(1) Kitsunenoir.com — Bobby S.

The term “kitsune” comes from the Japanese language referring to a fox that possess a wealth in knowledge and wisdom. As for “noir” it always possess an artistic connotation. Put these two together, the title “Kitsunenoir” personifies the character of this blog. Bobby S.’s blog contains a nice layout, simple and clean format, personalize yet professional writing, and no obnoxious advertisements. His posts are detailed and simple to follow for anyone who stumbles on his page. Bobby makes clear and concise posts about his subjects and explains his subjects thoroughly so anyone could understand– not just any art and culture enthusiast. Most of his posts pertain to visual design by well-known and unknown artists but are not limited to product design and entertainment.

Like Andrew Sullivan, Bobby S. has short entries in which you could sense his style and brevity. The short posts show his very casual personality and art enthusiasm but also keeping his writing professional. He also adds humor occasionally to display his interest in a certain product release or art piece. An example of this is through his USB-stylist Friends with You post.

In the beginning of the post, he introduces the collaboration of Mimobots with Friends With You! and then expresses how he thinks how this might not be useful to him. However, I like how he is sarcastic with his diction and phrases because it provides his blog with a personal voice,

“Sure they’re cute, but personally I don’t need to carry around a tiny action figure friend to keep my files on…But I’ve been in love with Friends With You forever it feels like, so I’d be much more inclined to buy one.”

He interrupts his sentences with “personally” and “feels like” to really personalize his posts.

In another post about China’s “Water Cube”, his layout of pictures are pleasing to the eye. He formats with a big picture on the top of the canvas, and fills the bottom with detailed pictures on the bottom. All his images are well touched and formatted. The layout is very clean and proportional, which makes it more pleasing to the eye. Like his other posts, he states the facts in the first paragraph. He introduces the who, what, when, why, and how of the post. He immediately follows the introductory paragraph with his opinion and own knowledge:

I think the soap bubble structure looks really great, but like article states, the bubbles need some scrubbing to get all of the construction grit and grime off it before it’ll shine…I just hope that they get the rest of the grounds in shape before August, because in the pictures above, it looks kind of gray and scary. Hopefully the next few months will give them all the time they need.

His sentences are short, dynamic, and to the point; something I’ve wanted to develop as a writer. Bobby S. also avoids using “I” too much in his blog and doesn’t start off many sentences with “I”. This shows his writing style to be creative and also personifying his character.

Since Bobby S. is from Los Angeles, he also incorporates his life into his posts. Many of them are about certain art or advertisements he comes across or stores he finds appealing to his blog. This keeps the blog at a personal level and creates a sense of identity for the art in L.A. An example of this is in his entry “Affinity Pursuit Bike”One thing admirable about this post is that he is very honest about his knowledge of bikes. Bobby doesn’t try too hard to act like he knows anything about bikes, but he inputs his knowledge about the design. This really depicts his complete persona: living in a L.A. and a great appreciator of good, clean design.

Continuing with the clean layout and structure, I also admire that he doesn’t link his entry to too many things. I’ve read blogs before in which the blogger links to almost everything they mention, and it starts to bother me after awhile because I feel like there is too much information. Like I said before, the layout of the site makes it easy to read and maneuver. His blogroll, which he labels “Daily Sites”, on the side has always been helpful and easy to use. It’s always convenient when bloggers put links that open a new window, rather than having the link pop up on the same window. The neutral colors really have a good ease on my eyes including the nice touch of purple on the blog headings and comments. Compared to nitrolicious blog, the colors are much more professional. One small thing I always found aesthetically pleasing is that he has a fixed background when you scroll through posts, this makes it easier to look through. Bobby S. also recently added tabs with “About, Contact, Advertise, RSS and search” that wasn’t there before. This makes it easy for any reader to find out what his blog is about before they get into the readings.

Ultimately, Kitsunenoir is a blog that contains knowledgeable content and aesthetically pleasing layouts that are very presentable to the art and culture enthusiast. His character and personalized post make the blog luminous amongst the many blogs I’ve cruised through.