Design and Critique – Understanding what really makes ‘the cut’ in publication.
There is something about publishing that makes a piece of work more authentic. It elevates that work from the rest and people tend to value it more and by default develop a high opinion of the creator of such work. For the creator of the work, it gives one a sense of achievement and satisfaction that the piece of work is now tangible and substantial, no matter how small it may be.
Back in the olden days, printing and publication was more limited because technology lacked. Essentially, publishing is the activity of putting together information of any sort, be it, literature, software, music and the such and making it available to the public for free or for sale. Forms of publication included books, newspapers and magazines. Also, when it came to publishing, as the resources where limited in comparison to today, publishing a book, meant a lot of editing and vetting prior to making it to the printing press. However, in this day and age, takes to technology and the internet, making a piece of information available to the public is easier and reach the target audience faster.
The lecture of Week 8 was an interview with Darren Wall, founder of Read Only Memory. Read Only Memory is a publication house based in London that specialises in the publishing books that document video game history. In the interview, Wall talks about how he got about in the publication business, which basically was because of his love of video games and how it evolved. He also continues on how finding the target audience is crucial as it paves the way on how the research is done and possibly the look of the final publication.
This week’s lecture was very similar to that of the previous weeks. Both publishers had similar opinions on how to go about publishing a piece of work. They both iterated that it is all about the target audience and that drafting is key to get the bet possible end result. What I liked about this lecture is that Darren Wall mentioned that passion is also important. Enjoying what you are working is a big part of the overall success of any project after all.
It was quite an interesting lecture. These days there is a lot of information floating around and it is hard to tell what is real and what is not. I sometime think that is why people are still looking to buy books at the end of the day. The idea that there is information on paper and collated together makes it more legitimate.
