(A Table of Desserts by Jan Davidsz. De Heem)
“Give thanks to the LORD because he is good. God’s faithful love lasts forever!” Psalm 136:1 Common English Bible (CEB) (@CommonEngBible)
Happy New Year!
“Bless the Lord God of Israel because he has come to help and has delivered his people. He has raised up a mighty Savior for us in his servant David’s house, just as he said through the mouths of his holy prophets long ago. Because of our God’s deep compassion, the dawn from heaven will break upon us, to give light to those who are sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide us on the path of peace.” Luke 1:68-70 and 78-79 Common English Bible (CEB) (@CommonEngBible)
“Jesus spoke to the people again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me won’t walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’” John 8:12 Common English Bible (CEB) (@CommonEngBible)
Blessed Christmas!
“I give thanks to you, my Lord, my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify your name forever.” Psalm 86:12 Common English Bible (@CommonEngBible).
Happy Thanksgiving!
Typographer Stephen Coles (@typographica) writes in Fonts In Use (@FontsInUse) that this year’s Fortune magazine’s (@FortuneMagazine) annual “500” issue is “a particularly typographic feast.”
The core of Fortune’s typography is MVB Solano Gothic. The typeface was originally made by Mark van Bronkhorst for the Bay Area city of Albany, designed to work alongside the community’s early 1900s architecture. With its sturdy, utilitarian geometry derived from sign lettering of the era, Solano can feel slightly vintage, but the standard variant is more sober than the Retro and Round members of the family.
I was surprised to open Fortune and find what could be considered a character actor playing such a central role. But editorial designer and two-time National Magazine Award winner John Korpics proves with Solano that some “display” typefaces can be more versatile than we assume. Besides setting headlines and teasers, Solano performs admirably in Infographics and even the “500” issue’s essential lists and tables.
Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you achieve maximum interior page design quality for your publishing projects. And use the SomersaultNOW dashboard to access useful websites and information about page design and editing in general.
At Somersault (@smrsault), we’re committed to leveraging all advances in technology to help publishers and other content creators reach their audiences effectively and efficiently, and achieve sustainable growth in their business endeavors. But we also can see how engulfed in – and dependent upon – technology our culture has become, to the point of potential detriment in our daily lives and spiritual development.
On his blog, Nathan W. Bingham (@NWBingham) writes about the alluring and subtle pull of technology to become our idol. He quotes Tim Keller from his book Counterfeit Gods on describing idolatry as: “...anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.”
Compared with many other potential idols, technology has a greater idolatrous potential; not only can it become an idol in and of itself, it can also serve as an enabler of other idols.
This is an important distinction because although it can be subtle, it means technology is doubly potent for the idol factory that is our heart.
Let Somersault help you properly manage technology to attain your publishing objectives. And be sure to use our SomersaultNOW online dashboard to remain abreast of news and information for publishing and marketing executives.
Here’s a video spot that reflects the fun J of our Somersault (@smrsault) brand. Adweek (@Adweek) writes
To introduce its new Twirl Bites candy, Cadbury (@Cadbury_UK) wanted an uplifting and magical TV spot that would bring the joy of twirling to life. Fallon (@wearefallon) had the ambitious idea of creating an immense whirligig made of fans, gears, propellers, and little spinning worlds all interconnecting, rotating joyously, and exploding with pyrotechnics at the end. The creatives considered CGI, but decided it should be built from scratch, and its gleeful movements captured in camera. “When you create something for real, the imperfections are what make it charming,” says art director Rick Gayton. And imperfections they got. The finished spot — the Twirl brand's first TV ad in 15 years — is grand, infectious, and an impressive feat of engineering. But very little went as planned in the production.
Celebrate with us! Alltop (@Alltop) has selected the Somersault (@smrsault) blog to be included in its category of top Publishing resources on the Web. We couldn’t be happier!
Alltop is a valuable service that, as it says, “collects the headlines of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic.” Alltop is a “dashboard,” “table of contents,” or even a “digital magazine rack” of the Internet. It groups collections of RSS news feeds into individual Web pages, displayed in hundreds of topical categories. Topics run from adoption to zoology with photography, food, science, religion, celebrities, fashion, gaming, sports, politics, automobiles, Macintosh, and hundreds of other subjects along the way. It says it provides “aggregation without aggravation.”
ReadWriteWeb (@RWW) says Alltop is “a valuable resource for anyone wanting to research a certain subject or industry.”
