[rain]

Ok I'm jsut wondering about the kind of design you see on sites like

shift.jp.org www.elixirstudio.com www.onceuponaforest, blah blah blah

you know what I"m talking about? Those really super hip designer's using photoshop, flash illustrator, 3D, etc.

Ok the question is, whats the point of all this design, i mean who really sees this stuff??? who does it impact...Other designers? The skateboard culture?

I mean I NEVER come across these kinds of designs, except when I really look for them, I got these links out of a photoshop/illustrator book. But who pays for this stuff, it seems like such a strange thing to be doing as a living.

Most of the design I see are not even like this (not as good in my opinion).

I'm not sure what I'm asking, I love hip graphic design, but do people really CARE, like they care about film and fashion and stuff? I mean if the artists are the only ones that care, then whats the point and where is the market for designers (good ones)? WHO does this stuff impact besides designers who love this medium of expression??

[roundeye]

what dont you understand?

quote

Quote:

it seems like such a strange thing to be doing as a living

why they design for a living? what the fuck do you do for a living? of course the designers arent the only ones that care. when toyota makes a faggy little economy car they wanna market in maxim to 18-25s, who do you think they call on?

i really dont understand your confusion. design? do you not understand design istelf? its role? its importance? what?

[jr]

i'll have to agree with roundeye here,.......what????

[roundeye]

pardon my tone though.

[rain]

well if you look at the website i gave, thats the design im talking about...im not talking about designing cars and concepts and such, that i obviously understand the purpose of.

Nevermind I guess...:/

[Dr. Bang]

www.onceuponaforest.com - is basicly experimental site or a "sketch book" of a very talented webdesigner. He put it up to show the www what Flash is capable of/what he is capable of. Again, he does not design sites that look like this.
www.elixirstudio.com - they want it to look like that to show that "We are an extremely creative company, we can make your website nice and different from other". They did for nike http://www.nike.com/weather/main/index.html prove that they DO make regular nice looking website.

[rain]

ahhh thankyou Dr. Bang...that nike site is sweat! and Useful...im starting to see the connection! Thanks

[Tinusch]

I had to read the message a few times but I understand what you were asking. What is the point of sites like these, that apparently serve no purpose other than to look nice? Well, I guess they're either just experiments or, as Dr. Bang mentioned, cleverly disguised business sites. But I know they don't make a living entirely off of sites like these, that would be impossible for a site with hardly any content. I do kind of wonder why these sites are around, too. I've seen a few of these, where you search and scour through the slick design only to find that that's all there is to it.

[HawkOne]

I have so much to say about everything, forgive me for using so many words, I think we have some of these people I will be talking about here on this board, and I hope they will not be too pissed off ...

I think, that in addition to what has already been mentioned, experimentation and self-promotion, it is also a way for designers to make designs for other designers.

Designers are picky people, and they are usually only turned on by seeing someone elses nitpicking attention to details that people outside this group have little understanding and/or interest for. That would probably be the reason for most of the most well known sites ...

By doing so you get to "rub shoulders" with peers who know how to see your highly tuned skills, and get valuable comments from your peers, and not so valuable comments like "This is the b3sT ZiTe EvAr !!" from moronic 14 year old skateboard dudes.

This is relevant because these young guys are receptible to this type of designs, because the surf/skating/lifestyle magazines have been loaded with highly experimental, rulebreaking and groundbreaking designs, since breaking the rules is what they would like to be seen doing. Breaking the rules of skating in the mall, or breaking the rules of visual communication, both are considered good stuff.

I think this is the reason why there was such an explosion of sites breaking all the rules in the book, all the audience of the surf/skate magazines became interested and enthusiastic about design, which is of course a good thing.

These dudes are so into following other pioneers, in order to be part of a "gang", that they will design their own weblog sites featuring their own cut and paste graphics, pages with pathetic immature poetry, useless info about their daily mundane life, how they hate school ( so unique !!), their sister is a stupid bitch, suburban middleclass life is SOOOO TERRIBLE, suicide thoughts and so on.

What serious skate-o-holic with respect for himself would not have his own website with a "Version 2.0.0.4" written in some futuristic typeface because "Carl - who can do a Double-twitch-flip Ollie and who did a powerslide on a policetruck once has one on his site" ??

Why are the baggy pants uniform, cool shoes, Rage Against The Machine and David Carson et.al. and 45 degree corners so alluring to this particular group ? Probably because of the identity crisis most young people (boys in particular) go through in their teens. The burning need to be special, and outside the rest of the ratrace, being alternative and all that crap, not realising that they are just joining another huge group of people just like them, who have the same ideas.

This is a quote from a bookreview of "The End of Print: The Graphic Design of David Carson. :"Publisher Comments:
He was the enfant terrible of graphic design in the nineties. His tortured typography prompted a vocal camp of critics to accuse him of being flippant and of destroying the communicative basis of design. But now the techniques of David Carson (and those of his countless imitators) dominate advertising, design, the Web, and even motion pictures. With 35,000 copies of the original sold, this revised edition of The End of Print includes a striking new cover and first chapter that puts Carson's work in context. The rest is vintage Carson-cutting edge and explosive. The End of Print tracks his career from skateboard and surf magazines, to the landmark Beach Culture magazine and his groundbreaking grid-breaking work for Ray Gun, and finally to handling major corporate identity accounts. The End of Print marks a turning point in design that ushered in the look of today."

Many young people in this age have a strong desire to not be considered mainstream, but by joining the "Pants on the knees army", they are not realising that they are just joining another huge stream. It's sad really ...

Should I spellcheck all this pointless waffle ??? NAH ... can't be bothered ..

[ February 06, 2002: Message edited by: HawkOne ]

[wayfinder]

i agree and i disagree.


i agree that so called alternatives just exchange one mass for another.


i disagree on the idea that it'sall hip hoppers


what i find even worse than what you dug up is the FLOOD of designer's republic clones!

45� angled pointless design elements, stupid 45� arrows, unreadably small text bits, flatshaded 3d glitter, wtf? it all looks the same!

[Dr. Bang]

oh, just to let u know that the creator of Once Upon a Forst and PraySation is Joshua Davis. His is THE BEST webdeveloper in the planet..and he still work in a company (Kioken). So yeah, these guys are making living out of webdesign....but there are only a few in a million.

Wayfinder, i believe the 45 angle style is slowly ivolving into a different style now.

This so called new style is some what 70's inspired, i begin to see ppl taking picture of pinup old chick and throw in some weird shape, some funking shape and convert the whole thing into 3 colors and BAMMMMMM.

[roundeye]

high design can in many ways resemble high fashion or haute couture. which has a trickle down effect.............. did we settle this already?

[mr 8 bits]

design will eat itself

[Jezebel]

I think questioning why someone does design is like questioning why someone paints portraits. They do it because they like it. What more reason do they need?

I make pictures on a fairly regular basis, I put them on my website and you know what? Not everyone sees them. Does that mean its pointless?

To me its not... I'm sure to those designers its not either.

Honestly I think that's a rather silly question to ask.

[Painted Melody]

I believe sites like praystation, onceuponaforest, superbad.com, jodi.org, prate.com etc, are all for their own purpose. just how people here post art on forums for show, these guys create websites devoted for arts sake. that and snagging a few kudos.

if anyone's interested to see modern graphic design, or communities like Sijun, here's a few starters
http://www.newstoday.com http://www.surfstation.lu http://www.yayhooray.com http://www.thedesignersrepublic.com http://www.wddg.com http://www.weworkforthem.com

jeremy