tufte style thesis; logo convergence for 12th

content/post/2023/07/a-tufte-style-thesis-using-pandoc.md

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+---
+title: "A Tufte-style Thesis Template using Pandoc"
+date: '2023-07-10T09:51:00+02:00'
+tags:
+  - writing
+  - pandoc
+  - Markdown
+  - latex
+  - phd
+categories:
+  - software
+---
+
+There are lots of Tufte-style LaTeX thesis templates to be found on GitHub, but there's little information on how to pull it off writing mainly in Markdown and letting Pandoc do the compiling. I've previously written about the particularities of [writing a Tufte-book in Markdown](/post/2022/11/writing-a-tufte-book-in-markdown), but since the thesis is now officially published and I had to jump through additional hoops, perhaps it's worth the repetition. 
+
+First, it's perhaps worth to skim through the following posts:
+
+- [Writing Academic Papers in Markdown](/post/2021/02/writing-academic-papers-in-markdown/)
+- [writing a Tufte-book in Markdown](/post/2022/11/writing-a-tufte-book-in-markdown)
+- [Using Pandoc to publish a book](/post/2020/05/using-pandoc/)
+
+Additionally, if you are not familiar with the masterful work of Edward Tufte, a visionary in the field of information visualization, read about his books on [the official website](https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/). The layout of his books stands out: Tufte uses a wide margin allowing for a lot of notes right next to the main text instead of below it or at the back of the work. The placement of the figures, the particular font, the width and height, they all make up for a lovely package that is sure to wow your supervisors or publisher. 
+
+The Tufte "handout" style is also a set of popular HTML/blogging styles, as can be seen in this [R Studio online preview page](https://rstudio.github.io/tufte/). If you scroll through the page, the figures and remarks in the margin combined with the beautiful type spacing and well-placed full width images to me come across as strikingly appealing---especially in the form of a (physical) book. At the Arenberg Doctoral School of KU Leuven, [formal guidelines for a PhD thesis](https://set.kuleuven.be/phd/researchers/template_kaft/guidelines_PhDthesis.htm) are prescribed, but to be honest, they're (1) bland, (2) only offer Word (and unofficially, TeX) templates, and (3) I don't like producing something that looks exactly like a thousand other works. 
+
+Have a look at the result, [my accepted thesis](https://lirias.kuleuven.be/retrieve/718648):
+
+![](../thesis.jpg "The cover page of my thesis.")
+
+As the previous links indicate, I wrote the text in Markdown and let Pandoc do the converting, although of course many manual adjustments had to be made in the form of pre- and postprocessors. Ultimately, behind the scenes, a `.tex` file is generated that still uses the `tufte-book` document class, so everything documented in [the tufte-latex package](https://www.ctan.org/pkg/tufte-latex) is still important and relevant, especially to spot openings for hacks when things go awry. 
+
+Unfortunately, there's still ample of LaTex involved in the process. The cover and title pages are impossible to layout using just Markdown, and as explained in the _writing academic papers in markdown_ post, to speed up the process of, among other things, referencing, I applied a lot of find-and-replace regex filters. 
+
+Things that are in Markdown:
+
+- Basic formatting (**bold**, _italic_, basic cases of enumerations);
+- References to figures, tables, other works using `@`;
+- "Footnotes" appearing as side margin notes in Tufte-layout;
+- Quotes, HREF links, code blocks;
+- Acronyms (a regex hack for words beginning with a `+`);
+- (Sub)section titles;
+- Basic figure includes.
+
+Things that are still in TeX:
+
+- Intricate tables (multi-page, full-width, custom columns, ...)---In the end, _all_ tables in the thesis needed a bit of tuning.
+- Margin and full-width images (`{marginfigure}`);
+- Full-width sections or special layout blocks;
+- Metadata as part of the preamble (although some can be in YAML front matter);
+- Special pages such as cover, title, and back matter.
+
+Scrolling through the bulk of the source material, my eyes aren't attacked by TeX code needlessly heavily intertwined with the actual content. Except for special cases such as complex figures and tables, I think the end result is quite satisfying to write a thesis in. At least it felt great to me. The speed boost from concentrating on _content_ rather than layout is an additional plus, although there were more than enough days spent hacking to get things just right. 
+
+The cover had to adhere to strict rules---both content and layout-wise. The TeX's `tufte-book` cover page is rather basic and instead of redefining `\maketitle{}`, I simply injected a few images in the author field like this: `\author{\includegraphics{cover-header.png}}`. Call it what you want, it works! Well, not entirely: this breaks the PDF metadata, but after `\maketitle`, you can redefine the contents---which still didn't work in all cases. Nothing that EXIFTool can't solve: `exiftool -Author="Wouter Groeneveld" thesis.pdf`. 
+
+Pandoc's flags allows you to inject custom TeX before header and body (`--include-in-header` and `--include-before-body` respectively), which I used to point to the preamble file and custom cover file. Include after body didn't work for some reason, leaving me to have no choice but to add the backmatter in the conclusion Markdown file. Special pages like this one and the cover should not adhere to the wide margin rule of the Tufte layout, meaning you'll have to wrap your contents in a `\begin{fullwidth}` section.
+
+If anyone is interested in (parts of) the source code, feel free to reach out. I didn't bother trying to extract the template from the contents, as with works such as these, heavy customization reduces reusability.

