Despite what we all know about bidding sites, Fiverr has outdone itself in building an unethical platform that punishes designers and customers.
In 2019, it was estimated that Fiverr is worth almost $1 billion dollars. Impressive for a gig platform ostensibly offering services for as little as five dollars, no? But look just beneath the surface and one finds that Fiverr, like most multi-million dollar enterprises, is a platform built upon the exploitation of those it claims to serve — low-quality output, high fees (Fiverr take 20% of a seller’s revenue), and a lack of oversight combine to create a platform guilty of every misdemeanour found on other bidding sites. …
Persona 5, Noise, and the accessibility of beauty
In 2016, Persona 5 exploded onto the PlayStation 4 in such a way that you might think the colour red hadn’t existed before. In its insatiable visual language and its defiance of the quotidian standards of Japanese role-playing games, there was hope the era of flicking through boring menus was over. If nothing else, it certainly fired a shot across the bow of its competitors.
A spin-off of the popular Megami Tensei series, Persona isn’t completely distinct from most JRPGs. Its turn-based combat between teams of characters, supplemented by magic, monsters, and items places it firmly within the genre…
We look at pre-made book covers and how they’ve shaped self-publishing, becoming an avatar for the seedier parts of a rapidly growing industry.
Self-publishing is bigger than ever. Every year, it only grows and, with it, the services that operate within. In 2019, Bowker suggested the industry is expanding at an alarming rate. With “[the] combined total of self-published print book and ebooks with registered ISBNs [growing] from almost 1.2 million in 2017 to more than 1.6 million in 2018… [showing] no signs of slowing down.”
With most of us kept at home throughout 2020, the number of authors seeking to self-publish only grew more. In recent years, romance has been experiencing a “steady decline” but Kirsten McLean notes the pandemic “helped to…
Since Graeme Swann’s retirement, England has used twelve spinners. Seven made their debut, three have only played one test match, two were batsmen, and one was Samit Patel.
Summer 2019. Everything’s coming up Jack Leach. At the beginning of the season, he dug England out of a hole against Ireland with the bat. He does it again against Australia at Headingley — albeit with a little help from Ben Stokes. Leach’s teammates laugh as they film him reliving his lone single. He scampers between the wickets in the gloom, the clink of beer bottles echoing around the empty ground. In a series dominated by pace, Leach takes twelve wickets at 25.83. He feels invincible.
Heading to New Zealand, Leach has supplanted Moeen Ali as England’s first-choice spinner. It’s…
Tōkyō Thrift: Japonisme and the Japanese Bauhaus
In modern vernacular, the concept of East and West can speak of a major contradiction. Ask someone to sum up this opposition (especially in the racially-charged politics of today) and they would relate a major philosophical rift between the two — that “East and West… are not merely geographical terms; they are also modes of thinking and feeling — modes so different as to be virtually irreconcilable.”(1) …
COVID-19 is an opportunity to shelve the ableism and develop some empathy towards the people who have lived like this for years.
You’re finding this difficult, aren’t you? You’re not used to being alone for so long. You miss your friends. Maybe there’s a partner you’ve not seen for months. As time goes on you begin to long for the simple things like nipping out for bread, hanging out at the gym before work, going for a drink on Friday night. You realise just how important those ostensibly meaningless interactions were to you now that you can’t engage in them anymore.
Outside the sun is beaming but your single unit of exercise is done for the day. You might go out anyway…
The question of when to rebrand is not one with an easy answer — especially for small businesses. But the example of major brands provides a template for the optimum times to revitalise your brand.
Back in January, Sony unveiled a new logomark for its upcoming console, the Playstation 5, at CES 2020. The reaction was underwhelming, with many criticising a supposed lack of creativity on the part of the designer. Games Radar led with the headline “Sony reveals the official PS5 logo and literally nobody is surprised” while Screen Rant stated the logomark “left much to be desired.” Social media users branded the company as lazy and unoriginal, while artist BossLogic created what some have suggested is a better concept and Game Rant called “a more satisfying emblem.”
A quick take on Sony’s latest reveal.
Some of us have woken up this morning to the news that Sony has revealed the brandmark for its latest console, the Playstation 5, at CES 2020. It’s been greeted by a mixed reaction: while some are excited by the new hardware, plenty are bemused and even bothered by the lack of variation between this and the branding of former consoles. Gamesradar’s coverage of the reveal is headlined with “Sony reveals the official PS5 logo and literally nobody is surprised” and the way people have reacted to the news begs the question: why should we be surprised? …
Mirror’s Edge made player movement and navigation an artform in a landscape devoted to the objective marker
It all used to be so simple. Gaming in the ’80s was really just a matter of moving left-to-right. There was nothing complicated about Super Mario Bros.; you started on the left side of the screen and your aim was to make your way across the map to the right-hand side. It made for basic yet compelling gameplay that Will Wright described as “so approachable, so simple, so addictive, and yet so deep.” Shigeru Miyamoto has suggested that the inspiration to make a side-scrolling game came from watching mountains rush by through a train window. And while Super Mario Bros…
Overshadowed between two dramatic missions, the success of Apollo 12 was vital to the continuing space project.
Pete Conrad was confused. One minute he was commenting cheerfully on a “lovely lift-off” and now the master alarm was blaring through his headset. He was the only one on board who had seen the flash outside but, as the three crew members scrambled to work out what was wrong, he still did not know what it was.
Conrad was born to fly. Only Dick Gordon, now sat to his right, could claim to be as talented. An ace in the simulator, Conrad weathered everything thrown at him with wry humour and a casual confidence that belied just how serious…
Geoffrey Bunting
Designer, writer, and historian. Founder of Geoffrey Bunting Graphic Design (geoffreybunting.co.uk).
