SportsDesigner.com

Olympic trials in Eugene

The U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials are being held this weekend in Eugene, Ore. The Register-Guard is producing daily special sections.

Preview section cover designed by Adam Sparks and Rob Romig, photo by Brian Davies.

Doubletruck designed by Tom Penix with a photo by Chris Pietsch.

Art inspiration

This may be the first in a series of posts on design inspiration.
TODAY: The gallery & artist Jeffrey Simmons.

I had a spare hour earlier this week between a lunch date and work, so I headed to Seattle's Pioneer Square to check out some art I had seen online.

Pioneer Square is home to many, many galleries within a six-block radius, and it's a historic part of town. Touristy and, going back to the city's earliest days, home to the bums.

I think, as a designer, it's good to get out and see stuff. If you can afford it, start supporting artists. You can buy a numbered print for as little as $100-$200.

Strangely enough, when I walked into the gallery, the main exhibit was hideous (it looked like bangles and cloth diapers). I had to climb some stairs in the back to find what I was looking for: Paintings by local artist Jeffrey Simmons.

I still couldn't find the exact pieces I liked: his rotary and rings collections. I asked the desk and, sure enough, was taken for a walk. Right this way, inside the women's bathroom, there it all was.

Perhaps that says something about my taste in art.

Coming Soon: Electronic Gum

Now from the Chicago Tribune, interactive baseball cards!

You get year-to-date stats, career bests and season projections.

File Under "Baffling, Things That Are ..."

The Orange County Register is outsourcing copy editing to India. At least for now, it appears it will be for some of the paper's weekly publications.

An OC Weekly blog on the subject.

Tell Me How My Switch Pitching Tastes

A pair of must-watch videos today.

Yankees' Class A pitcher Pat Venditte (a Creighton graduate) baffles a hitter last week with his ambidexterity.

And here's this year's early leader for MTV's Video awards, Shaquille O'Neal in "Kobe Can't Do It Without Me"

When design goes bad

The Wall Street Journal features a set of articles on product design.

Five products are singled out for "When Design Goes Bad." The newspaper-du-jour (pick your own) is not among them:

• Apple Newton
• 1988 Buick Reatta
• Sega Saturn
• Segway
• Susan B. Anthony Dollar coin

Interestingly, a reader of the new Orlando Sentinel thinks they need a "Tiger Woods section." Just make it section T every day, she writes.

Tongue in cheek?

Best Ideas 2.0

The Associated Press Sports Editors Convention is this week in Minneapolis.

An old favorite will return this year, with an SD.com twist. I have drawn the reprise of the "Best Ideas" session. It will be a 90-minute roundtable discussion on Saturday morning featuring Randy Harvey of the Los Angeles Times, John Pluym of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press and (if expectant fatherhood does not preclude him) Chris Carr of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. I will moderate.

We'll hear from all the panelists, what's on their mind and what's not, and we'll have a "town hall" type of discussion about some of what worked in 2007. The presentation will be geared mostly toward making good ideas work in your newsroom, and what we can learn from 2007's best. It will not be a "show and tell" incarnation of the session.

We will feature the 2007 APSE section winners and winners from the Best of Sports Design 2007, and we will not limit ourselves to print this year either.

In addition, the Best Ideas CD will return in a modified form as well, this year featuring:
-- Front pages from each APSE section winner in every category.
-- A PDF handout of all the Best of Sports Design 2007 finalists
-- A hi-res Quicktime version of the 2007 Sports Designer of the Year video
-- A color PDF of the handout I'll be sharing at the session.

You can download the handout right here, too: Download APSEBestIdeas2008.pdf

See you Saturday.

Orlando's Sports Front

The redesigned Sentinel launches today, and here is what sports readers saw this morning:

Page 1 photos by Stuart Ransom, and photo illustration of Urban Meyer by Matt Humphrey. The staff gets the redesign credits.