The Vostok blog

We have always wanted to tell stories with images but it has always been either too difficult or too expensive…

FIRST, WE DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH PIGMENTS

Man has always wanted to tell stories through images. It all started with cavemen and their paintings. Their language was probably not very rich in vocabulary but they knew they wanted to show others what their memories held and what populated their imagination. So they painted it. But access to pigments and the ability to paint on stone was limited to only a few.

THEN, WE DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH STONE

Sculpture, along with wall paintings (or glass) paintings were the way advanced civilizations (from mesopotamic to christian) represented visually the characters in their stories. Stories were told and not read for many centuries and sculptures would help people visualize their heroes, saints or divinities. Think of sculptures in palaces and churches where generals and saints were displayed in their epic endeavors. Also painted glass windows and mosaics of those who were powerful and where their power lied. Only the “official” artists had access to such expensive means and their stories were limited to what was the official version of the official story.

THEN, WE DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH PAPER

Paper was a very expensive technology until just a few centuries ago. It was difficult to manufacture and only a few lettered people had access to it: mostly scholars and monks, some of whom were specialized in miniature paintings illustrating the concepts explained in the books.

THEN, WE DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH INK

Newspapers slowly started to incorporate pictures in their stories but they tended to be small: sending them was techically complex and the ink was expensive. Stories had be told textually or with a few small photographs. Or at least until the 60s when photography became a commodity for magazines.

THEN, WE DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH CAMERAS

Photography allowed memories to last forever but, again, it was limited and expensive at the beginning. It took 100 years for that industry to make photography available to everyone. In the 70s people could only afford to have one camera per household. Then they were able to have relatively cheap photoalbums where the stories that mattered to them the most were stored: new born babies, marriages, adventures, trips… they were all narrations composed of visual memories. But still, you couldn’t share them easily.

THEN, WE DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH BANDWIDTH

Photos and images have always been part of the Internet, especially of the Word Wide Web, but the first modems were very very slow. You had to scan a picture (no digital cameras yet), you had to compress it, reduce its size and expect visitors to wait several minutes for the image to load. The standard was around 200 pixels wide for a rectangular picture. So, we had a medium that allowed us to share our messages with the world but the use of images was still scarce. Text was the only way to go.

THEN, WE DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH RESOLUTION

Digital images became widely available, everyone could create and share them. Bandwidth grew fast: size was no longer an issue. But… Monitors still didn’t have enough resolution to show pictures in all their glory. Remember when 800×600 was the reference when it came to website matters? Nothing bigger than that was allowed. It took us 10 years to start moving to 1024 pixels wide and even then there was some fear of using big format images. Powerpoint was there and allowed some to tell stories visually (most just used it for bulletpointed BS) but images were still just there to dress a good text.

THEN, WE DIDN’T HAVE THE SOFTWARE

Sure there is flickr now, and many others, but until not so long ago there was not a single piece of cheap software that allowed people to tell visual stories in a sequence of images. Just as we could do in a photoalbum, or a Powerpoint in fullscreen mode, attracting the viewer’s full attention. Images that ARE the message and not just the accompaniment. The Big Picture, at Boston.com got it but they didn’t make it sequential. The iPad did it with its image galleries but they weren’t shareable on the internet. We were almost there…

AND NOW…

We now have the bandwidth, the cameras, the screen size and the Internet. We all need to tell our stories, to show our projects, to be able to share our memories with pictures and videos. And we cannot pay a high price for it.

So we, at Vostok, have made it possible. It had to be done.

We created a tool that allows people to tell stories visually and to share them with the rest of the world. We also made it affordable. It’s a WordPress theme, it’s called BlackVostok – www.blackvostok.com and it’s just $16.

Now tell your story, take over the full browser window with your images and share them with the world.

BlackVostok
Here’s the website: www.blackvostok.com
Here’s the theme in action: www.blackvostok.com/test

The Vostok Theme has become quite popular during this late year, especially after WordPress decided to bundle it by default with new installations. However some people have publicly expressed criticism about it. They’ve said it’s “boring”, that they find it “dull” or “bland”.

I say they are right.

We agree that it’s a boring theme but we’d rather call it NEUTRAL. It’s neutral, it doesn’t have a soul. It has no personality. Why?

The message shouldn’t be in the container but in the content itself. If a blog that uses the Vostok Theme is boring it’s probably because the content is boring. It has nothing to do with the “design”. The Vostok Theme is neutral because it let’s the content speak for itself. It’s your writing, your pictures and your editorial style what makes a blog interesting.

If you focus more on pictures you’d probably pick the dark version because photos contrast with the background and thus are more vivid. If you want text to be king you’ll pick the white one wich is better in terms of legibility.

To those who say that the Vostok Theme is boring I reply: yes, but it’s because of your content. And if your content is boring it really doesn’t matter which theme you use, it will always be boring. You may go for a colorful, fancy schmancy theme and catch the visitor’s attention for some seconds but if your stuff is dull… you are perceived as dull.

The Vostok Theme is neutral, it lets your content speak for itself. There is no make up, just legibility and clarity. It’s an honest theme.

Tumblr users can now dress elegant and stylish either in black or white since both versions of the Vostok Theme are available for them. Ricardo Fernández coded them and we included them on the Vostok Theme page along with the css files for comments in case you manage them with Disqus. Ain’t that nice?

(thanks a lot Ricardo!)

We just released a white version of our very succesful Vostok Theme for WordPress, along with some slight changes in typography and size to fit these modern times we are going through:

The best thing about it is that you don’t need to chose beforehand, you just install one file and BOOM! Both themes appear on your WordPress so you can fit them both and chose one right away.

Remember, Vostok Theme is for those who don’t want attention to be distracted from content. Colors and typography have been carefully chosen to achieve maximum legibility with minimum eye fatigue. Also, code has been written with extreme care for web standards and accessibility.

NOTE TO TUMBLR USERS: Ricardo Fernández just made an adaptation and now you have the Vostok Theme for Tumblr available in black (white soon to come).