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Clutching at Straws

Some time back in September 2009, The Casual Optimist turned one-year-old. I didn’t actually notice until later — I had other things going on at the time — but I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently, especially since Joe Sullivan decided to put The Book Design Review on hiatus.

Compiling The Casual Optimist is an amazing experience. I learn something new every day and I meet some incredibly talented, smart people because of the blog. But for better, or worse, The Casual Optimist hasn’t exactly grown as I imagined it would and I often wonder if I spend to much time on the wrong things in one way or another.

The posts about the book trade — the posts that take longest to write — seem to generate the least interest (at least in terms of traffic and comments). The most popular posts by-the-numbers are the interview with designer David Pearson (which I totally get by the way!) and the list of inspirational vintage cover sites. It makes me curious who is visiting and why.

With this in mind, I thought I would hold a straw poll to find out what you want to see more of here. I promise there is no ulterior motive — this is not about boosting traffic, selling ads, or anything sinister — I really am just curious. And I want to make the site better as we move on to Year Two.

So please take a look at the poll if you have a minute (FYI: you can check more than one answer and submit the form more than once). Or, if the poll doesn’t really work for you, leave me a comment, ping me on Twitter (or Facebook), or drop me a line by email if it makes more sense. I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks. :-)

6 Comments

  1. you can’t be everything to everybody. I think the main thing is bringing original content to people and aggregating rare stuff. which you seem to do well. I am not sure what you want out of this blog. But I think readers in general will be attracted to interviews because interviews demystify, offer original points of view directly from the source and shed light on process, inspiration and in effect, educates folks.

    There are plenty sites out there that showcase great design, good covers both old an new. And they do it pretty well. I think what lacks is some good industry insight and honesty about how publishing works. How design works. what inspires people etc.

    recently, I was curious about interviewing people who are teaching design. I wanted to know what lessons work, what lessons don’t, what the various types of exercises are being given to students. I wanted to see student work under the tutelage of say John Gall or Carin Goldberg etc. I wanted to know if there is a different way of teaching now that publishing is going to look so different in the next couple of years. etc etc. I think this would attract both publising folk, students and teachers and other designers.

    But for all I care—you could probably pull off a more intelligent interview in that vein (is that the right vain?)…

    But thus far your blog content is coming off as intelligent and worth a read. I think that it’s easy to sell out and stat posting rare covers done 100 years ago or new covers by designers who are working for really rad publishers. But I think there is so much more and you bring a lot of that to the table thus far.

    2 cents form the uneducated sector who enjoys what you’ve been putting out thus far.

  2. Marta

    My 2 cents… I think Ian Shimkoviak got the point: your blog is intelligent and interesting to read, the content is either original or aggregated in an original way. I look forward to every new post of yours, so there is no need to change a thing, IMHO. Greeting from Italy

  3. I also agree with Ian. I rarely comment on blogs simply because of the noise it generates if everyone feels compelled to do so. Of course, that can leave you in the dark about your audience. Your industry opinions are as much the reason I come here as anything else you do. You’re brief but well-spoken, a rare thing in a blog like this. I’m completely indifferent to seeing more vintage covers, etc. I’m interested in what’s happening now and I love Ian’s ideas of things like looking at student work under the eye of great designers but – most especially- I really want to know what designers are doing differently in the changing publishing industry. (Me? I’m doing higher end design with an emphasis on tactile production values. To be glib: The McSweeney’s Principle.)

    I know this isn’t a design blog, exclusively (which is why I like it), but I’m deeply disappointed by the number of book designers who simply chafe at the e-book. I love tangible books as much as anyone but I’m talking baby steps– I’ve downloaded Stanza onto my iPhone so I can begin to understand the appeal of ebooks (besides environmentally) and maybe one day help to make that form of literacy a more engaging and attractive activity for audiences. I’ve yet to find much of a voice for how designers will work (or DO work) in that market. My god, if either of you can interview anyone doing ebook design, please do! Where are these people? Have I been under a rock while they’ve been getting interviewed about these trends?

    In any case, just keep doing what interests you, Dan. Your intuition on this site has served you well. I’ll be coming by as long as you’ll have us.

  4. Dan

    Thanks for the comments — I really appreciate it. I’m just mulling all this stuff over, trying to get a handle on where the blog is, and how to move it forward. And it’s really great to hear some constructive thoughts about what you’re interested in reading about — it definitely gives me something to work with. Thanks again. You guys are awesome. :-)

  5. Hey Dan, I might add why not take inspiration from the title of your blog itself. I remember the first time I came across your blog I was struck by the name – Casual Optimist – Hmm … what does that mean and how does CO relate / tie to book covers. So I think therein may lie your answer; take a cue and blog on is my advice.

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