{image via Whorange}
Thanks guys. You played a blinder. Yesterday was the first and only time I’ve wanted to be a US citizen. Just wish there was someone comparable in the UK.
Oh and read this, it’s beautiful.
Just a few small points.
– Can you add a woman to that picture soon? Say in eight years? (But PLEASE not Sarah Palin.)
– Pretty disgusted though by the Yes Vote on Prop 8 and by the anti-gay marriage votes in Arizona and Florida
– Michele Bachmann – WTF?
– Also Ted Stevens – WTF?
I promise I’m not being paid to shill for Trophy Cupcakes, but I thought you might like to see some of the essential supplies I bought for tonight’s election party.
They told me they’d had over 1,000 pre-orders for the Obama cupcakes and were baking them at the rate of 50 every half hour and still selling out. They weren’t making any John McCain photo ones (this is Seattle after all), but did have some with sugar elephants on them which did not seem to be selling…
This was the genuine front page of the UK’s Daily Mirror after the last debacle. Guys, you know what you have to do. Please don’t let the world down again.
In these troubled economic times (I’m starting to suspect that mirrormirror is not going to have a particularly good Christmas), I thought readers in the UK at least would appreciate this exemplar of learned political discourse from here in the US, as Americans go about the process of electing the leader of the free world.
To be fair, this comes from Fox News, which is not exactly noted for its unbiased opinions. For more sensible analysis and opinions (and proof that not all Americans are certifiably insane), this site is aces www.fivethirtyeight.com.
Or, Kelly Wearstler – WTF?
I know that American design sensibilities are different from European ones. Americans seem to like more fuss, clutter and ornamentation than Europeans are used to. I think this is because minimalism was a European thing and its philosophy of clean lines, simple shapes and less clutter seems to have permeated our culture a lot more, even if we wouldn’t consider ourselves minimalists.
Having said all that, I just can’t understand the American adoration of interior designer Kelly Wearstler. An ex-topless model, champion of Hollywood Regency style, author of many books, and judge on interior design reality pogramme Top Design, she’s probably the equivalent in status to a Kelly Hoppen or Tricia Guild in the UK (though with very different design sensibilities) and very much admired.
But I. just. don’t. get. it.
Here are pictures from her recent spread in Domino magazine. Am I really the only person who thinks this looks like a wealthy Arab just ran amok in an early 80s motel? (With apologies to all wealthy Arabs with taste). Isn’t all the gold and shiny stuff and horrendous layered pattern and blocks of marble and overstuffed leather and fussy knickknackery just, well, hideous? Can someone please explain what I’m missing here?
By the way, these are the ways she chooses to wear her hair, in public, nay, even on telly. There doesn’t appear to be any coercion involved. Thank goodness she’s beautiful.
This blog really isn’t the place for political stuff, though some days it doesn’t feel right to be wittering on about cushions and cupcakes. Today is one of those days.
I used to work in the City. I stuck at investment banking for about nine years until I worked out that I hated it. And one of the things I hated most was this feeling that we were putting lipstick on pigs and never really admitting they were pigs. But today the chickens and the pigs as well are coming home to roost.
As an outsider to the American political process, it has been fascinating and terrifying to watch it from the ‘inside’. I had some idea when back in the UK that abortion was a big issue here. I had no idea that even with so much negative crap going on, it would still be one of the most important issues on the agenda. People here don’t believe me when I say that back in the UK I don’t have a clue where top politicians stand on abortion, that it’s hardly even mentioned.
Amazing as it may seem, I feel nostalgic for the British political process. For discussion that, however sleazily or simplistically, still focuses on things like taxation, healthcare, education, the Iraq war and the environment. Here, the discussion is all about abortion, teenage pregnancy, lipstick, guns and where Sarah Palin gets her glasses.
Americans, and the rest of the world, deserve better than that.
Here, for what it’s worth, is some of the most insightful and funniest commentary so far. (Sorry I can’t embed a video as NBC has had all the ones on YouTube deleted).
So around forty adults and an entirely unnecessary number of children under 5 climbed up to our roof deck one balmy summer’s night. And this is what they saw…
I yet again had far too many margaritas to be safe in charge of a camera and also forgot to take any pictures of the food or of the extremely cheesy red, white and blue decorations, or of the Stars and Stripes and Union Jack fluttering gently together in perfect harmony.
The Minx rushed around all night waving a Stars and Stripes and being taught to say ‘down with the King’ by our friends. There will be beheadings.
Seattle excelled itself once again. God bless America.
Preparations are underway for what is rapidly becoming our traditional party to celebrate ‘America’s birthday’ (which is how we explain things to the Minx) or Britain’s liberation from the US depending on your perspective.
This year I’ll try and stay sober enough to take a few pics. This is the only one from last year which wasn’t fatally blurred.
Here’s our next look at British v. American design sensibilities.
Last time round we hugely preferred the uncluttered British approach to magazine cover design, though we did stop to note the American fondness for glitz and glamour, as exemplified by Gwyneth Paltrow in a ballgown on the cover. Immaculately groomed movie stars and celebrities are everywhere here, all over the TV and on the covers of every magazine.
