Blog Post: There is apparently only one rule for design in Austin: Thou must use the longhorn logo on everything.Texas must be hell for designers.
There is apparently only one rule for design in Austin: Thou must use the longhorn logo on everything. The bullish seal is applied to every car dealership, restaurant, and bar -- especially bars -- in this city. And if you're not staring at the longhorn, you're being confronted with some other gratuitous reminder that yes dear traveler, you are undoubtedly in the southwestern United States.
For example, right now I'm sitting in the lobby of the Hilton, waiting for registration to open for SXSW. Above me: chandeliers resembling tumbleweed. Chandelier lights. Inside fake tumbleweed. Lord.
This year the interactive portion of SXSW is co-located with the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference. I don't think you can find two more discrepant groups. Except maybe if you hosted a party with Friends of Paris Hilton and the Abstinence Clearinghouse. That's just a non-starter.
You don't agree? (about the technology vs. writing part, not the abstinence thing.) Despite the proliferation of blogs and self-publishing technologies, I'm still convinced that writing and technology aren't close bedfellows yet. Science fiction writers have perhaps taken to blogging more than other writers. And certainly, fan fiction has thrived on the Web. But it's still considered news when a famous writer, such as Malcolm Gladwell, starts to blog.
Some forms of writing, to be sure, have thrived when coupled with the possibilities of online collaboration. Dan Gillmor wrote his book, We the Media, in concert with his readers. And there are a few examples of excellent writing and multimedia collaboration, such as Born Magazine.
But by and large, I would suggest that serious arts writers (and by that I don't mean to denigrate in any way the writers above) are more reticent to reveal their internal thought process. "Writing" has always been an intensly personal endeavor. The poet Hilda Doolitttle, known as H.D., summed up this tension between her art and the public when she asked "is there anything more embarrasing than being a writer?"[1]
So here's hoping the SXSW design geeks and the AWP lit crowd rub elbows and ideas with each other. After all, innovation occurs at the edges. At least that's what I'm told.
Read the rest of this post on the Intermedia blog.
