Another new site is done! Well, almost done. Peter is still working on content, but with his new WordPress powered website, that part is a cinch.

If you would like a web site for yourself, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Meanwhile, click on over to Peter Wallace Illustration and check out the cool design. I thought it would make sense for an illustrator to go with a sketchbook type theme. Peter has designed the image for the header and the buttons himself.

It is my pleasure to announce the unveiling of VistaClaraProductions.com, a new web site designed for Derek Velez-Partridge, Principal of the fledgling company. The site consists of a custom theme made for WordPress. Derek and I are both excited and I am sure this site will really help him spread the word for his work.

I have a number of other projects in the works, including three more web sites. So stay tuned and watch MeadDesign grow!

Ok, this is a bit of a departure from design, but is loosely related. I went and saw the third X-Men movie last night and was terribly disappointed. In a discussion with my wife, I realized that what upset me was not only the poorly written story, but the overt sentimentality of it. She did not really know what I meant and I wasn’t sure how to explain.

I have given it some thought, and I now know what I mean, which is this: The movie relies on the viewer to bring his or her positive sentiments about the characters to the film. If someone had written that script without using any characters known from any other story it would never have been made into a movie. The situation is further worsened by the fact that the characters were not particularly true to themselves, as they had developed through the previous two movies (I won’t even compare them to the ones in the comic books).

Art demands truth. And some sort of revelation through truth. Sentimentality comes about because of laziness, and because it is genuinely difficult to be truthful. It doesn’t really matter if it is a movie like X-Men 3, or a cheesy painting of a lighthouse, or some fluffy music. If the work requires the viewer to bring his or her happy sentiments about the subject for the thing to have any value at all, then it is sentimental.

Sentimentality is less of an issue in design, I think because design is generally focused on accomplishing something specific, such as communicating a particular idea. There is no room for sentimentality.