Booksquare

As you might have noticed, things have changed around here. It was time. While we loved the serenity of our our old design, we felt like everyone was showing up at the party wearing the same theme. So we went out and found the blog equivalent of haute couture. Sure, we’re all fancy now, but we’re still the same blog you’ve come to know and love.

…we still need a name for Logo Lady…

No, no, we’re better. We’ve made improvements. Some are obvious, some are subtle. All, we believe, will make your lives easier, and, really, that’s what it’s all about, right? We cannot begin to express our excitement* about the new look, the new feel, the new ways we’re using technology to make the Booksquare machine seem both well-oiled and well-considered.

Our incredible illustrations were done by super-hot artist Molly Crabapple. It is generally acknowledged at BS Headquarters that we were lucky — a year from now, Molly’s going to be a superstar, too busy to take on little projects like ours. We found Molly through the gorgeous Carolyn Turgeon, who, you’ll recall, we met in a seedy Washington D.C. bar. Life is funny that way. Always talk to strangers, that’s our motto.

As the illustrations took shape, containing our excitement became a full-time project. We subjected friends and strangers to relentless sessions of “look at the pretty pictures”. People stopped coming by BS Headquarters. Finally, it was suggested that we keep the redesign project a “secret” — something about ruining the impact of the final unveiling. Didn’t make a lick of sense, if you want to to know the truth, but we’d run out of friends anyway.

Which is a shame because we still need to come up with a name for Logo Lady.

Design and layout were done by Kirk Biglione. While admitting mistakes is not our style, we will confess that there were times when we came dangerously close to earning the title “client from hell”. Of course, closies only count in hand grenades and horseshoes, and we’re not entirely sure about the horseshoes part. Apparently, all it takes to distract us from certain disaster is a glass of wine. Kirk went through a lot of vino during the design process. Some of it, he consumed himself.

Now that the whole design thing is done, we can go back to what we do best: writing, ranting, and raving. Booksquare was recently described as Medialoper for readers. This is sort of funny because we’ve always thought that Medialoper was Booksquare for all other entertainment industries (which is why we stole the love and skepticism line). However you choose to look at it, we remain as fascinated as ever by all aspects of the publishing business. Also, perplexed. Okay, mostly perplexed.

So now we’re back at work. We also have a few guest posts lined up for the week (yes, Jill, that means you have to get your stuff finished and posted!) because, well, while we remain true to our mission, we are also the laziest of the pajama-wearing blog community. If someone else can do the work for us, well, let’s be real — what would you do?

Thought so.

* – Short of the written equivalents of girl-squeals, giggles, hand clapping, and jumping up and down. We have done some research, and this would involve using all caps, swirling and twirling text, and things that blink. Also, we’d have to dot our “i’s” with little books.