Funny Or Die Expands its Comedy Empire with Technical Assistance from MEI

March 15, 2012 - PRLog -- The Internet comedy juggernaut that is Funny Or Die has a new interactive iPad magazine — and MEI helped.

“The Occasional,” available now by single issue or subscription on the iTunes Newsstand, expands the Funny Or Die brand with magazine-style original content, multimedia, games and other interactive components. The app was built using the Adobe® Digital Publishing Suite™, the preeminent solution for Adobe InDesign®-based tablet publishing.

Nate Maggio, Funny Or Die senior designer and art director for “The Occasional,” worked with MEI to learn advanced techniques of designing and publishing with the Adobe suite.

“For making an iPad magazine, DPS just seemed like the obvious way to go,” Maggio said. “All the design elements and interactive tools are in there, plus it gives you a lot of flexibility in how you source and manage content.”

“To give them a jump start, we trained Nate and his team on the DPS tools in InDesign,” said MEI Creative Director Will Steuber. “Then, along the way, we helped them push the standard toolset to create some, well, funny interactive treatments.” (An MEI specialist also did HTML 5 development on the interactive “Kidz Korrall” feature “Hippos: Warlords of the Wild.” But it was all Funny Or Die’s idea. Really.)

With more than 25 pieces of original content, “The Occasional” is a magazine not simply to be read but experienced. Features include celebrity interviews, political commentary, movie reviews and plenty of new comedic twists on conventional magazine themes such as “Who Wore it Better,” and a children’s audio book, “Who’s Hollering for Harry” with sound effects by Marc Maron. There is also an exclusive episode of Funny Or Die’s award-winning series, “Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis.” Contributors to “The Occasional” include Funny Or Die co-founder Adam McKay, Tom Lennon and Jon Daly, among others.

“Comedy comes in different shapes and sizes, and through this medium our creative team came up with truly innovative content that is a great addition to the Funny Or Die universe,” said Funny Or Die CEO Dick Glover. “It’s funny for fans, users, readers and whoever else goes to the App Store.”

“The Occasional” is available for $3.99 per issue, $1.99 per every-other-month issue with an automatically renewing subscription or $9.99 a year. To learn more, visit: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/funny-or-dies-the-occasion...

To learn more about our work with “The Occasional” and other Adobe DPS projects, visit MEI at the Publishing Business Expo in New York, March 19-20, or online at www.maned.com/tablet.

About Adobe Digital Publishing Suite
The Adobe Digital Publishing Suite enables the creation of immersive reading experiences that combine the visual impact of print design, the flexibility of the tablet format, the immediacy of touch interaction and the engagement of interactive elements such as video, audio, animated infographics and more. In conjunction with InDesign CS5.5, Adobe DPS provides a robust end-to-end publishing solution for creation, distribution, commercialization and analysis of high-value content, including traditional magazines and newspapers as well as corporate publications.

# # #

About MEI
Managing Editor Inc., an Adobe premier development partner, develops quality, proven publishing software. MEI specializes in providing tools that manage content for any output medium — print, online, tablets such as the iPad, mobile devices such as the iPhone and other digital formats. Visit www.maned.com for more information.