I recently stumbled upon the following video I made for a video class two years ago using Final Cut Pro, a fun set of roommates, and co-workers I illustrated with at UCSB’s paper. It’s a comment on using art for opinion and the role convention and conformity play in opposition. It stemmed from an urban art photography project (for another class) that at the last minute became a video shot and put together in one night during finals week with minimal equipment, lots of frantic drawing, and all the fun people I could round up. It had been compressed, burnt, ripped, then compressed for web so the quality has diminished, but I hope you still enjoy it.
(As for the slaptagging, there was no act of vandalization (that I know of) that occured in the making of this video. Owners of the stickers took down their work, and I never knew what the result of each piece became.)
“There are two types of designers: Lennons and McCartneys. As a John Lennon, you create work that is message-driven, stark and serious, but you run the risk of seeming pretentious and/or naïve. (In John Lennon’s defense, he was unfortunately married to the world’s worst art director.) To be a Paul McCartney, on the other hand, means creating beautiful, meticulously crafted graphic design pop music, heavy on style but light on content. While either can be successful on its own (I fucking love Wings), the best design employs both ideology and style. (See: popular music group “The Beatles”).”
I reference this because I am a big Beatles fan, and Cassaro’s tip (#5. entitled Suck It, Yoko from 1000 Tips from 100 Graphic Designers) made me wonder. Knowing the music John and Paul had each written, I imagined their songs transformed into posters or brochures and it did seem clear to me. (It almost seemed like fine art vs. design, but that’s just in my head perhaps.) Since George Harrison is my favorite Beatle, I’ll have to say I’m neither a Lennon or a McCartney, and that’s perfectly fine with me.
It visually describes how I have been thinking/feeling lately, which is not uncommon in graphic design. Keeping up with society’s desires and ideas of what is good design vs. what is successful design from a designer’s point of view is repeatedly overwhelming. When you learn one thing, how long does it have ’til it becomes obsolete? Perhaps that’s why innovation is so sought after. One step ahead.
Speaking of repetition, my little brother and I had an interesting conversation last night while watching Family Guy (which, for some reason, causes one to think a great deal). We wondered if everything humans had ever made had already been made a previous time, but buried beneath oceans and earth, destroyed in war, and covered in ice and that this whole thing called technology–mobile connections, social networking, internet–is a process we constantly try to outdo each time it’s been done and redone? Or, what if this happens one day?
It reminds me of design. It’s an ongoing process, headache and adventure all rolled into one… one work day, one project, one cycle. How and when will ideas become recycled, or bad trends become ‘retro’? Picasso said, “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.” With all these influences, access, and guidelines when will stealing be all there is left to do? Is stealing a facet of innovation? Whatever the answers may be, change never ends.
