Graphic Design and Youtube

“Bad artists copy, good artists steal.” -Bob Ross

It took me a while surfing the web to find an original idea I could steal. Everyone I came across was copying the “graff art” or, the music they had under the visuals was so horrific I couldn’t stand listening to it anymore… until I carved over to Rayne|Thinkgrafik and saw some great artwork.

I can’t read it ’cause I think it’s all written in Indonesian or Thai (I’m probably way off). The piece that caught my eye was the sardine tin with the cricket printed on the “sealed for your protection” plastic covering the food. I found it both disturbing and funny. Rayne’s other pieces are equally unique and uniqueness is what I learned most from this artist.

Brandon Hewitt’s site is pretty basic with it’s “merging two species together” in Photoshop and the dogs with big eyes, but one thing struck me. The computers with the see-through screens was a pretty cool idea. I might steal that idea, maybe not computer screens, but I like the idea of being able to look through objects to reveal something else.

Oh yeah, Bob ross didn’t say that…I saw it on a t-shirt and copied it…Does that make me a bad artist?!?

web zines

International Design magazine covers print, furniture, and product design in a global context for people who are at the forefront of shaping the world through design. Juxtapoz magazine presents a gallery of underground artists who influence much of the graphics, fashion, and new art we see today. Check out designiskinky.com for print design and links to some of the most interesting designers and design firms out there today. They also showcase different exhibitions around the world. Eclipse e-zine at lunareclipse.net gives you templates, tutorials, and even smart design tips for web designers.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is the internet that relies on it’s users to come together and create their own content. It is data that is controlled by many users and instead of just a “read only” site, is interactive, acting like desktop applications.

This is particularly helpful when a user comes to your site. They can move things around, change the font, etc in order to be more a part of the website’s content.

Smiley Face

Hey folks! Has anyone else noticed that on every wordpress page there’s a teeny tiny smiley face hidden? No joke. Check it out on your page. Mine is toward the top right of my home page. Just an observation. Those cheeky monkeys!

Video and the Web

     Video and the web go hand in hand these days. My Degree is in Digital Media Production, which encompasses a number of mediums and genres. I’m fortunate to be one of the last students to earn this degree. The Art Institute, if I’m correct, isn’t offering it anymore. The new degree is called Digital Film and Video Production (DFVP), which sounds more appealing to high school kids who simply, “want to make movies” but the Art Institute has done away with all of the web classes for this new degree. I personally think this is a bad move because everyone knows that the web is the future and if you don’t know how to compress a video and build a web page to show your work on, you’re going to be passed up by those graduates who do. I’m glad I’ll be able to tell a prospective employer, “Web page….I can do that.” 

     In a production company, a client may want to not only have a video made, but also want other ways of delivery which many times includes building a web page to show their product or service. I’m sure when students in the DFVP degree enter the work force and find it harder to get a job due to their inexperience with the web, Ai will finally realize their fault.