The Man Everybody Loves To Hate

Soundtrack: "Disarm" by The Smashing Pumpkins

People in the graphic design world love to hate David Carson.  Especially this guy.  Actually, as an aside, I have not even heard the name Joe Clark before.  And in his postscript he comes off even more self-righteous and egotistical than Carson.  Way to be a dick, guy.

Anyway, David Carson is someone who is reviled because he breaks rules.  When he was art director for Ray Gun magazine he would do kooky things like set articles in dingbats (his reasoning was that the article was very poorly written), run lines of type together and layer them so they became strange messes and nests of typographic oddness, and utilize abstract and experimental photography and illustration.  It was a thankless job.  The readers appreciated it, I know I did when I was just a teenager, but the graphic design community did not take kindly to his brand of design.  It was artistic, free-spirited, dynamic... God forbid!

As the world has moved towards homogenization, individuality is being replaced by standardization.  Designers are taught that we should use a grid, that we should make our design projects adhere to certain standards, and that our material is required to have accessibility in mind.  They are good rules to learn, but after designers leave school they are so indoctrinated that many of them cannot think outside the box.  Instead of serving design, they serve the process.

Carson does not have a background in graphic design.  His background is surfing and sociology.  Before he was hired as the art director for Transworld Skateboarding and later Beach Culture, he was a high school teacher in San Diego.  He came to graphic design through the bohemian beach culture of Southern California, his background is people.  So who better as an art director and visual communicator than David Carson?

The work he did in the 90's is not as relevant today as it once was, but culture is cyclical.  I'm already starting to see a revival of Paula Scher's bold typographical style, and grunge typography is starting to resurface.  I have a feeling that very soon the can of worms Carson opened will once again be opened.  I can't wait.

“Reality” Television

Soundtrack: “Ain’t No Right” by Jane’s Addiction

Last week a huge controversy started when the BBC showed a promo clip from an upcoming documentary about Queen Elizabeth II. The documentary is a day-in-the-life type affair during which she has a photo shoot with famed photographer Annie Liebovitz. In the clip the Queen is portrayed as storming out on the photo shoot. But the incident never happened, and the BBC was forced to immediately apologize. After a little bit more investigation it turns out that the media firm who produced the documentary and the promo clip, RDF Media, is responsible for the whole mess. However, this does not mean that the BBC is completely innocent. They made the decision to air the piece and they now much live with the consequences. But I think the controversy behind this has raised a great point: “Reality” television is rarely real.

Let’s look at this. In an age of technology that allows us to create amazingly real hoaxes, and through the power of video editing, we can achieve any outcome we want to. Instances such as this makes me wonder just how much drama really exists in shows such as “Big Brother” and “The Real World”. First of all, the entire premise is not even reality, so already there is a strike against calling them “reality” shows. These people manufacture drama, and use fun things like multiple camera angles and more than one take to really bring out said drama. And producers have all kinds of post-production tools to help them squeeze even more drama out of situations. And people seem to love it.

Frankly, I think it is an insult to humanity and I think we as a society need to take a long hard look at what we package as reality. This is not real life, this is sensationalism. But hey, isn’t that what America is all about?

Resist Openly

Soundtrack: “Dream Brother” by Jeff Buckley

Remember that wiley Trent Reznor and the clever marketing strategy for his new Nine Inch Nails Album, Year Zero? While the album is a great collection of some killer songs and the concept behind it is intriguing and thought-provoking, he isn’t one to take an idea only half way. That is where OpenSourceResistance.com comes in. The idea is to gather the art and ideas of people who care enough about the world and what is going on around us that we do not want a Year Zero. Not through paranoia and destruction, but through activism. After all, if we have an opportunity to prevent the downfall of our society, if we have the opportunity to change the things that are wrong, wouldn’t not doing anything be the greatest sin of all?

