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Transparency, Animation, Fun, Overdoing It

                      See                               Animated                 Examples

The final thing about the logo development process and how it relates to the creative process is about using tools. 

The fact is - learning how to do something - particularly when one gets to the point of feeling some success - is a great deal of fun. That stage of developing a technique or way of doing something which works is incredible.

There is a balance always in creating between doing what is fun and doing what is best for the piece.

The animation I created on the original logo came out exactly as I conceived … but it didn’t add a thing to my site - I put it on the above linking page - just because it is a record - like the thrown out Free download logo which also resides on that page. 

I am not a graphic arts expert. Creating images without any background (transparencies) was incredibly cool to me - so much that I was overdoing it - which is the same for animation - which I have done a whopping four times.

It is a lot of fun to create these things - irresistible even. This is what one should have while doing art work - creating music - approaching any sort of job one loves.  But one still needs to temper that fun with taste and perhaps discretion.  

On the other hand, even if you don’t resist the fun of a new technique or process; eventually one recognizes its overuse anyway.

See Also

• Overdoing It - by Anton Chekhov
  A very short story - and wonderful take on going too far
• Web Design Tips - Overdoing It
  Can’t vouch for site - but good example of what I mean in a similar form

Uniqueness of Perception Creates Wonderful Worlds

Gallery Page of Mountain Headress - Digital Painting

On this particular day, the clouds and mountain looked like one organism. With the clouds as a head covering, I found it impossible to tell where one began and where the other ended.

Needless to say, this was only a small section of my view. But it was the section of the view which I was drawn to. An artist limits his vision to the story he chooses to tell. Actually we all probably do this.

The world is vast, perception is huge - but there is something unique about the position of any observer. What separates the telling is also the conceptual bias. This is what I saw, but

• it is more importantly how I saw it.
• and finally it is how I chose to tell it.

Whether a piece speaks to you like it needs to be on your wall or just simply is - there is a story. It is about unique perception, understanding, and physical limits and range of artist and medium.

The thing about appreciating art, is that it is still wonderful whether one likes it or not.

See Also

• How We See: The First Steps of Human Vision
  Introduction to how we see
• Individual differences in taste perception directly related to genetic variation in taste receptors
  Physically different taste receptors - interesting implications for other taste?
• Seeing is Understanding
  Included partly because I like the title - but offers insight into how we learn - always related

Art, Ugly & Beautiful, Aesthetic Crossroads

One of the things I enjoy in viewing art, creating art, and interpreting the world - is the cusp between ugly and beauty. We take as common place the expression - " so ugly he’s cute" - but much of the world is the same way. So much so that people talk of beauty being in the eye of the beholder. I never cared for that expression much - because it tends to negate the realness of beauty.  Plus as I have stated elsewhere, I believe that taste and perception of beauty are developed and change and grow over time.

It is interesting to note that in art - a little ugliness can make a piece work - note this snip-it of a review in the arts.telegraph how " both works slightly caricature their subjects, making them ugly and so undermining 19th-century conventions for depicting little girls as pretty, carefree creatures."  The work of many artists who have been ahead of their time have been frequently viewed like this.

What is more interesting to me - is finding the beauty in something everyday which is considered ugly or that piece which seems to be both ugly and beautiful at the same time. These are not necessarily pieces I would want to live with, but nevertheless find the crossroads fascinating.

I think like much of life, if you are looking for one thing you might find it by looking for what it isn’t.  Beauty can be found where there is ugliness, because it stands out. That beauty and ugliness are opposites is clear, but that they actually point to each other is a bit less obvious. 

See Also

• Business Week Online - Blueprints for Quirky Design
  Quirky, humorous Brittish Art and “ugly beautiful” furniture
• Goldboro News- Argus - Ugly furniture contest part of big sweep day
  Getting rid of the ugly? In the news & related
• VOA News - Artists, Cultural Specialists Seek to Restore New Orleans’ Historic Buildings
  Restoration vs bulldozing - whose ugly/beautiful?
• BBC News: London | Mayor Fights for Mandela Statue
  Politics or Aesthetic debate? - place where ugly and beauty converge

Taste, Development, & Patterns for Appreciation

The question of why something is found beautiful or appeals to us is one that has been asked continually. If one had the secret, could one always create things which appeal?  Are there even creations which are universally considered beautiful?

The closest we might find to universal beauty, I suppose, would be found in nature. I am not sure if anyone would question the beauty in a glorious sunset, but even that is not 100% certain.

What I have observed - is that each of us brings our experience at viewing, hearing, tasting etc. into each new experience.  Pieces of music which I originally found foreign as well as certain art when first viewed have become familiar over time and quite welcome. It is as though we are being asked to learn a new language when our experience is being challenged.

The point of this is not that we must learn to like things we don’t, but rather that appreciation and taste are developed. The most obvious example of how taste changes, would be how a child’s taste differs from that of the same individual as an adult.

At any level of appreciation, what seems to be the  pattern for whether one likes something - is that it must be enough like what has come before to be somewhat familiar, but enough different and new to be stimulating.

I suppose the real test of such beauty is whether it can continue to be stimulating over time.