I came across this article from GOOD magazine today, and it got me thinking about green design again. When I first started college, I envisioned becoming a “green” designer, only using solar energy to power my mac, printing on 100% recycled paper, and using 100% soy-based natural inks.
Well, four years later, as a web designer, I’ve pretty much eliminated the need for paper and ink (I still use the ol’ pencil and sketchbook, 100% recycled of course). But then there’s the energy issue, and the whole e-waste issue with the computer. As I write this, my computer is being powered by, gasp, nuclear energy! C’mon, how bunny-friendly is nuclear waste? It’s worse than toxic inks and paper chemicals… Add the mercury and other heavy metals from my mac, and I’m not looking so green anymore. So is this web revolution really any more green than print design? In my quest to become “green”, how can I repurpose the materials I use for web design as Dylan Royal repurposed used materials for print design? Is it greener to go back to print, or can we make these new technologies greener than the greenest print design?
I’ve decided I’m going to be adding my motion graphics projects from school to this blog. I want more people to see what I’m up to and I want to know what YOU think about my work, so please feel free to comment!
The above video is called “Citizenship” and it was part of my BFA thesis project this spring. The piece was on display at the 2008 “Emerging Art” show at Keene State along with my two other pieces “Corporate Comfort I” and “Corporate Comfort II”, which I hope to be posting pictures of soon. Watch it, I’m anxious to know what the world thinks of this…
I picked up this book (Web Standards Creativity) at the library recently while doing some research on CSS. (Honestly, I picked it because it was full color and didn’t follow the standard, dry, b&w, instructional book look) It has some great tips for using web standards in creative ways from a bunch of different designers. My favorite chapter was “Taming a Wild CMS with CSS, Flash, and JavaScript”. The site design was for the band Lifehouse, which has been redesigned since the book came out. The design in the book is far more dynamic and interesting than the current site, in my opinion. There’s a great tutorial on how to create vertical text using image replacement. Also, there’s a tut that explains how to use sIFR (Scalable Inman Flash Replacement) to create imaged text (so you can use a specific font) that can be updated easily via the CMS. Sounds like a technique I’d like to try eventually, though it seems time consuming to set up. All-in-all, a great book for mid-level to advanced designers/developers. Check it out!
I stopped by the Sharon Arts Center today to see the exhibit “WASTE: Artist’s Speak Out on our Disposable Culture”. Wow…. amazing….. I’m so glad to see other artists here in NH examining the same issues that fascinate me.
While I was researching for my BFA consumerism project, I came across Chris Jordan’s photography and it intrigued me. He makes these enormous photographs of stuff we consume, often times large piles of discarded items in landfills. I got to see some of these photos today from his series “Intolerable Beauty, Portraits of American Mass Consumption”. I find it disgusting yet strangely beautiful. Very glad I had the opportunity to see his work in person, it’s just not the same looking at it online.
Tim Gadreau’s work was also on display. 5,000 photos of stuff he thew away. Reminds me of one of my original ideas of photographing everything I bought for x amount of time. Anyway, his mural is breathtaking. He talks about how he changed his habits after examining the photos shortly after beginning the project. After realzing all the waste in plastic bottles alone, he changed to more eco-friendly and sustainable options (ie tap water instead of bottled). It’s an eye opener to really begin to inspect consumerism on a personal level. I had a similar experience in photographing all the stuff I bought. Just taking that extra 5 seconds to take that photo made me stop and think, why did i buy this? what are the effects of my purchase? I also began to lose that thrill of shopping, and it became (and still is) nauseating to think about all these products I buy and how difficult it can be to break that habit.
There was an article in the Equinox this past week where the journalist interviewed a homeless man that has become semi-famous around campus because of his attire (or lack thereof). He lives in the woods and hasn’t had a job or made money in 11 years. This is so alluring to me, living disconnected from this world of spending and consuming.
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