As I’m sure I’ve spouted off at some point in the existence of this site, I will regretfully reiterate the fact that being the graphic designer/whatever guy and also writing for the site is frustrating and taxing. When I sit down at my computer to get to it, I’m always wondering if I should open up Photoshop and do some photoshoppin’, or do I fire up Word and hammer out an article.

On one hand, I know that whatever I start writing won’t be finished by the time I’m ready to stop writing for the night. Usually (and even so I as write this) I have a couple of different article/reviews in the works and I add on every day or so until I’m satisfied with it or I find myself in a boring, sleepless night. This is how a majority of my articles are completed, really. That doesn’t leave much incentive, I might add, but I do so anyhow.

One particular day, when I came to the familiar writing/photoshop crossroads, I chose to, I don’t know, design something for the sake of doing so. I’ve come to realize that the archiving method I’d originally envisioned isn’t exactly the best means of displaying content. I’ve pretty much passed these little design previews around to everyone, but in case you haven’t seen them yet, here they are:

Pretty much better, huh? I’m not patting myself on the back or anything, I just really dig seeing Mega Man in the octonaut design. This, I have come to realize, will be my sole motivation for writing an article on Mega Man 2. I wonder if anyone ever spends the time to read the stupid mock-text (not the full articles, I just rip those from actual reviews and/or Wikipedia) I post within the previews? They’re awful and irrelevant, in case you haven’t. As per klo’s suggestion, I’m trying to include more “visual stimuli,” as he put it. The second is an example of how I’m thinking reviews (or unreviews, in this case) would look. Rather than littering an entire article with ZSNES screenshots, you can keep them all organized and pretty on the side there. Not that including images in an article is a bad thing, but at least one could be more conservative with said visual stimuli. That is, if one so desired. Plus, if an article is particularly long, now the option to break it up into smaller segments spanned across multiple pages is a reality. Woaaahhh! That’s a crazy, revolutionary idea in the world of literature, just so you know.

Anyway, if you care to do so, leave comments and suggestions. I have some more tricks up my sleeve, I think, but hopefully Steve will fall for the virtual puppy dog look I’m sure we’re all harboring and make this thing come to life.