The British on the other hand are notoriously bad at glamour and polish. We can very rarely pull it off and so regard deliberate attempts at glamour with suspicion, resorting instead to cheerful eccentricity which often tips over into untidiness or even dowdiness. Brits like to call this ‘reality’.
Compare if you will the UK and US covers for the book Petite Anglaise.
I got hooked on ‘petite’s’ blog a couple of years back, just as she was leaving her live-in partner and father of her child for someone she’d met in her comments box. The blog is hugely well-written and for a while was as suspenseful as a daily soap-opera. Petite (Catherine Sanderson) became globally notorious last year when she was ‘dooced’ for blogging at work – the first high-profile European blogger to whom that had happened. As a result though she managed to snag a big book deal for global publication of her story.
Until I came to live in the US I didn’t realise to what extent books etc. are repackaged for different geographic markets. Sanderson writes amusingly here about how much the text has to be ‘translated’ from English to American. The covers are also COMPLETELY different.
Sanderson’s book is half about her dissatisfaction with her day-to-day ‘metro, boulot, dodo’ routine, her unsatisfactory relationship and the difficulties and sometimes loneliness of bringing up a young child.
This is the half of the story which the British cover very clearly focuses on. Have you ever seen anything more mumsy and dowdy? You just know that there’s going to be dog poo/poop (see how good I’m getting at this English/American translation business!) somewhere in that picture. Note the flat shoes and huge nappy/diaper bag. And I bet her nail varnish is chipped and her legs are hairy. And yes I know that’s how most mothers dress, but do you really want to see that on a book cover? And no sign of the various menfolk in the book. Indeed it’s unlikely, despite appearances, that the woman on the cover has ever had sex.
The dowdy, old-fashioned, feel carries through into the design. Note all the sugary pink, serif fonts and pretty pretty flowers. Though maybe the layout, aside from the fussy illustration, is, in true British style, a little cleaner.
The other half of Sanderson’s story on the other hand is about the illicit thrill of flirting on the Internet via blog comments and emails, meeting this stranger in real life and her subsequent mad affair. Her blog at the time this was happening fairly crackled with sexual excitement. And guess which half of the story the American cover focuses on?
Look at those heels! Is she even wearing any clothes? Note the cinema posterish layout. On this cover Petite has been turned into Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt is lurking behind the Eiffel Tower. This woman has sex all the time, NEVER has chipped nail polish and probably doesn’t know one end of a stroller from another.
And yes, I know real life is not like this, but really, if you’re feeling mumsy and badly put together, do you need to be reminded of it in a book cover? The only thing I don’t like about this cover is the actual title where the curly font and fiddly border reminds us of the American love of excessive ornamentation.
So,
Ever since I moved from London to Seattle, I’ve noticed that there is a very different design sensibility between Britain and the US, not just in interiors but in every aspect of life.
So I thought it would be fun to launch a series of posts where we can compare and contrast everyday elements of British and American design and just have a chat round the differences.
First up, here are the May 2008 covers for British and American Vogue, which to me exemplify the two different design aesthetics (even though American Vogue is famously edited by a Brit).
The cover of British Vogue is simpler and cleaner, with far fewer words and simple fonts (though note the use of the serif font). Colour though is brought into the typeface.
The focus is very much on the model. Note it’s a model not a celebrity – celebrities do appear on the cover of British Vogue but comparatively rarely. Though admittedly the lines get a bit blurred with celebrity models such as Kate Moss, who seems to be on the cover of British Vogue all the time. The colours are very bright, clean and fresh and to my eyes very English. The whole thing seems much more uncluttered and spare.
American magazine covers – and this is no exception – seem to have a lot more going on. There are more words and more different font sizes (though only one sans serif font is used throughout). There are more emphatic caps and italics and a quote is included. All the words mix lower case and upper case.
The image used is much busier (and more obviously photoshopped?) – more Gwyneth, more dress, more background. There’s a lot more Hollywood glamour – a movie actress, big hair, silver and sequins. And with the mask, even obvious movie product placement (for the Iron Man movie, starring, you guessed it, Gwyneth Paltrow). The colours, though, are more muted and soft than on the British cover.
So, which one do you like best? Which one would you buy? Do you prefer the cover from your ‘home’ country? Does the other cover seem very different and/or strange? Does the British cover seem scarily uninformative and gaudily bright? Does the US cover seem more old-fashioned (as it does to me)? Or does the serif font on the UK cover look old-fashioned to American eyes? If you’re neither British nor American which one stands out for you? Am I the only person who thinks Gwyneth look strangely like she’s been carved out of wax?
Discuss.
(Just adding a poll, because your answers are intriguing me.)
So the thing that’s intriguing me, is that not a single person has said they prefer the US cover, but surely Anna Wintour et al must do focus groups and stuff about this sort of thing? And must think that the US-style cover will sell best? Can anyone out there explain?
By the way is the poll working properly? I’ve had all sorts of trouble getting it up.