The Somersault blog strives to be a voice for thought leadership in a variety of subjects that matter to publishing and marketing executives. We explore topics such as leadership, innovation, publicity best practices, and the future of publishing, as well as many others. It's an honor to be recognized by Alltop as a valuable resource for readers.
Look for Somersault under Publishing, about half-way down in the right column. Also visit Somersault’s own personalized Alltop page of the RSS feeds we find interesting and useful. You may want to create your own Alltop page. If you do, be sure to add Somersault to it.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard that we built specifically for publishing and marketing executives.
You may also be interested in receiving any of our 10 paper.li newspapers -- daily source material comprised of Twitter-fed stories and information in the areas of audiobooks, ebooks, futurist news, innovation, literary agents, mobile, publishing, research, retail, and leadership.
The editorial director for the international publishing strategy and services agency Somersault Group (http://somersaultgroup.com) (@smrsault), Dave Lambert, is a finalist for Fiction Editor of the Year, a category in the 2011 Golden Scroll Awards sponsored by the Advanced Writers & Speakers Association (AWSA).
Responsible for managing the editorial development process for each manuscript at Somersault, Lambert is also the owner of Lambert Editorial. He’s the author of 10 books (including The Missionary); a requested speaker; former senior fiction editor at Howard Publishing, a division of Simon & Schuster; and former executive editor for fiction at Zondervan, a HarperCollins company. Lambert was a previous finalist in this category in 2009 and the winner in 2002.
Honored for outstanding ministry partnerships with their authors, nominees for this award are selected by authors, and the voting is done by authors. “Dave has a reputation of pushing authors beyond their comfort zone to help them hone their writing craft and achieve their best book possible,” says John Topliff, Somersault general manager. “This recognition reflects Somersault’s commitment to the highest editorial standards.”
Other finalists for Fiction Editor of the Year are Vicki Crumpton of Baker Publishing Group and Jan Stob of Tyndale House Publishers. Along with Fiction Editor of the Year, the 2011 Golden Scroll Award categories are Publisher of the Year, Editor of the Year, Novel of the Year, and Nonfiction Book of the Year. The winners will be announced at the AWSA awards banquet, July 10, at the Omni at CNN Center in Atlanta during the International Christian Retail Show annual convention.
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Grand Rapids, MI (Apr. 1, 2011) – International publishing strategy and services agency Somersault Group™ (http://somersaultgroup.com) (@smrsault) announces it has purchased the naming rights to the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) (http://www.christianretailshow.com) (@ICRShow), being held this year July 10-13 in Atlanta, GA.
The 5-year deal marks the first change in name for the 61-year-old conference since it became ICRS in 2005. Beginning this year it will be called Somersault International Christian Retail Show (SICRS).
“There’s no truth to the rumor that the pronunciation of the acronym is ‘sickers,’” says Jonathan Petersen, Somersault word-of-mouth evangelist. “It’s pronounced ‘sycrus,’ which is ancient Greek for ‘to buy.’”
In keeping with previous CBA initiatives, such as More from the Core and “What Goes Into the Mind Comes Out in a Life”™, the convention name change is intended to inject energy and focus into the Christian retail sector.
“SICRS is the opportunity for Christian retailers from around the world to join together and learn from each other,” says Nautida Konventsiooni, chair of the annual convention. She says it’s also a time when retailers can button-hole publishers about the crazy decisions they’ve made in the previous year.
“I’m pumped about the new SICRS name,” says Artificielle Nom, owner of the 50,000 square foot Nom de Plume independent Christian store in Dighton, NM. “It’s going to rejuvenate the entire industry!”
Included in the name change deal is the agreement to locate all Christian “schtick” products to a far corner of the exhibit hall and make certain to direct all media reporters covering the convention away from that area.
About Somersault
Somersault Group™ (Somersault™) is a partner-managed LLC with offices in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. The company’s purpose is to enable publishers, agents, ministries, organizations, and Christian authors to quickly leverage rapid changes in communication technology, emphasize excellence in branding and marketing communication for an author’s business development, and extend the highest editorial standards to achieve the goal of helping people experience God’s kingdom. Somersault’s mission statement: to change lives by connecting inspirational content creators with readers using exceptional creativity, right-now technology, and old-fashioned personal care. To that end, Somersault has created SomersaultNOW, the online dashboard to keep publishing and marketing professionals informed. For more information about Somersault, visit somersaultgroup.com.