I'd like to kick things off by shouting out a Kuler website for the new color layout.
I just finished doing a web page and I started thinking about how integrated the whole art system is. Web design is one of the most modern forms of "art". You visit a page that looks like crap and think "there's no way the information here can be beneficial." Some with driving down the road and seeing business with those big black boards with fluorescent letters on them, or spray painted boards, you think "that place has to suck." Maybe that's just me.
With that said, it all goes back to graphic design before you venture into web design. Posters, signs, packaging that all looks good makes one more inclined to favor a product over another. Pepsi's current packing is very plain, much like Stella Artois' packaging it's a logo and plain box, but it looks goooood (Pepsi's logo I'm not a fan of). The same thing with web sites. Some web sites look like they worked very hard, some where built in flash or java. But the good sites still apply to basics of typography and use grid systems to organize web pages with harmony, balance, and repetition.
We know to click 'home' to go back because we call it the 'home page'.
Even before that, before design we had paintings, sculptures, fine arts. Hand crafted, beautifully conducted, ART! Something I preach to be of a dying breed and truly a decaying seed (as you can see with those big block boards with fluorescent letters, and the fact no one cares if you can paint well.) Getting off track a little, the reason people don't care if you are good at backgammon or chess is because people don't play it and don't have frame of reference for how difficult it actually is to be good at it. It is hard. It's more time consuming than other crafts, less room to fail that some other crafts (Like the Super Mario Galaxy poster that had stars for the letters to spell U R Mr. Gay. The poster is a little outdated because they re did it after probably a couple hundred million went out world wide... fail.)
Before Pepsi had a fat side, before Mario was Mr. Gay, before java script, there was the Bauhaus, there was expressionism, impressionism, The Renaissance. There was fine art. The same ideas apply. Kandinsky did it, so did Muller-Brockmann. You won't notice it without knowing the principles and elements of design, but there's balance, harmony, space, line, and so much more. It's applied differently in both of these which differentiates styles and eras. Josef Muller-Brockmann is one who made design art, which as my proffessor says "design isn't art... good design is art."
Good literature is art. Good cooking is art. Good painting is art. Good sports play is art. The principles and elements art there for all of these, harmony, repetition, space, line, form, etc. Apply it differently. Apply it two-dimensionally, or three-dimensionally but it makes art in it's own right.
Or at least I like to think so.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Pokemon
I absolutely love Pokemon. It's the 2nd highest selling game franchise of all time behind Mario (both Nintendo ironically enough.) That's not why I love it. If it were simply based on numbers I'd hate it. I hate Duke and UNC for the consistent dominance in NCAA basketball. I hate the Yankees and Red Sox for the same reason. I hate Manchester City for buying all of its players and managers to try to win a championship. I hate Manchester United (as an Arsenal fan I have to) because of their consistent reign at the top of the tables.
I love when things aren't handed out. When things are earned. When companies/businesses are run well from the ground up. Arsenal has a great soccer school program to build up it's players and runs a lot through it's own system rather than systematically buying players to fit empty spots. This isn't to say that they don't occasionally buy players to fit the puzzle, but I digress.
Pokemon started in the mid-90's in '96-'97 if I'm not mistaken. My first time, I was in 5th grade watching my best friend of the time level up his Jolteon. He got yelled at by the teacher and had his big gray block gameboy taken until that afternoon. That bitch.
Since then, I got my own, mastered the ways, and have loved every single minute of it. I didn't get into the cards too much, but the games for various handhelds have been in tune with the beat of my heart since that day in 5th grade. Nintendo has made a game series that takes place in different regions, exploring the lifeforms of different ecosystems (though it doesn't dive too much into keystone animals and things like that but for a gamed aimed at children it gets really complex). My lady friend picked at me when I first got Soul Silver and played the shit out of it after my show got put up last week. I tried to hold off until the end of the semester... I'm addicted... I offered her to borrow an old Pokemon game (Pearl) and a DS that was I borrowing from a friend to see if she would like it. She gets really really enthralled in movies and TV to the point where she devotes her full attention to these things. But never did I think she would get into Pokemon. "Zubat is a cock sucker." She blurted out today when we were sitting by the pool. I laughed.
She'd given me so much crap about playing a game that died out for most kids our age when we were like 14-16. Now she's asking me about types of moves that are effective against certain Pokemon. There's the obvious... Fire beats grass, electric beats water. But then there are random things that you don't really think about. Poison doesn't effect steel. It gets really complex. The point is that it's a kids game yes, very much so. It doesn't dive into the full realm of biology, nor the malice of what it could be. There's no death in it, and you can't really rupture nor preserve the balance of an environment. Most people wouldn't have the knowledge nor patience for this, certainly not little kids. But, personally I'd give it a whirl.