Open Source Resistance is only one outlet for making your voice be heard. There are some great organizations out there such as Amnesty International and Save Darfur that are working to create an understanding of some important issues and change things. The people who complain about the world being fucked up but do not do anything about it are just as guilty, perhaps even moreso, than the people who are doing these atrocities. And it is only going to get worse the more people who use, abuse, and exploit realize that nobody cares enough to stop them.

So get out there. Be a voice. Be an activist. Be a dissident. Resist openly.

Everybody Loves Wired

Soundtrack: It’s Crazy by Drag The River

Wired Magazine is a unique entity. Not only is it a successful print magazine, it is a wildly successful web site. Recently they underwent a design overhaul. A new identity combined with a new front page layout has given the stalwort media dispenser a fresh look, but not everyone who trolls the world wide web is a fan. Among the many negative comments are posts such as “To which middle school art class did you farm this out?” and “No. No. No. Bad Wired. Surely this is some cruel joke because you withheld pizza and caffeine from the html coders, yes?”.

It is not a cruel joke, and I am not quite sure what people are complaining about. Apparently it is hard to read, but when I view the site in both Firefox and Safari, I see a well designed site with great visual hierarchy. The designers do not need to tell you what parts are the most important with subheadlines. Everything speaks for itself. In fact, it almost reminds me of the way an actual print magazine table of contents might be laid out.

Here’s what I think has happened. People on the whole do not respond well to change in the area of things that they are familiar with. Wired had the same layout on their front page for years and years, and people were used to it. They could scan through it easily and find what it was they were looking for. And then the folks at wired had the audacity to overhaul their own front page... how dare they! Well the world changes, folks. All of you out there in hinternet land are going to need to get used to that. Sometimes it is hard.

On the other side of the coin, it is not necesarily a good thing for a buiness to alienate their customers, and especially not good for a magazine to alienate it’s readers. There are going to be the folks like me who continue to read Wired regardless of the change. There are going to be the readers like me who like the change better. There are going to be new readers, and there are going to be people who leave because they do not like the way the new front page looks. What remains to be seen is whether the people who leave outweigh the number of faithful as well as new readers. Here's looking at you, Wired. Good luck, you’re gonna need it.

I Grow Old, I Grow Old...

Soundtrack: “Dirty Harry” by Gorillaz

Not physically old, but old in the sense that time is starting to creep up on me and I'm not certain if I'm going to be out of school by the age of 30, much less ever.

But whatever. I'm going to enjoy this next year of my life as much as I can. In a little more than two week I'll be 26, and I think that's a good age. I only want two things for my birthday: the love and adoration of my friends, and a tattoo. The love and adoration part is more important, though.

For quite some time now I have been wondering if pop culture's recent obsession with remakes, sequels, and retoolings will ever stop. From glib cover versions of classic songs to movies that are simply trite remakes of great films, the wonderful media machine that is Hollywood and the recording industry is churning out tired but familiar sights and sounds to the masses. And we are eating it up. All I have to say is, “What is wrong with you, people?!”

I think we are on the verge of seeing something new. People will only take the 80’s hair rock rehashes for so long before they discard that for something new and exciting. But will this new thing really be new? Grunge and alternative beat the hair bands before, but they fizzled out quickly. Now alternative describes performers like Hootie and the Blowfish and Jack Johnson, which is ironic since the Alternative tag represented the music underground.

Here's how I see it. Music, and other media for that matter, is like a funnel. There is a ton of stuff on the surface, far too much for anyone person to completely process. As the music industry processes everything, it's funneled towards the tip of the funnel, which represents the Consumer. Everything eventually becomes more pop-oriented as it passes through the funnel. The stuff that is most accessible to the largest common denominator is the stuff that makes it through the neck of the funnel.

So no matter how esoteric music gets, it will eventually become watered down more and more each year until it becomes pop drivel. There's nothing we can do about it, that is just the way it is. If you love music, you'll take it as it is and just grin and bear it. There's always the stuff on the other end of the funnel, after all. It just takes some sifting.

Transducer Saturation

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Cursing Robot.