built with their rigid greed are slowly crumbling. They didn't adapt with the shifts of the people because they didn't know how to qualify ownership in a world of individuals that use the internet as a means of endless trade of free entertainment. Without the managers and producers that major labels insist their artists putting their hands into the making of records, music evolved beyond their control; in the hands of bedroom beat programmers with 4 tracks and mic. Companies didn't sign acts that they couldn't attach to statistical profit projections based off what they consider key markets - Country, Urban, and Rock. If there dared to be a department for Indie, it was for a longtime also responsible for Electronic because they didn't know what to do with it. They lost the plot. They took too long to decide how to approach winning the majority back, and lost real musicians forever.
One such example of the said shift in power is the concept of piracy. With modern technology, music can be digitalized and sent over the internet; whole albums can easily be downloaded to all and any who have the necessary technological ability. With such ease and convenience that follows piracy, it would be ridiculous to expect to create a large profit through album sales. In an effort to recoup their losses, the record labels took legal action, suing prominent pirates of music, gouging money from the biggest fans of the artists that the fans had been pirating from. Not surprisingly, studies show that piracy has only grown since; not only so, these lawsuits spawned so much bad press that the rate of piracy increased exponentially, while the record labels profits plummeted by a significant margin. Incidentally, the failures of the record labels begs another question, one that challenges the most basic assumptions about the foundations of profits in the music industry: Is free music, both in terms of prices and the ability to transfer the music from place to place, truly a negative force on the industry as a whole? Experiments such as the digitally downloadable release of Radiohead’s album In Rainbows, in which consumers did not pay a penny to obtain the album, prove that artists who release songs and cater to their fan base can make as much money as artists who concern themselves with prices and finances. In fact, Radiohead’s free album made more money than any previously released Radiohead album, through the great publicity and the influx of new customers who were willing to both buy older albums and go to live concerts.
Free, legally downloadable music like the album In Rainbows is also detrimental to the success of record labels. Traditionally, a garage band would practice at home hoping for a big deal in the form of a 45 minute slot at a local bar or café, slowly building a local reputation before getting discovered and getting a record deal. Now thanks to myspace music pages and similar social networking sites, its possible to become successful without the record deal. Although myspace bands such as Nightmare of You and Army of Freshmen signed onto a label eventually, Pogo, a talented Australian youth, enjoys much greater internet fame through his popular songs comprised of remixed movie sounds without any kind of record label. Transversely, this type of music would never have been taken seriously a century ago. Music, like art, is always changing and going through phases, and the music industry has to make sure it’s up to speed and keep up with the progressive nature of music.
So how kind of financial repercussions have hit record labels now that tangible CDs are going out of fashion in lieu of digital downloads? In 2005, companies like UMG and EMI have reported 5-6% profit. Of that profit, artists see about 3%. Major labels are struggling to reinvent themselves, but many wonder if its already too late. In 2000, U.S consumers bought 785.1 million albums; In 2006, they bought 588.2 million albums, 582 million in digital single, and purchased $600 million worth of ringtones. Digital media is an easy target to blame this failure upon, but the record companies also brought this upon themselves. The past few years have presented a fair number of opportunities, such as not addressing online piracy at its beginning, but they failed to take advantages of them. If they had made licensing deals with Napster, they would have reaped some of the profit of popular file-sharing services. But because Napster ultimately shut down, those millions of people found someplace else to download their music. In the end, people are still listening to as much music as ever: ipod sales are booming, concerts are selling out, and the music is out there. Labels have just repeatedly failed to turn the public’s interest into money, and their ineptitude will ultimately be their downfall.

SNL Weekend Update

Just so we're all on the same page, we're all going to follow Alexia's timeline of a perfect spread by next week, Week 11. Everything finalized––not a hair out of place.

If you get the final done sooner than next Wednesday, please feel free to email me and I will put it on one fat InDesign document, so that way Alexia only needs to make minor cut and paste adjustments and make it look awesome for print.

Have a good weekend, guys. Fight the good fight.

Hoelfer Text for PC

Just the text versions in .ttf format, no titling...

http://rapidshare.com/files/305734968/Hoefler.zip.html

Click the link, choose free user, download, unzip, install...

