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Design is a search to perfectly integrate form, function, and meaning. A single design can take years of iterations and refinements and still may never embody that ideal. But if it becomes iconic--think the Coca-Cola bottle or, for our purposes, the Zippo pocket lighter--it ceases to be in flux and moves beyond time and style.

But, and sooner or later, change needs to be introduced--either directly injected into the design itself, or at the very least, by admitting alternative forms into the cycle. As every designer knows, neither is easy to pull off. Especially the latter: Exactly how do you go about making something that aims to displace or rethink an icon?

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The site FanFiction.net, one of the larger outposts of amateur storytelling based on pop culture franchises, lists 25,000 separate contributions based on The Vampire Diaries alone. All of those works were created out of sheer love for the characters and premises of the books. Since fan fiction is not offered for sale, the copyright holders behind Diaries and many other works have turned a blind eye.

But that’s about to change.

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Floor Charts catalogs the visual aids--good, bad, and ugly--that drive Congressional debate. Okay, mostly they’re just bad and ugly.

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