I'm downloading iBooks for my iPhone. I haven't got the 4 yet and I'm trying desperately to be logical about buying the iPad. In other words, I'm resisting the iPad purchase, but my emotions may get the better of my wallet.
Here's the thing. I was just browsing around Gelaskins, which is a very cool online shopping joint that allows you to customize the look of your hardware. I find much of their graphics cool, in a rather juvenile way. This led me to think about what kinds of graphic design appeals to what kinds of intellects. I say so as a college junkie of Graphis Magazine. (now subscribed to their blog). See, Gelaskins will allow you to submit a custom print, which they'll turn into a skin and blah blah you get it. So the first thing that popped into my head was a cool Kandinsky. But maybe not that one.
Maybe I want something more warm like a reddish Rothko. Nah. These are a bit to abstract. But I like the general direction. So how could I look at a bunch of abstract impressionist paintings and pick which one I want? In fact, I'd like to inform my whole outlook with some other kinds of iconography for myself as I approach fifty years of age. Where am I going to find it? Hmm. Coffee table books? Why not Graphis itself? Why not all the 2D art in the world? Aww man, how am I going to...
How much would I pay to have a digital subscription to all of the paintings in the MOMA on a high definition handheld device? More than a little bit. Considering what I pay for Netflix and Gamefly, the WSJ and The Economist and what I'm actually getting? I could definitely shift some of that expense to some more inspirational creations than stuff from Ubisoft. I need a little urbane sophistication because I'm embarrassing myself with the food pr0n of Man Vs Food.
So clearly, Amazon is not immediately close to this, or they are giving no indication that they are going to up their offering to the level of color density I'd license my creations to if I were a graphical artist. But that guy Steve Jobs, well he's got that Retina Display and I kinda like it - even though I haven't even seen it.
So there it is. The iBooks challenge is to capture the high ground by offering what the Web never did, a good look at high quality graphic art. Yeah we know you've got comic books Steve, but us literate folks care about color too. Besides, I'm getting to old to care about GPS-enabling. My knee hurts.
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