Message Board Topic: Changing Impressions

Reflect on artistic experiences you have had throughout your life. Think about movies, photographs, paintings, sculptures, poems, literature, music, or other media. Now think about those that have changed you – those that have had such a lasting impression on you that you cannot forget it/them. Now think about how and why this happened…

What about this media was so impactful?

What was the subject matter of the media?

What was the concept of the media? What did it mean?

Why did this change you? How are you different now?

Message Board Topic: Motivation

In lieu of the last few weeks, we have discussed and participated in various activities which promote the monetary aspect of commercial art. Artists often struggle with a balance of making money and being free and creative. Studies have shown across all careers (not just the arts) that people work for two reasons: 1) the monetary reward and 2) encouragement/praise and recognition.

What motivates you? What is a stronger factor in your life; reward or praise? What about your art?

Message Board Topic: Free Market

Like last week’s message board topic, this week offers another opportunity concerning commercial art, competition and contests. At http://www.converse.com/ you can design your own Chuck Taylor’s. Although not exactly like the Threadless Contest, you now have a voice by personalizing your wear. 

The free market system is based on the “best products” competing to survive. In a way this is very much like “survival of the fittest” or “democracy” in which the people “vote” by purchasing the products they think they are best (at least this is the theory).

Do you think this works? Do you think Converse is trying to subvert the free market system by allowing its customers to design their own products? Do you think this is a good idea?

Message Board Topic: T-Shirt Submission

The purpose of commercial art is to generate income from your artwork. Threadless is a graphic t-shirt company looking for new designs. You can find information concerning Threadless contests and submissions, here: http://www.threadless.com/submit. Choose one of your t-shirt designs and follow the submission process. Then reflect on this experience.

Do you think this is a good opportunity? Why or why not?

Message Board Topic: Webcomics

For over a century comics have been created for various reasons: 1) entertainment, 2) commentary, 3) satire, and 4) information. The media has influenced cartoons, movies, video games and other forms of media. And has traditionally been a “paper and pencil” media – being closely related to illustration and layout.

However, as newspapers and other print media are on the down turn in contemporary society, comics have also begun to suffer. Newspaper “funnies,” comic books and manga have made a transition from print to web (as is the trend with many medias today). The webcomic is replacing the traditional print. This has allowed for an exponential growth of comics available (moving away from the big news companies and big comic companies). What are the implications of this move?

Does moving comics to the web add or detract from the media? Look up a webcomic or two. Do you find them as successful as say traditional comics such as Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, Spiderman, Batman and Superman?

Branding

A brand is defined as: A trademark or distinctive name identifying a product or a manufacturer and a product line so identified. Examples of brands include a variety of product-lines ranging from foodstuffs, fashion, electronics, and household products. Popular brands include: Nike, Eddie Bauer, Tide, Clorox, Apple, Microsoft etc.

What are the benefits of a brand? Why do brands sell better than just individual products? How would you describe a product-line? How is a product-line presented to the public?

Message Board Topic: The Narrative

Many analysts, sociologists and news writers argue that the modern day audience seeks a narrative. This means that news, information, education, politics and other areas of contemporary life require a story – the audience needs to be entertained in order to understand and learn. The audience needs characters that fulfill stereotypes like the underdog, the patriot, the good guy, the bad guy etc. The audience needs a plot – like a political race, where two people struggle to rise to the top. And the audience will only pay attention for as long as they are entertained. Some say that modern life, modern education and modern information systems have become a soap opera.

What does this mean for information or education? What does this mean for art? What does this mean for society?

How has the movie industry affected contemporary life? Are we moving into a soap opera orientated world?