What? Did you just misread the headline? No, you didn’t. We do have an Indonesian version of Macworld, which I will review it side-by-side with the US version in this post. I happened to have the US version that carries the untranslated content. But, first things first. In order to save you from reading a jumble of error-based reviews below, bottom line, the Indonesian Macworld sucks. Yes, the editors might want to punch me in the face, but the truth is the truth, it sucks. And the following are the reasons why our version of Macworld sucks.

Right from the beginning, I already have my doubts since the Indonesian version’s cover is nowhere near good. It looks like something that came out from a first-year student’s PC, who just learned how to do magazine covers in Photoshop. Designs can be simple, but this is plain wrong. A magazine cover is where people should be able to read the inside’s main articles spot on. Not like this. Look how dull it is compared side-by-side with the US version.

And what’s with the bevels? I feel like I’m back in the 90s with Photoshop 5.

The next big mistake is the lack of baseline grid in the magazine. What kind of a good editorial designer is one, when he/she doesn’t know anything about baseline grid. Why do I make this into such a big deal?

Because in the US version, the baseline grid exists. And that what makes the whole magazine layout and grid coherent. This is why more than half of Indonesian magazines or translated magazines are crappy. Indonesian designers don’t know shit on how to treat typefaces and body texts properly.

The next would be the main article. The US version on the left, and the Indonesian version on the right. Look how dull the green is. And I’m not sure about you, but I don’t think we needed the copy’s typeface to be enlarged. Why? Because it’s good as it is and Megindo (the magazine’s publisher) just keeps messing things up.

Here’s another main article called “Weighing the MacBook Air”, laid out perfectly in the US version, with good typography.

And here’s the Indonesian version of the article, laid out badly, with crappy typography treatment. Why can’t they just do what the US version did? Is it that hard just to copy the same set of style? Look at the ferocious margins and paddings on this one, and all of those unnecessary hyphenations. Crappy. Just crappy.

Here’s the “Backlit Keyboard” picture in the US version.

And this is the Indonesian version. Now wait a second… “Logic Board”? Oh yes, they mistakenly put the wrong caption there, because, in the US version, the logic board picture is supposed to be this:

From what we see above, this is only a handful of mistakes that the Indonesian Macworld has managed to show me. There are still numerous errors, such as low-resolution photos, crappy printouts, inconsistent layouts, dull colors, and crappy translations. Oh yes, I never did liked the idea of having “proper Indonesian” translations on magazines, simply because the often turned out to be “norak”, since the writing style was not intended to be rewritten in Indonesian.

In the end, why do we even bother having a translated Macworld anyway, if this is what we’re gonna get. With all those ridiculous mistakes on details and design, with regards that this is supposed to be a complement to a set of Apple’s premium products, I can roughly consider Macworld Indonesia as one of the results of Indonesian editorial designers’ ignorance. I think I’ll stick with subscribing to the US version. At $3,75 for each edition (if you subscribe directly), it’s only Rp. 5000 more expensive than this badly translated version. It’s at least ten times better, and at least, it saves me from having sudden heart attacks.

Congratulations, Megindo, on turning one of the best Mac magazines into something that is not even worth reading. I sarcastically can’t wait to see what they would do to their website. Oh, I know! How about Flash intros?

I don’t usually buy business magazines, unless I was featured there or if something caught my eye. Such as a large Apple logo on the cover. But there’s more to it than just Apple as a cover feature. It’s the redesign of BusinessWeek. It’s been a while since they have their magazine and website redesigned, but I never really pay attention to it. I like the way they maintain the superbly readable body text with a nice leading and all, but the main punch for me is that they managed to switch from a classic to a modern look, and they did it. The layout is consistent and by far it bests most of Indonesian’s typical business magazine (I don’t have to name them here, as most real designers know that most of them are designed poorly, and they obviously look crappy).

But in all good things, there’s always a flaw:

Yes, that one came from Amazon’s Search Inside!™ feature. The least they can do is buy the book and scan off the cover, or they could simply Google the image. I found a few even bigger than the image they’re using. But I wouldn’t take this as BusinessWeek’s entire mistake. This is Indonesia, even franchises can afford to suck.

Last Friday, I went to Carrefour with Mom. She was buying some groceries, so I tagged along to buy some supplies for the office, since one of our lights was half dead. I noticed this sort-of-in-a-trend campaign from Carrefour that encourages people to reduce the use of plastic bags. And no, not with a highly-recyclable fabric tote-bag that you can carry every single time you go to Carrefour to shop, but with another plastic bag. Yes, plastic, but a bit tougher than your average plastic grocery bags. I wonder how that could make our Earth greener? Maybe we can all make up a “Fight Plastic with Green-Colored Plastic” campaign, that would make the Earth greener, alright. Literally. When I saw the ad for the campaign on their LCD panels, it claims that this plastic green bag is an alternative model to the fabric tote-bag which, I never saw any around. If green is the next way to go, why would they even bother creating an “alternative” yet destructive model to choose in the first place anyway?

