Aug 8, 2006 10:00 AM
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San Francisco, 7:14 AM
Wed Feb 10
56 posts in the last 24 hours
There are many tricks to gussying up a dry article, and the flashiest is to slap an illustration in the corner. (Now you know why nearly every Valleywag article has a picture.) Photos of people are ideal; after that come still-life photos (mostly gadgets or handiwork), illustrations, or screenshots. Dangling at the bottom of the food chain are logos.
Yes, illustrating a story with logos is a desperate move, as it rarely adds any information not already contained in the title and lead sentence. For instance, these blog post illustrations added zip to the discussion over Google's recent search deal with Fox Interactive.
First up is paidContent, a blog with a fresh round of investment and no hired illustrator to show for it.
Next, it's TechCrunch, which at least uses a more accurate logo for Fox Interactive.
Bringing up the rear is the BBC, with the classic jauntily angled screenshot. Like a special effects shot from the original Battlestar Galactica, the Google screenshot is used again and again, even if it looks suspiciously like the Beeb was using Windows 98 when the shot was taken.
To everyone's credit, using logos is still a better choice than choosing some tired computer metaphor, and it saves plenty in photographers' fees.
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