Comic Pages & Illustrations - ANNA HUANG

***The 1st and 2nd images I drew for my article.

Final Edit of my Article. =D -ANNA HUANG

The History of Games

Games have improved so much since the 1950’s because of the advanced technology. Our games now are fully rendered three dimensional with high definition screens and we can play them on our television, computer, or any handheld systems. Games are a major part in our culture but it’s not always a positive thing. Without games, many people’s lifestyles would not have been the same.
The first electronic game was invented in 1958 by a physicist Willy Higginbotham at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York. Higginbotham’s game was a table tennis-like game that was played on an oscilloscope, an electronic device that is able to produce visual displays corresponding to electronic signals. Three years later, Steve Russell, a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), created another game called “Space War”, the first interactive computer game.
During 1983, the Japanese introduced the gaming company known as Nintendo with its first gaming system being Famicom. Nintendo did not plan to market the product in the U.S. because Atari controls such a large percentage of the market. So instead they offered Atari rights to distribute the Famicom Gaming System. Nintendo’s gaming system did not appear in the U.S. market until 1985, under the name Nintendo Entertainment System. The following year the Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the U.S. after being test-marketed in New York. The same year both Atari and Sega introduced their own gaming system to compete in the market.
In 1989, Nintendo came up with the handheld Game boy that was sold for $109 USD. Since games are becoming more and more popular with the public the competition is fierce and many game companies are constantly creating new games, some even containing violence. The games that involve violence became popular because of Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Senator Herbert Kohl of Wisconsin. They launched a Senate investigation with the goal to ban all the games with violent content.
A year after the major Senate investigation, 1994, the Entertainment Software Rating Board was created. The Entertainment Software Rating Board rates the video games and then makes sure that the rating symbol is marked on every game’s packaging. That way it can help alert the buyers about the contents in the game, it’s definitely a good way for parents to make sure if they are buying a game that is suitable for their children.
By 1997, Sony’s PlayStation was at the top because it was considered one of the most popular game consoles with 20 million units sold. It was incomparable with any other gaming system. Around the same time, Tiger introduced their “multipurpose” handheld called, “Game.com” to compete with Nintendo’s Game Boy, Tiger’s Game.com also features a calculator, address book, and also a stylus for the built –in touch screen. Hoping to win over fans, another special feature was that the Game.com can have access to e-mails by connection to a PC.
In 1998, Wal-Mart decided to ban more than 50 video games that are inappropriate for underage minors. Right after the Columbine High School Shooting, in Littleton, Colorado, Sega announced that the company will not be releasing a light gun game for the Dreamcast console in the U.S. Also in addition the guns, that were originally planned to be imported to America, which is compatible with the American Consoles, were instantly banned. This results in the Americans playing the popular House of the Dead 2 with standard controllers. Everyone was afraid that more shooting incidents might occur because of the influence of violent games.
Sony’s PlayStation finally launched their PlayStation 2 in the U.S. in 2000. It was sold for $ 299.99, more expensive than any other console sold from before. But it was a big hit, selling out quickly the day it came out. The demand was so high that it was really difficult to buy a PlayStation 2 during the first shipment because there were only 500,000 units available during that time. During the same year The Sims was released and quickly became one of the biggest hits.
While other gaming companies concentrated on releasing the same old gaming systems or handheld system, Nintendo aimed for a more different and unique design for their gaming system. In 2006, Nintendo released their Wii, a gaming console where the controller was made for the purpose where the gamers actually need to move around to play the games. For example the gamers need to swing the controller like a tennis racket or just use it however depending on the games they are playing. This really appeals to a wider range of audiences, especially the older generations due to the increase in health concerns.
Nintendo’s Wii became really popular and many good games were created specifically for their game console like the widely popular game Super Mario Galaxy. In 2008 Wii officially launched Wii Fit which is a game where people can exercise indoors in front of the television. Wii Fit is a great way to get people moving and it’s a great way to get gamers of all ages to stay fit. As of 2009, Nintendo’s Wii is currently one of the most popular gaming systems and Nintendo’s Wii Sports became one of the best-selling video games.
Games have played such an important and huge role in our culture. Games are a great way to relieve stress and also to have fun. Now with the Wii, one can even exercise!