Turks & Caicos Magazine
Xarktopia — working in close cooperation with an island-based publishing company — provides design and editorial services for Turks and Caicos Magazine, a large-format lifestyle publication. TCIM remains one of the top projects in our portfolio. Janet Edens provides design services, including concepts, layout, editing, and image processing. Dan Conover writes articles, helps out with some editing, and occasionally contributes as an illustrator. Editions of the magazine, which began publishing in 2011, have featured NFL player Steve Weatherford, world-renowned kiteboarder Yuri Zoon, fashion designer Donna Karan, musician Nile Rodgers and Indy race car driver James Hinchcliffe. Journalism and design in an island paradise. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do...
read moreCHS Uptown Bikes
Bike repair and design go hand-hand-in-hand … Well, OK, so that’s a stretch. But as the world gets increasingly digital, we find that working on tangible things with real-world heft can be immensely rewarding — and surprisingly instructive. Dan Conover earned his certification from United Bicycle Institute in Portland, Ore., in 2010. After working in a local shop for about a year, he started his own mobile repair service in 2012. Today Dan keeps the neighborhood’s bikes running — and maintains the fleet at Google’s sprawling Berkeley County campus. Naturally, our joint interest in cycling prompted some artistic endeavors, which led to Uptown Bikes products for...
read morexarktv
xarkTV is the company’s filmmaking and video component. Primarily the work of Dan Conover — who launched the multimedia program at Charleston’s metro newspaper in 2007 — the collection includes everything from how-to videos on bike repair to art festival interviews. It’s best known for the short marketing parable Brunch of the Living Dead — because zombies are an underserved but growing demographic in most markets. While we don’t have any projects currently in production, we partner with a Charleston-based, professional production company for client projects with audio and video components. We also have a few ideas in development … but you knew...
read morewritedarkly
WriteDarkly is an ambitious, collaborative project currently in development. Offering a new spin on e-book downloads, the site will feature short stories and other dark fiction from a variety of authors for e-readers and mobile devices. The project seeks to offer authors a better marketplace with opportunities for revenue and book promotion, as well as providing readers with a better way to find what they like to read and to interact with their favorite...
read morechsSoccer
Dan’s big experiment in 2013: CHS SOCCER.NET, a one-stop niche site for local soccer coverage in the South Carolina Lowcountry. We unveiled the site just before the start of the 2013 USL PRO season and covered the professional Charleston Battery intensely from February to September. Along the way, we’ve also covered four local colleges, three local academy teams, some adult men’s league playoff matches, and the comings and goings of several active fan groups in Charleston. But while CHS Soccer is a working site, it also functions as something like Dan’s personal digital news lab. The big experimental questions: Can a niche news site with a tiny, part-time staff and no investors use sweat-equity to assemble enough micro-audiences to become a sustainable business? What’s the right balance of focusing on profitable audiences and trying to develop new groups of readers? How do you price and sell advertising and sponsorships in a niche market? What are the pros and cons of other revenue streams? What business relationships make sense? What’s the relationship between a site like this and the audience it serves? Some of these questions remain unanswered as yet, but stay tuned. We’re on...
read moreGuerrillaMuse
Dating back to 2005, GuerrillaMuse is today an online store through Cafepress, featuring a variety of original slogans and designs on T-shirts, mugs, and other products. Our best-selling brainchild is Murphy’s Laws of Fantasy Football, with other popular designs ranging from political snark to cute Callie Cat and Ruff...
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