Apt Journal
"Apt: an online literary journal," subsidiary of Aforementioned Productions, was co-founded by editors Carissa Halston and Randolph Pfaff in October 2005. Against the often overly designed bevy that largely constitutes online publication today, replete with any number of outlandish graphics and awkward navigational formats, Apt's elegance of design proves that, despite the overwhelming visual rococo in which the web is today awash, less can still be more. The site's simple font easily stands out against an understated background color of muted yellow. Even Apt's literary mascot, "Leopold," an unassuming sheep rendered by Jesse Farrell, is poised in such a manner as to reinforce the site's emphasis on literary content.
Though I applaud Apt's finesse in design, after reading several entries, many of which vary drastically in technique, I found myself yearning for graphics as a distinguishing extension of the stylistic content of each entry. When reading John Grey's delightful poem "Gardens," I felt Apt's austere layout nicely complements Grey's open-versed imagery. I was then thrown off by Petra Whiteley's poem "Copper Coin Miracles," as I was unprepared to transition so suddenly from Grey's delicate verse to Whiteley's provocative and visceral diction on the turbulent experience of past and current love relationships.
This is to suggest that elegance does not have to be sacrificed with the use of multi-media. Contemporary standards of online taste emphatically demand a well-coordinated and consistent simultaneity of various media: there is just too much possibility to ever again warrant its outright rejection. I would therefore love to see Apt's streamlined approach translated into a format that incorporates mixed media. Overall, I recommend Apt, not only for its high caliber literary works, but also for its experimentation in visual understatement.
