Ironic Sans 2006 in Review
I feel kinda cheap pointing out that the 2007 Weblog Awards are open for nominations until January 10, and humbly noting that Ironic Sans would make an excellent nominee for the Best New Weblog or Best-Kept Secret Weblog categories. But it does give me a good excuse to review some of the highlights of the past year, as Ironic Sans approaches its first anniversary. It all started with one little idea and has grown so much from there.
A particularly nice accolade came recently when Gawker Media’s founder Nick Denton e-mailed me. He wrote, “Can’t believe I’d never seen your site before… spent half an hour browsing around. Thanks for wasting my morning!” A comment like that from Nick Denton made my day almost as much as the post I saw on one reader’s livejournal page. She wrote, “I went to the site to dip my toes in, and came out an hour later soaking wet.”
Ironic Sans was put on the map when I posted my idea for pre-pixelated clothes for reality TV. I thought it was a funny idea, but I didn’t expect all the attention it received. I was taken completely by surprise when it got mentions by MSNBC, USA Today, Wired, Entertainment Weekly, Defamer, Fark, Digg, Kottke, Consumerist, the Morning News, Boston.com, C|Net, New York Magazine, and even Stuff Magazine, which recently asked for photos of the shirts for an upcoming issue. And next month, the shirts will be seen in a new book called The Big Book of Irony
Here are some of this year’s other entries of note:
The ones that got the most attention
- Overview of celebrity patents
- Idea for a building shaped like Godzilla
- The Ant Desk
- The Google Maps Guide to Ghostbusters
- The Mr. T Virtual Playset
- Logos with Pictures as Letters
- The Art of 1010 WINS
- New York City in Animation (an ongoing series)
- Interview with Louis Klein, the man who has seen almost every episode of Saturday Night Live in person
- Interview with Seetharaman Narayanan, whose name I’d been staring at for years on the Photoshop splash screen
- Agassi vs. Pavel vs. Agassi vs. Pavel
- A parallel istaverse
- Lexidiem, the word of the day
- 60 Seconds in the Life of a Staircase
- 60 Seconds in the Life of Landing Gear
A few that I thought deserved more attention
- Idea for a World Trade Center monument
- The Ishihara Triptych
- Michaelangelo’s “David” meets David’s “George Bush”
- The Pacifist Chess Set
- 60 Seconds in the Life of Steam
- 60 Seconds in the Life of the Apple Store Stairs
- Boris Vallejo’s Palette
- A Remake of “Fred Ott’s Sneeze” (one of the first movies ever made)
- Commemorative t-shirts for fictional events
- Interview with Adam Rex, author, illustrator, and generally funny guy with a great book out.
- How Ironic Sans got shut down by one man who sent one e-mail (this will always deserve more attention because I want everyone to know how awful Doteasy is for web hosting before giving them a dime).
In all, it’s been a good first year. I try to periodically feature some of my favorite entries in a Favorites page, so if you’re new to Ironic Sans you can check there for more highlights. And you can browse the complete archive for the rest of this year’s 150-or-so entries.
When I started this site, I had to figure out what exactly I want it to be. I thought about all the blogs that already exist. There is no shortage of excellent sites that just point to all sorts of interesting things on the web. The world doesn’t need any more of those. Instead, I aim to be one of those interesting things on the web that all of those sites can point to. So far, I hope I’m off to a good start.
Comments
You’re definitely off to a good start David! I find myself regularly enjoying (and referring others to) your site :)
Posted by: Joshua Lane | January 6, 2007 2:25 PM
I’ve been checking out thid blog daily for a few months now… Thank you for being here!
Posted by: Leprichaun | January 6, 2007 5:11 PM
this*
Posted by: Leprichaun | January 6, 2007 5:12 PM
Thanks for making this site; I’m amazed by how you have 100% success at having real content rather than filler. I just found you yesterday, but I’ll keep reading!
Posted by: jacob | January 7, 2007 4:05 AM
Congratulations on the success, this site really deserves it. I was first linked here through a post on Kotaku.com about your Pacman napkin holder idea, and I’ve visited daily since. Excellent layout, unique and always interesting content, and a lot of good humor all around. Nice work, and I look forward to seeing what you bring us in 2007!
Posted by: Nick | January 8, 2007 1:11 AM
Congratulations on the successes!
I live in London, and your “celebrity patent” post was used as the source data for a prominent article in the free daily newspaper for morning commuters (Metro). It covers about 2/3 of a tabloid-size page, just inside the cover (page 3).
Unfortunately, they don’t cite your site. All they mention is that you can find them through a Google Patents search.
If you’d like me to scan it in, let me know.
Posted by: Jed Christiansen | January 9, 2007 9:32 AM