On my recent trip to Plaza Senayan, I noticed that Alessandro Nannini was closed for renovation. Apparently, it has a temporary booth counter set up on the center of the 2nd floor. Although it is entirely different from what I remembered from Nannini’s outlet, it actually came out pretty good. And if those panels are really recyclable, then it could probably be the first sustainable booth counter in Indonesia. It’s a start for a country that is a bit too late to go green.

Last Thursday, UPH faxed me an invitational letter to join in the upcoming UPH Design Week 2007. Basically they’re asking if they can exhibit my final project during the Student’s Exhibition. I’d say, why not and give it a go. I am prepping an authorization letter from the office, though, in case something goes awol.

I went to see the expo earlier today, and tough luck, I didn’t bring my digicam along with me… (sigh)… Anyway, the expo was crowded with plenty of printing machines, from 4×6″ size to things massive enough to print things 3.2 metres wide. I didn’t bother to ask the price though, hehehehe.

I met quite a lot people there, most of them are my juniors, the UPH web design class students, which we told to fill in their absence list there. I also met Surianto, Jeffri, Wirama, Edwin, Pipin, Hardy, etc. Godot was there, but I didn’t meet him.

Surprisingly enough, I met Oom Heru there, apparently Oom Benny is opening a stand for his company.

I was actually expecting to be able to bring a lot of paper samples home, and also to buy some paper supplies, mainly for the upcoming ensemble performance. But on the contrary, I got mostly brochures. So apparently I have to go to SuryaFancy anyway tomorrow.

I also purchased a custom stamp with the new Neuro-Designs logo on it (finally!), and 2 new t-shirts.

Anyway, click here for more info on the event. Oh, before you click on it, I have to let you know that the website sucks. No, seriously, it sucks.

Yipee!! I already got most of the things under control. Event booklets, check. Standing banner, check. Poster, check. Warta Jemaat inserts, check. CD duplication, check. CD covers, check. CD labels, check. Flash presentation, check. Invitation cards, check. Music books, not yet. Well, you can’t get everything in an instant, but that is only one left from ten. So I really do hope I can finish everything up by next Wednesday. Big thanks to Yona who already helped me with the photographs.

I won’t be assisting the lectures tomorrow, and there will be no Web Design class tomorrow. Everybody is recommended to go to the FGD Expo, not just for the ticket refund, but also (hopefully) to see what the printing process industry is. I think the UPH DKV students are lacking that knowledge. Lucky us who got printing jobs prior to the Printing Process subject, but those who don’t even know a thing about offset printing are subjects to airhead-ness in the class… Some of them doesn’t even know that we have to print not in 72dpi (sigh)…

Today was a very very tiring day… My day started by waking up late, at 11 AM, so I continued with lunch right after that, hehehe. I then went to Andira’s to print out a standing banner for the upcoming Great is the Lord performance, and also a set of stickers to be put on every single one’s music book for the performance. After that I went straight to Subur to print out 50 invitation cards, also for the performance. And because of the bridge repairs on Abdul Madjid, people seem to be taking detours all over Kemang and created a massive traffic jam on each ends of the region.

Anyway, the print out process at Subur didn’t take too long, and Pak Iwan called me when I was on my way back to Hi Res, telling me that several of the printed materials are done. And because I’m still at the Dharmawangsa region, I decided to stop by at Tulodong as well for a moment. And eventually, while I was there, we talked about pretty much everything, PCs, Macs, cameras, and even consoles. I never knew Pak Iwan is a console gamer too, and I also found out that he’s a relative to Tante Grace, one of my neighbors. This is indeed a small small world.

Anyway, after picking up the event booklets and CD stickers at Silver, I went back to Hi Res to pick up the standing banner and stickers. And yes, because of the bridge repairs, I still have to make detours just to get home, like everyone else. Thank God the toll road was quite empty, otherwise I might’ve gone nuts.

Bad news always come for us graphic designers, huh? When I was on the retreat yesterday, Dina told Karina, and she told me that Carson’s seminar was cancelled because he couldn’t get here. He has to attend a court or something.

I told Booi about this, and he e-mailed Carson. And yes, apparently he would have to be in court for a child custody hearing.

That’s just too bad, although I wish for the best for his two children. The only thing that I’m worried about now, is the refund… I PAID ALREADY!!!