Either way, it's not just some remedial kids game with flashing lights, stupid cute little animals, and really morally positive themes. There's underlying stuff, like when a grass type Pokemon uses a grass type move the move does more damage than if a normal Pokemon used a grass move. There's stats to increase speed, attack, etc. There's a huge difference between special attacks and attacks as well as special defense and defense. All these come into play along with accuracy and damage of the move itself. There's a whole lot of strategy. Some Pokemon are naturally and substantially better than others, but can still be beat with ease by some really bottom of the barrel guys.
I'm by no means telling you to run out and buy Pokemon and play it until your fingers bleed. I am saying not to be harsh on the guys who are a little different because we play Pokemon.
When you know all the starters for your favorite sports team... You're the same as us. When you're 50 years old and you've read all the Harry Potter books... You're the same as us. When you know who's who in pop culture and what's up with the Kardashians/Jersey Show/Hills/Glee/American Idol... You're the same as us. When you shop exclusively at a specific store/boutique... You're the same as us. You might think you're better than the guy who's playing Pokemon in the cubicle next to yours while he's looking up stats to breed Pokemon (like the species is based on the female and the move set is based on the male) you'd better remember that you're just as big of a loser for looking up Northern Iowa's stats the day after they beat Kansas. You don't want to think of it as the same thing, but it is. We all have our vices, and we all enjoy the hell out of 'em.
Keep Rockin' Baby!
I love when things aren't handed out. When things are earned. When companies/businesses are run well from the ground up. Arsenal has a great soccer school program to build up it's players and runs a lot through it's own system rather than systematically buying players to fit empty spots. This isn't to say that they don't occasionally buy players to fit the puzzle, but I digress.
Pokemon started in the mid-90's in '96-'97 if I'm not mistaken. My first time, I was in 5th grade watching my best friend of the time level up his Jolteon. He got yelled at by the teacher and had his big gray block gameboy taken until that afternoon. That bitch.
Since then, I got my own, mastered the ways, and have loved every single minute of it. I didn't get into the cards too much, but the games for various handhelds have been in tune with the beat of my heart since that day in 5th grade. Nintendo has made a game series that takes place in different regions, exploring the lifeforms of different ecosystems (though it doesn't dive too much into keystone animals and things like that but for a gamed aimed at children it gets really complex). My lady friend picked at me when I first got Soul Silver and played the shit out of it after my show got put up last week. I tried to hold off until the end of the semester... I'm addicted... I offered her to borrow an old Pokemon game (Pearl) and a DS that was I borrowing from a friend to see if she would like it. She gets really really enthralled in movies and TV to the point where she devotes her full attention to these things. But never did I think she would get into Pokemon. "Zubat is a cock sucker." She blurted out today when we were sitting by the pool. I laughed.
She'd given me so much crap about playing a game that died out for most kids our age when we were like 14-16. Now she's asking me about types of moves that are effective against certain Pokemon. There's the obvious... Fire beats grass, electric beats water. But then there are random things that you don't really think about. Poison doesn't effect steel. It gets really complex. The point is that it's a kids game yes, very much so. It doesn't dive into the full realm of biology, nor the malice of what it could be. There's no death in it, and you can't really rupture nor preserve the balance of an environment. Most people wouldn't have the knowledge nor patience for this, certainly not little kids. But, personally I'd give it a whirl.
Either way, it's not just some remedial kids game with flashing lights, stupid cute little animals, and really morally positive themes. There's underlying stuff, like when a grass type Pokemon uses a grass type move the move does more damage than if a normal Pokemon used a grass move. There's stats to increase speed, attack, etc. There's a huge difference between special attacks and attacks as well as special defense and defense. All these come into play along with accuracy and damage of the move itself. There's a whole lot of strategy. Some Pokemon are naturally and substantially better than others, but can still be beat with ease by some really bottom of the barrel guys.
I'm by no means telling you to run out and buy Pokemon and play it until your fingers bleed. I am saying not to be harsh on the guys who are a little different because we play Pokemon.
When you know all the starters for your favorite sports team... You're the same as us. When you're 50 years old and you've read all the Harry Potter books... You're the same as us. When you know who's who in pop culture and what's up with the Kardashians/Jersey Show/Hills/Glee/American Idol... You're the same as us. When you shop exclusively at a specific store/boutique... You're the same as us. You might think you're better than the guy who's playing Pokemon in the cubicle next to yours while he's looking up stats to breed Pokemon (like the species is based on the female and the move set is based on the male) you'd better remember that you're just as big of a loser for looking up Northern Iowa's stats the day after they beat Kansas. You don't want to think of it as the same thing, but it is. We all have our vices, and we all enjoy the hell out of 'em.
