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Author Archives: aussieyak
What the heck is a floppy disk?
No Kids, this isn’t the save icon (well yes it is), but believe it or not this thing was the USB and Hardrive back in the day from the 90s backwards, and contain your excitement because these bad boys could store up to a whopping 300 MBs!
Thank christ that we moved away from these floppy disks and moved into USBs and Portable Hardrives that can store up to a Terrabyte of data.
As a Graphic Designer, I constantly work off and rely on my computer at home, the computer at uni and my TB Portable Hardrive since some project folders eventually store up to a Gigabyte of data each and I need space to put these massive files on. I also utilize Dropbox which is an online cloud which I can store my data on and access it on computer and phone. I make sure before finishing up on a project I back it up three times on my computer, hardrive and dropbox so I don’t lose any files or get them corrupt but It doesn’t help when a file gets corrupt and there are no copies so live and learn.
Now that that little rant intro is over what I’m trying to say is that we are now reaching an age where we rely on technology so much that it runs our life for us and for some it holds our lives for us.
Some industries are becoming almost non exsistant because the computer programs can do it for us such as old fashioned type setting or painting a sign on brick wall.
Heck, some of us even carry a phone in our pocket that is even more powerful than the first ever computer put together a thousand times, it can do so much these days.
Some phones such as my own (Samsung Galaxy Note 3) can even emulate video games up to Playstation 2 specifications, although it drains the battery it can very well run fantastic on these systems not to mention you don’t even need a controller as it’s touch screen, and that’s another thing, If you say mention the word mobile or phone you don’t even acknowledge the touch screen as it melded it’s way into our way of living that it even acts as a remote for our TVs and stereos.
D-D-D-DROP THE BASS
What you see above is just a small sample of what you can do with remixing, although we don’t see remixing much in graphic design you can see remixing being heavily implicated in the film and music industry, mostly Youtube.
Youtube already has millions upon millions of videos and believe it or not, most of that content is just remixes and mashups of trending songs and movies.
What you see above is the mashup of ‘The Next Episode’ by Snoop Dogg and Dr Drei and ‘Big Shake’ Commercial.
The Next Episode song is just one of many songs that is considered to be remixing staple amongst youtubers due to it’s popular line ‘Smoke Weed Everyday’ which can be incorporated into almost any situation imaginable and it doesn’t even need to be mashed up with a song!
Myself, I love mashups, I refuse to listen to ‘normal’ songs now while I work on projects if it isn’t a cover or a mashup which leads to my next discussion about covers, my view on cover tracks that are an artist’s version of a popular song is that it has to be something pretty unique and different to the original creator to earn my respect. A Youtuber that goes by the name Smooth McGroove is the PERFECT example of this, he covers popular and not so popular video game soundtracks but not by using instruments, he uses his voice and body to flawlessly replicate chiptunes, ambient tracks and just regular instruments.
Now as a graphic designer I am inspired by trending design techniques and finished art applications but not enough to consider my work to be ‘remixed’, A good example of remixing and design are definitely tied with advertising in the way the need to consider what songs work best to sell their product, the video below was shown during the superbowl, not only are millions of people watching the superbowl but they have also watched Gangnam Style by PSY so this ad would have definitley caught their attention.
It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax
Yup, I’m writing about none other than Theodore Geisel, AKA: Dr. Seuss.
Seuss has published a whole range of stories telling the tales of wacky, funny, unique and sometimes scary characters that have put the kids in bed as a bedtime story for years.
But little do we know about Dr. Seuss is that he was indeed an Activist, some of his best and well known stories have been portraying certain political figures or current affairs.
I will list the stories and the subject Dr. Seuss was targeting below but I must say that Dr. Seuss really does inspire a bit of artistically direction in me of just how far you can take your ideas and views on subjects and people and turn them into something almost unrecognizable, giving said subject a brand new identity, and us as graphic designs strive to make our clients stand out in the market and give them a brand new look.
The Lorax, published in 1971 is was about the growing issue of people destroying the environment by cutting too many trees. The book even sparked controversy within Loggers that another Author published a book called ‘The Truax’ wich told the story from Logger’s standpoint. A line in the book “I hear things are just as bad up in Lake Erie,” was removed from the book 14 years later as the Ohio Sea Grant Program told Dr. Seuss that conditions were much better.
The Yertle and the Turtle was published in 1958 and portrays none other than Adolf Hitler himself as Yertle the Turtle being the king of the pond and wanted to take over all the ponds in the world while on-top of his fellow Turtle army.
And the Butter Battle Book published in 1984 was portraying the dangers of The Cold War with the Yooks and the Zooks portraying and bearing the colours of the Americans and Russians with each side developing new weapons to scare eachother.
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