Love it.

Ok, put me on the list in spot 16.

I'd love to do it, but fear that I won't have the time when it comes my turn. But in case you can't find enough takers, I'll do it -- but that won't happen.

It sounds great though. 1000journals, but with all designers. Should be incredible.

sounds like a super idea, but I am pissed that I can't be involved, being Canadian and all.

Nice idea, but yeah, why is it only open to American participants?

Never mind, I missed the explanation. It would be nice, though, if it works, to open it up to those outside the United States.

Primarily we're restricting the first journal to just US entries because of cost and time factors. If it proves to be successful, we may do other journals that would be free to travel the world.

Amanda, don't lose hope, depending on how well this one goes we might loosen up and send some to international waters.

The "US only" rule was simply to keep costs down and keep a tighter tab on it on this first run. Hopefully we will be able to let it travel the world in its next incarnation(s). Seriously, give us a few months so that we can figure this out ourselves and streamline the process. And for the record, the "US only" thing was not meant as any sort of discriminatory technique.

If anybody else has any questions regarding any of the rules, please post them here, it might be helpful for the rest of the readers.

See? How we are totally in sync here at Speak Up? It's a thing of beauty.

Is is that really that difficult/expensive to mail items to Canada? I think a North American restriction might be better.

Our thinking -- or rather mine since I pushed for the restriction -- was this:

We're sending by media mail to keep costs down. This is already slow just within the US, which is okay because we're hoping the "mailing" to and from part doesn't take longer than a week each way. If we were to include all of North America, to be fair that would mean other additions, not just Canada. Anytime this first journal would travel outside the US would result in extra time added to the mailing process. At least for this first journal, we wanted to avoid this downtime so that we could have content available quicker for the Speak Up visitors.

There is a bit of a hassle for mailing any piece of mail sent outside the US. The USPS requires a customs form to be filled out when sending packages outside the country. Even though this isn't a big hassle, it is an extra step for a project that is in its infancy.

I truly hope this is a success and that we can start another that is more global in focus. In the meantime, though, Word Its is a great Speak Up project that is open to everyone and that I hope individuals -- who are bummed about the restrictiveness of OpenSpace's first log -- participate in.

"�the most fabulous source of unfindable images�" - Andre Breton

Whoops, I meant that last sentence to read "... partcipate in it."

Go Word Its! :)

Very true, Eric... we should credit the surrealists' exquisite courpse tradition as an inspiration! Good call.

Plus, isn't the Canadian Postal Service on strike right now? Oh wait, now they're back... No, they're on strike again...

fair enough.

So forgive me if I'm being thick-headed here, but are the 15 participants already lined up? And if not, should I just drop an email to Joy?

-R

Nope, they're not just yet. I'm just the in-between person for the journal. I am going to photograph and scan each participants pages and post them online so that that part of the process doesn't bog down Armin. :)

Keep your eyes peeled for the email address that Armin creates and posts about. You could still be lucky participant #2 (Armin is our #1 kid, as if that even needed to be said.) :)

I love it. I have one concern though. With such an investment of all of the participants time and money, what happens if it gets lost in the mail? There's a fairly decent chance that could happen, and since there's only one journal.... yikes. But maybe there isn't THAT good of a chance of losing it. It would just really suck to have it dissappear after like 9 months of work!

I know it might not be as cool...but sending pages around might be easier, cheaper, and no chance of a catastrophic loss. Ah I don't know. I think that would kill the whole idea.

>but are the 15 participants already lined up?

Nope, everybody has a fair chance. On July 14, 2003, at 2:00 pm Central time I will reveal the email address for people to sign up. First come first serve.

>It would just really suck to have it dissappear after like 9 months of work!

That makes it all the more valuable and exciting. If it gets lost it would suck, but you know... shit happens.

> sending pages around might be easier, cheaper, and no chance of a catastrophic loss.

Not as sexy no.

