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The well-known theatre reviewer Pieter T’Jonck came to us with his idea to create a website that offers prospective writers the opportunity to write reviews under the guidance of experienced reviewers. We thought about it, searched for a name, joined forces and built the website pzazz.theater.
When we were asked to think about a suitable name for this new evaluation platform, many ideas came to mind. We limited the possibilities to one name that is distinctive, that is recognizable, that refers to all performing arts and that is contagious: ‘Pzazz’. Diana Vreeland — fashion editor of Harper's Bazaar — used ‘Pzazz’ in the thirties to express an attractive combination of vitality, glamour and energy.
Alverata is the font of the house style, a font from the 21st century whose design is inspired by capitals and inscriptions from the Romanesque period (ca. 1000–1200). Alverata, designed by Gerard Unger in 2014, is nicely displayed in both digital and physical applications. The font provides excellent openness and readability in a small text and is also lively and attractive in large formats.
Pieter T’Jonck | Architect, writer and founder pzazz
Although you may love the performing arts, chances are that not all genres interest you. That is why we have created a menu showing a personalized category that is stored in your browser. By selecting and deselecting the available categories you can set your preferences. From that moment on, the reviews that do not interest you will be hidden.
Pieter T’Jonck did not want a rating system with stars or points. According to him they are subjective. They reduce a performance to weak, mediocre or strong. Whereas in reality the performance was perhaps mediocre, with the exception of one aspect that was really interesting and made it a performance worth looking at.
Alternatively, we developed ‘Featured by the author’, a system in which authors select five performances that impressed them. These highlights are visualised in the system with animated background colours. A list of these ‘Featured by the author’ is also available on the author pages.
Just like in real life, where lights and moods change from light to dark, we find these emotions on the website. During the day, the site looks bright, but as soon as the night falls, it automatically changes into a dark version. Reading longer texts becomes much more pleasant for the eyes in all circumstances.
Reviews related to an artist, a subject or a location are linked by tags. These tags can be created by the authors and linked to the reviews. They are visible in the ‘related reviews’ section at the bottom of each review.
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