Keep Rockin' Baby!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Business is a Boomin'
I just finished one of the biggest if not THE biggest art event of career thus far. I did a bunch of Constructivist style propaganda posters for really really bull shit things like Team Rocket from Pokemon and the World Government from One Piece. It was a collaborative show with other fellow graduates from this semester. I realized going through the show tonight that the process of art is so different.
One of my fellow graduates commented on my initial idea for my show which was to do a big show on light and color theory. It was going so far as to dive deep into the world of physics and use formulas and theories within my show. She told me how she went through almost 4 full projects in 3 or 4 days but didn't like them. She said she didn't enjoy them because she didn't feel like she put herself into the pieces she'd made. By this point I was really burnt out on research for my physics stuff and I just did not enjoy what I was doing. This, mind you, was an exhibit that I could literally put anything into. I could've made twelve liquor bottles and had them on display, and it would've been fine by my university. I realized that I wasn't putting myself into these designs.
I was dicking around and made some really goofy Star Wars posters one afternoon when my lady friend was at work and no one was around to hang with. So then that spawned me into wanting to do a bunch of other goofy posters that weren't straight forward. This was great during the show itself to see people walk in and actually take a second to look at it rather than just glance in passing. I realized that my process was different than theirs. My colleague works great with grid layouts and typography and she showed that in her work, but left it just at an art side. The other design major featured in our show did some really nice ad posters for guitar strings and some calendars she'd made for one of our classes. She showed more of her own personal style to it, but she didn't throw in her own interests per say.
That was when I realized that I made my show all about me. It was my grids, my type, my interests. I took religion and flipped it on its head with a Caesar promoting propaganda poster that's probably very offensive to some people. I made a Joker poster, a One Piece poster, Team Rocket, Zombies, Star Wars, the Caesar poster and one dedicated to my ridiculously pretty lady friend. I used decent typography, more or less soviet colors, threw in a JFK assassination reference on the zombie poster and just had fun with it. I slept 15 hours last week total but I didn't mind because I had fun with it all.
I realized that my grid layout, my type, color, shapes all fit an era, my interests, and still let me dick around as much as I could. My process was just different than theirs. I could go into how I drew up sketches in a notebook then made mock ups on tracing paper, but I guess the real difference was that even my silly nature was conveyed in my work.
I'm just not cut out to design brochures for BB&T.
One of my fellow graduates commented on my initial idea for my show which was to do a big show on light and color theory. It was going so far as to dive deep into the world of physics and use formulas and theories within my show. She told me how she went through almost 4 full projects in 3 or 4 days but didn't like them. She said she didn't enjoy them because she didn't feel like she put herself into the pieces she'd made. By this point I was really burnt out on research for my physics stuff and I just did not enjoy what I was doing. This, mind you, was an exhibit that I could literally put anything into. I could've made twelve liquor bottles and had them on display, and it would've been fine by my university. I realized that I wasn't putting myself into these designs.
I was dicking around and made some really goofy Star Wars posters one afternoon when my lady friend was at work and no one was around to hang with. So then that spawned me into wanting to do a bunch of other goofy posters that weren't straight forward. This was great during the show itself to see people walk in and actually take a second to look at it rather than just glance in passing. I realized that my process was different than theirs. My colleague works great with grid layouts and typography and she showed that in her work, but left it just at an art side. The other design major featured in our show did some really nice ad posters for guitar strings and some calendars she'd made for one of our classes. She showed more of her own personal style to it, but she didn't throw in her own interests per say.
That was when I realized that I made my show all about me. It was my grids, my type, my interests. I took religion and flipped it on its head with a Caesar promoting propaganda poster that's probably very offensive to some people. I made a Joker poster, a One Piece poster, Team Rocket, Zombies, Star Wars, the Caesar poster and one dedicated to my ridiculously pretty lady friend. I used decent typography, more or less soviet colors, threw in a JFK assassination reference on the zombie poster and just had fun with it. I slept 15 hours last week total but I didn't mind because I had fun with it all.
I realized that my grid layout, my type, color, shapes all fit an era, my interests, and still let me dick around as much as I could. My process was just different than theirs. I could go into how I drew up sketches in a notebook then made mock ups on tracing paper, but I guess the real difference was that even my silly nature was conveyed in my work.
I'm just not cut out to design brochures for BB&T.
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