All great endeavors require mascots: The Orioles Bird, Uncle Sam, The Keebler Elf (cookie-making counts as a “great endeavor”).

We at the Hollywood Fringe didn’t plan on a mascot…it never occurred to us. Until one morning I received an email from our graphic designer Gavin Worth. He had been working on some branding ideas, one of which appeared to be a street corner with a whole bevy of freaky-type characters. It also include a disparaging note about one of our mothers (identities hidden to protect the guilty).

For some reason, it stuck and we have been plastering our new friends – the “Fringe Freaks” – on much of our promotional materials. Who knows, you may see these little guys walking up and down Santa Monica Blvd come Summer 2010.

So without further introduction, I bring you The Freaks themselves:

Ain’t technology fun.

For those of you that are into the Twitter thing, good news for you! The Hollywood Fringe now has a Twitter.

For those of you who don’t know what twitter is read on….

Twitter is a web utility you can use to post your current status and read the statuses of others. For example, if I were eating lunch at a new restaurant in Hollywood, and I wanted everyone to know about it, I could tweet: “eating lunch at this fabu restuarant…y’all should come sometime”. You get the idea, it’s like a mini-blog post.

(yes, I did use the verb “to tweet” which is the correct parlance for posting a status on Twitter)

A few weeks ago (being a minor space geek) I decided to start following the Mars Rover twitter. I get updates every few hours on what that little guy is doing and seeing. Recently, the Washington Post twittered the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

For you folks craving that moment-by-moment update on LA’s first Fringe Festival, your appetites can be sated by checking our Twitter:

<img border=0 src=“http://static.twitter.com/images/twitter_bubble_logo.gif” />

We will try to keep it updated often for your viewing enjoyment.

Barring some freak technological blip, you are reading this latest article on our new website, the hot bed of our future web-based adventures. Welcome!

The site is currently relatively bling-free, which is intentional. Strolling through the gamut of international Fringe websites is a fun exercise. Generally, they convey something of a chaos inherent in the perceived psyche of Fringe festivals. This is a good idea as design conveys emotion and context, and this chaos fits well within the Fringe atmosphere.

We have slightly different aims in our web-world and that is to muster and communicate with the resources to bring this festival successfully home. The Internets is central to our awareness and promotion startegeries. You may have already noticed that the “blog” element of our to-date web presence is front-and-center. Communication is king, and best served on a clear and concise dinner plate.

That said, we have plans to further develop our web presence from a design and content perspective. So, I suppose a little bling is forthcoming.

We have added some more data on the festival itself and what is vies to achieve. First on the menu of future features is a comment engine followed by a newsletter. We will also be unveiling the “alpha” version of our submissions website, which will power the great democratic initiative of the Hollywood Fringe festival.

So welcome! The old fringe site is dead, long live the new fringe site.

Ben

For all you Facebook folks out there, here is some news: You can now become a fan of the Hollywood Fringe Festival on everyone’s favorite social networking website.

Simply click here …and become a “fan” of the Fringe.

Make sure to pass around the link to all your friends by “sharing” the page.

Ben