Issue No. 10︱Monday, May 13, 2024

All about the creation of blugg.

Say you are someone who likes to create things. You’ve always had an interest in the arts, preferably those of the digital kind. The process has brought you joy, and you feel satisfied with yourself when you finally complete that project you were working so long and hard on.

But what if you struggled to find exactly what kind of digital art you liked to create? You see all these artists online who seem to know exactly what they want to create and have great talent for it. Every time you stumble upon some new artist and see what they create, you think, “Hmm, maybe I could do something like that, but in my own way.”

This back-and-forth of not really knowing what you want goes on for years. You try all these different methods, and just when you think you’ve found something that you could stick to, it doesn’t feel right anymore. You think there’s another idea down the drain. Will I ever find my own style?

Some time goes by where you haven’t been creating anything. It feels like all hope of creativity has just left you. There’s been the occasional idea, but you don’t put much effort into it, fearing that the outcome will be the same as all the others. Then, finally, after feeling empty from not having an artistic outlet for so long, you decide that it’s time to buckle down and really try to create again.

You think that you want to try making some posters after seeing the amazing designs others have come up with. but after trying it out yourself, you realize maybe this just isn't for you. Again, you feel lost. You desperately want to create something, but nothing feels right to you. Then, finally, you have an idea.

After going through your notes and ideas, you notice something. Most of your ideas have lots of writing. How could you create visual art with all of these words? What’s something you could make that does require lots of writing? Then it hit you: a newspaper.

What if you created a newspaper where you could write out all of the stupid little things you have written down? You could create little icons and vector art to go along with the stories. This idea brought you excitement like you’ve never felt before, so you got to designing.

It felt like it only took two seconds to come up with a layout for your newspaper, and once you actually started to put it all together, you finally felt you had found something you were passionate about. After the first, it never seemed to take long to create each paper because everything just fell into place. You kept having idea after idea. It really seems like this is something you could stick to.

The Naming of Blugg

Guess we can finally reveal how blugg got it’s name.

It was a humid, sunny day in June 2021 when the creator visited a small, quaint town in an undisclosed location. They had heard of this town but had never ventured too deep into it. When the time had finally come, they were pleasantly surprised at how nice this little place was. 

They had enjoyed a nice lunch, dining on the food the town was known for, then made their way to the local museum. This quite little historic building had much charm, and the creator felt at peace, quietly walking around, taking in this area's history.

When it seemed like things couldn't get any better, the creator discovered the town gave free trolley rides. Of course, they hopped on board and took a ride. While traveling down main street, they saw the townspeople waving down at them from the windows above all the little shops. This moment felt so magical.

Later, the creator decided to stop at a local thrift shop when, after pulling into a parking spot, they looked to their left and saw a building with a peculiar logo. The creator squinted their eyes and saw that this little shop was called "blugg," or was it?

The creator stared at the name, baffled at why one would call their store blugg, but nonetheless, they were amused. They thought the name was odd but unique. The name grew on them, and they started to admire whoever came up with the idea. Then, upon looking further at the logo, they realized something.

It didn’t seem this shop was called blugg after all, but instead, "blu99." The way the logo had been created, with the font chosen and the placement of the “99 being level with the letters "blu,” gave the appearance that the logo actually said "blugg.”

After realizing this, the creator was a bit disappointed that the name wasn’t as special as they had originally thought, but decided to write the word down, thinking it was too good to forget. The creator knew that maybe one day they could use the word for something of their own creation. Thus, the blugg name was bornt.

Attention: blu99 has since closed it’s doors.

RIP and Thank You blu99.

“Sonic Has Good Design”

I’ve always been someone who could appreciate good design. Whether that be the look of a menu or some child chalk art I see on the sidewalk, a design that looks cohesive and pleasant to me always makes me feel satisfied and wonder what the artist had in mind when creating it.

I’ve taken photos of or sometimes collected these design pieces I come across. As a way to maybe inspire myself if need be in the future, but sometimes I just really admire the designs I see. Sometimes I’ll see a design and think, "Wow, there’s no way I could ever do this myself, so I’m really impressed by the artist.”

So let’s talk about Sonic’s design. Now I hate advertisements and corporations as much as the next degenerate, but I can’t help but admire a Sonic when I pass by it. Especially after they remodeled their buildings and changed up their logo and color scheme. But I’ve been a fan of Sonic’s design even before all of the changes.

I remember passing by a Sonic and seeing an ad pop up of the little screens they have on their sign and thinking it looked really good. From the colors to the fonts, all of it was pleasing to look at. The thing was, I could never find an example of this online. I would mention to people that Sonic had great design, but when trying to find examples online, I came up short.

It felt like a ghost design. Was I really seeing those well-designed advertising screens? Did the cups really have cute designs on them? I could find no evidence of it, but I knew it to be true.

Bike To Work Week

May 13th-19th

It’s Bike to Work Week! Which means you need to bike to work all week, but if you can’t commit to all week, then try just biking to work on Friday, May 17th, because that’s Bike to Work Day. What a great way to commute to work! You get some exercise, enjoy the outdoors, and possibly get hit by a car. Yes, I’m sure it’s so easy to bike to work when just about every town has car-dependent infrastructure. Most of the time, you’ll have to bike on sidewalks—if there even are any—or actually take your chance on the road with the cars, where I’m sure you won’t get harassed. Yes, what a great way to get to work! Be sure to get out on that bike I’m sure you own this week and make that dough!

Tulip Tuesday

Tulip Day is actually on Monday, May 13th, but Tulip Tuesday is fun to say. Maybe next year it will be on Tuesday... Research reveals Tulip Day is, in fact, on Tuesday next year.

Happy Tulip Tuesday a year from now!

National Juice Slush Day

What’s that sound? Oh, that’s just someone slurping down a nice, cold, juicy slush. How delicious! You too can get in on the action and slurp down your own juice slush on Wednesday, May 15th.

Try making some of your own juice slush at home with strawberries, watermelon, or blue raspberr— oh wait, blue raspberries aren’t real… but blue raspberry is the best flavor for everything! How can I have a blue raspberry slush if blue raspberries don’t exist? This holiday is ruined! I guess I’ll just have to go to someplace that sells slushes, like Sonic…

Disclaimer: This sounds like an ad for Sonic, but I can assure you it is not. Sonic has no idea I wrote this and probably doesn't want their name in this paper. I just wanted to make a connection to the Sonic story, and they sell slushes, so I thought it would be fitting to mention them here. Thank you for understanding. 

FUN BLUGG FACT

The colors used in this issue of blugg are actually the complementary colors of the colors used in the first issue of blugg.

F2431B → 1BCAF2

0FC5F2 → F23C0F

F2AE02 → 0246F2

Thank you for reading the blugg newspaper.