Blog Posts

I've realized from doing this assignment that my expectations of a blog are very little. Formally, I expected different things from them depending on their titles (mostly), but I didn't expect to enjoy them at all. Anyway...

After reading the title of Jeff Howe's blog post, I had formed an expectation that his blog would be uplifting; the word 'learning' is indicative, to me, of new beginnings and progression. However, I was met with the opposite: the piece's progression began with an implicating 'we' and moved into the exploration of Jeff's love of being physically active. From there, the blog's concern revolves around a lamentation and frustration aimed at his declining ability to walk. I wasn't surprised when I looked to the side and saw that he's a former Poetry Slam Champion - the lyric quality of his writing created an intimate, emotional tone that reflected his struggle with Parkinson's (though by the end of the blog I was confused as to whether or not he actually has it). The informal diction, the particular lack of medical jargon, and the initial 'we' all operated as a way to reach out to a wide audience. His relaxed yet personal voice allowed the reader into his blog and focused on a very relatable subject: walking.

I have to say that reading the title of Amy Tan's blog didn't excite me in the least. I expected it to be formal and dry, similar to the tone of the title. However, the first line piqued my curiosity and served as an immediate point of entry: "I've been puzzling over the social form known as email". This line did a few things: 1) It drew me in by making me wonder what she was puzzling about, 2) it creating relevancy because the blog is something viewed over the internet, and it's a reasonable enough assumption that if someone were reading it, they probably also have sent emails before, and 3) it gave a framing to email as a "social form", which gave a preview as to what lens she was going to be using when talking about email. So her rate of revelation is fast and immediate, and analyzes simple actions that many of us have witnessed as users of email in an informal manner that is slightly humorous and interesting, due to its relevancy.

I'm not going to lie, I had a really hard time with the interview piece. Unlike the other two, this blog spoke to a much smaller audience simply based on its subject matter. Additionally, the diction is more formal and a fair amount of jargon is used. However, to the particular audience at whom this was aimed, there is probably a remarkable perspective that Kunihiko Okano delivers, which is insight to his work and process. Thus, I believe that the intended outcome would be to allow others who are also interested in typography and different and professional look at the work. That being said, I noticed that there were no questions based on directing other typographers, so for that reason the movement seemed almost more character based than information based since it was relative to Kunihiko and not necessarily the art of typography in general.