People often think of Salt Lake City as extremely one note. Religious, conservative, traditional values, etc. Craft Sabbath and Slug Magazine are two organizations that try to go against the mold to show that there is more to Salt Lake City than meets the eye, and this is the message that they try to portray through their websites. However, how
they do so is vastly different.
Craft Sabbath has a name to match it's counter-culture vibe. It says "While your at church worshiping on your Sabbath, we're selling crafts at ours."
However, the design of the website is actually rather friendly. It uses bright colors and bold logos to draw people in. The content of the site is equally simple. A brief explanation of what Craft Sabbath is, a spotlight of one of the artists, some information for how to become a vendor, and links to social networking sites.
It's the social networking sites that that really hold the bulk of Craft Sabbath's information. Their twitter gives updates as to recent goings on. The Facebook page has a myriad of pictures showing the vast range of crafts available for purchase--everything from eye-ball wreaths to old Americana paintings with pop culture figures added in.
The overall message sent is that while Craft Sabbath is counter culture, it's not too counter culture. There's something for everyone and everyone is welcome. They do their best to be accommodating.
If Craft Sabbath is inclusive, then SLUG (Salt Lake City Underground) Magazine is exclusive. Compared to Craft Sabbath, it's website is dark and cluttered in design.
They too have links for Facebook, Twitter, and the like, but they are nowhere near the main focus. SLUG magazine bombards you with information. Videos, articles, a calender of events coming up in the city, and more. In general, it seems to be rather unfocused, although a lot of it is about music. One article on their front page was a list of many contributors' top five favorite songs for the year. However, even that is unfocused, with a couple of random top five video games lists and even on for top five beers.
In general, the cluttered design and eclectic content seems to send a message that SLUG magazine is only for those already familiar with SLUG magazine. The design makes it difficult to figure out and fairly inaccessible to those unfamiliar with it. It says that if you are a reader of SLUG, then you are cool. You are better than those who don't read it. And if you don't read it, you're not cool. It's much less friendly and welcoming.
These two websites represent different sides of Salt Lakes counter culture scene. One that tries to appeal to the main culture and one that tries to distance itself from the main culture as much as possible.
Nice discussion of the two, but how more specifically does SLUG posit itself in opposition to the "mainstream cutlure?" you mention a review of beer, which obviously does in a state known for it's difficult alcohol laws, but what other image or idea about SL is the magazine trying to convey? what is the identity or image they present and how do they do so?
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