content/post/2023/07/logo-convergence-design-mistakes.md

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+---
+title: Logo Convergence Design Mistakes
+date: 2023-07-12T11:00:00+02:00
+categories:
+    - braindump
+tags:
+  - design
+---
+
+A short stay at a local holiday resort generated a big shock: they changed the iconic 25 year old _Center Parcs_ logo! I have fond memories of the Parcs we used to visit now and then when we were young. Meddling with such a logo felt like ripping out these nostalgic memories in my brain, ruthlessly replacing it with meaningless corporate convergence of rounded lines and sans serif fonts that so many companies are aiming for these days. Why? What was wrong with the old logo? 
+
+Driving to the park, I noticed another market chain that changed its logo, including the slogan. Guess what, more rounded edges and samey swirling shapes. Why? Alex Murrell's [The Age of Average](https://www.alexmurrell.co.uk/articles/the-age-of-average) immediately came to mind when I started noticing this evolution towards sameness. Alex noticed that nowadays, interiors all look the same, architecture looks the same, cars and their logos look the same, media looks the same, and even people look the same. Scrolling through the blog post might reproduce that initial shock I had when I saw the new Center Parcs logo. 
+
+I do not get this "The homogeneity of modern brands", as Alex calls it. A Contagious article made up the term _blanding_ for this phenomena:
+
+> Look up any new corporate brand identity unveiled over the past decade and you will almost certainly find yourself staring at a flattened and simplified version of the company's old logo. The aesthetic has become so ubiquitous that it's acquired its own name---_blanding_.
+
+My first encounter with _blanding_ was not good. All I can say is that I do not like the direction contemporary design agencies are aiming at. Back home, I started thinking about new logos of companies I knew. Guess what: more _blanding_. Here's a short overview of the old and new logos I could put side by side from local businesses (from top to bottom: asap.be, centerparcs.com, aveve.be, cegeka.com):
+
+![](../logos.jpg "A comparison of four old and new style logos.")
+
+Do you notice anything in particular after a good long stare?
+
+- Serif is old; sans serif is in. The curliness of the _ASAP_ and _CenterParcs_ lettering in the old logos has been removed and replaced by boring evenness.
+- Colors become more muted. The bright Cegeka line has to make way for the two-tone pastel-like swirl; ASAP removes the orange square; Aveve and Center Parcs ditch any other color but a shade of green.
+- Rounded corners are back in; both in lettering and in background or logo shapes.
+- A small logo might accompany the name, but it should be clean and placed to the left of the text.
+
+The most baffling logo "update" must have been the Center Parcs one. The iconic bird, comprised of two leaves, makes way for a completely meaningless "CP" abbreviation---sure, the P has two diamond-shaped leaves, _now_ we know what Center Parcs is about! It looks like a logo for a garden architecture group. 
+
+But hey, what do I know? I'm not a designer. A quick scroll through the replies of the official announcement on Twitter tells me I wasn't the only one immediately repulsed by the new design: even lots of design agencies question the move. Abstraction and convergence might look _très chic_ on board room meeting walls, but it sure as hell isn't to the customers confused by the absence of the previous landmark. I love the Dutch news piece headlines talking about the logo change: [shocked reactions new logo Center Parcs](https://vakantieparkvergelijker.nl/blog/nieuw-logo-center-parcs); [Center Parsc makes bold logo changes: 'People are resistant to change'](https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/37989352/center-parcs-maakt-gewaagde-logoverandering-mensen-hebben-weerstand-tegen-een-verandering); [Center Parcs changes logo and Dutch people are pissed off](https://www.thebestsocial.media/nl/center-parcs-rebranding/). Many people thought it was an April Fools' Day joke. It sure feels like one. 
+
+There's a difference between resistance to change and convergence to mediocre sameness. Still not convinced? Take a look at different logo updates from both the tech and fashion industry summarized by Radek Sienkiewicz [over at VelvetShark.com](https://velvetshark.com/articles/why-do-brands-change-their-logos-and-look-like-everyone-else): Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Airbnb, Spotify, Pinterest, Ebay---all suddenly boring sans serif logos, devoid of their previous personality. Logos aren't the only ones with this illness: see [CSS Tricks' 'website sameness'](https://css-tricks.com/website-sameness/).
+
+Age of average indeed.