Part of the figured shipping costs include signature confirmation upon delivery and insurance for $100. We'll be logging the pages along the way so if there is a big catastrophic event (like if Billy Bob Postman drops the box in the street and a big Mack truck runs it over) we'll have some digital "back-ups" of what it was, at least as of the last time it was in my hands to ship out.

>With such an investment of all of the participants time and money, what happens if it gets lost in the mail?

Oh! No refunds. Unless it makes sense.

> Nope, everybody has a fair chance. On July 14, 2003, at 2:00 pm Central time I will reveal the email address for people to sign up. First come first serve.

Ok, thanks for clarifying to us who are too lazy to read carefully. Please disregard my previous request for spot 16.

I'm laughing at all of the worried questions about shipping and stuff. Not that they're silly -- but it just shows how anal and compulsive designers can be.

But it sounds like you two have thought this out quite well. I say just relax and let 'er rip. Whatever happens, happens -- and deal w/ it then.

Let's not ruin spontaneity with complicated overplanning.

Make sure it's sent UPS.

I'd prefer FedEx. ;-)

We were planning on using a combination of bike messengers and pigeons.

Pigeons. That's hilarious. After seeing the movie "Winged Migration", I know how determine birds are to get to their destination. That will work fine.

Speaking of pigeons, where is everyone today? It's been a very quiet posting day.

I had almost 5 hours worth of meeting today. God, if I hear the phrase "challenge ahead of you" one more time, I will kill.

I guess we're all catching up w/ work after this last tumultuous week, eh?

I'm editing a 170 page document of faculty names, numbers and facts. That can keep a man busy for many hours.

It has been a quiet day though.

C'mon people, perk up! Tan wants to chat.

I had to take a day and get some work done.

Ok, Tan, what would you like to talk about? (so much for on-thread posting)

Let's talk about chicks and body parts you like.

Just k-i-d-d-i-n-g rebecca! Put down the hammer.

Help me brainstorm. I'm designing this awards book for the SeattleShow. The theme I started was the Burden of Fame for the website. The site's changed, but here's a flat jpg of the splash page.

But now, I want to focus also on the "Burden of Success" for a client. Sort of a risk and rewards.

Except I can't think of any witty kitschy examples of something a client would have to bear as a result of massive success from marketing.

Help me out. Or not. It's cool either way -- but since you offered...

>something a client would have to bear as a result of massive success from marketing.

-Excessive amounts of calls from prospective customers

-Too much money coming in

-Always #1 result in google

-The CEO would have to ring the bell at NY's stock exchange every single day

-Fortune 500 would change its name to that of the client's

-A "Obey the Giant" knockoff of their brand

-Product placement in Sex and the City would now be expected.

Ok, back to my faculty.

� Client name becomes a verb ("Xerox it", "FedEx it")

� Could build a new HQ in the shape of their logo

� CEO would have to go on CNBC all the time and buddy up to Maria "Money Honey" Bartiromo (female CEO's could hang with the Squawk Box guys)

� Would get constantly "lucked" instead of "fucked" on fuckedcompany.com

thanks guys! these are great to start.

owe ya.

— plus the blessing to mess with any of the pages already created (with respect to other people’s efforts please). Only the cover must remain intact. Existing pages added by other graphic designers may be modified but no more than 2/3 of any page may ever be moved or removed.

This seems to be an unfair thing for the few first designers as they cant mess with other designers stuff whereas the last ones can mess with whatever they want.

Furthermore I, for one, wouldnt like anybody to mess with what I've done.

I guess there shouldnt be a chance of messing with somebody else's design.

If you have 8-10 pages to mess around with then why screw up somebody elses work!!!

Just a selfish thought???

At this point in time, it is undecided if there will be a follow-up project. It depends on the success and popularity of this initial journal.

Perhaps after 3 months (when the first journal has already been updated by approx 4 designers) a new one can be started and so on each 3 months.

Will 9 more people please post to A Show of Hands? It's killllling me.

Thank you. That is all.

Great Idea, then scan and print copies of the finished project for us to purchase. I hate living in Australia sometimes.

Excelente Armin, Sounds great!

Exquisite corpse is indeed a nice idea.