What first textures do we know?
A mother's skin..
Food, the carpet, a teddy bear.
The patterns of television, nursery curtains, grass when
we are left out to play,
In my other job, I have been asked
about ten times in the past year to voice an animation in the style of this one at Fiat
http://www.fiat.co.uk/ecodrive/#ecodrive/intro
And each time the creators feel they are working with an influence that is current and entirely original. It intrigues me that styles, not just visual, but ways of seeing and of re-creatimg, and of reacting to the world, run like layers of rock, folding with time and sometimes bursting to the surface to dominate, seemingly from nowhere; but actually each current or influence in our way of seeing can be traced back.
When a group of talented animators fled the soviet union from Chechoslovakia in the 60s the story, if I remember correctly goes, the BBC bought a job-lot at the cheapest price, and they became our staple visual language, possibly absorbed by the creatives of the next 30 years from the carpet where we watched the telly.
http://www.fiat.co.uk/ecodrive/#ecodrive/intro
And each time the creators feel they are working with an influence that is current and entirely original. It intrigues me that styles, not just visual, but ways of seeing and of re-creatimg, and of reacting to the world, run like layers of rock, folding with time and sometimes bursting to the surface to dominate, seemingly from nowhere; but actually each current or influence in our way of seeing can be traced back.
When a group of talented animators fled the soviet union from Chechoslovakia in the 60s the story, if I remember correctly goes, the BBC bought a job-lot at the cheapest price, and they became our staple visual language, possibly absorbed by the creatives of the next 30 years from the carpet where we watched the telly.
(a card from our current collection -designed recently, but influenced by the czech
imports.)
(logo for the famous czech animation studio, that survived persecution, 'the trick brothers')
The work was characterised as non-violent, childlike, and distinctly and deliberately un-Disney.
The gentle colurs and shapes even now speak of a different tradition, an intelectual, possibly left-leaning tradition. There is a hint of public broadcast about them, which may have arisen from a political situation where overt expression without common responsibility was impossible. This in turn suited, or possibly informed the very character of my generation's impression of early viewing, and the Paternal feel of media in those days - this may also be what attracts advertisers of today to evoke, parody, and borrow these undercurrents.
Possibly the methods of delivery were dictated by financial constraints, and local traditions of water-colour - but many of the particular characteristics are so specific to the culture were they arose that I as an outsider cannot identify.
(two above, a cartoon from 1970s prague, and below one of our national favorites, the little princess - the similarities are striking.)
Not least the hugely influential Heinz edelmann (who illustrated the Yellow Submarine)
. And this set of images, this mode of seeing, lay dormant until the toddlers
of that generation grew up and came to prominence in their chosen field, in this case
advertising and animation, and a zeitgeist is born.
Festival of Britain images from the 1950s, which are again so poular in design, in turn were evocative of sceintific, microscopic ages, and the advances of understaing of the natural world that were emerging at the time of their first fabrication.
(fabric pattern inspired by scientific advances in the early nuclear age)
If you are of a different generation, your zeitgeist is different altogether but arose without announcing itself,
but with the unanimous recognition of your peers, and the delightful bafflement
of outsiders. And it is almst impossible, if you are outside a group of
recognition, to understand what those inside it are acknowledging, what they are
remembering and why it can have significance.
Maybe for you its graffiti, and associations with rap
music, or the iconic album covers of the Sex Pistols; or Che Guevara, or Burne-Jones. It’s
the same with comedy - I watch my son delight at the Mighty Boosh –
and I distrust, detest and am bored by it; but it is no less peculiar than Michael palin dressed as a woman, or Harry Secombe and his honking opera voices which used to crack my dad up.
and I distrust, detest and am bored by it; but it is no less peculiar than Michael palin dressed as a woman, or Harry Secombe and his honking opera voices which used to crack my dad up.
I look at pictures my older
brother and his friends aged 16 wearing bovver boy, high-waisted side buttoned
baggies
– I mean, what can they possibly have been thinking, but something in the style made sense to them, though for the life of me I can't imagine what. I am equally guilty, since I knew exactly what Adam Ant was on about with his war paint, the dandy highwayman! but am not sure of the origins of this curse; however there was a series of ladybird books around at the time that I and Adam Ant were growing up, and one of the series was 'Pirates', and, if I remember rightly, the book went out of its way to make these robbers seem heroic and exciting.
Maybe that emotionally warped a generation of school children, and left them vulnerable to psuedo native/clannish rock nonsense.
– I mean, what can they possibly have been thinking, but something in the style made sense to them, though for the life of me I can't imagine what. I am equally guilty, since I knew exactly what Adam Ant was on about with his war paint, the dandy highwayman! but am not sure of the origins of this curse; however there was a series of ladybird books around at the time that I and Adam Ant were growing up, and one of the series was 'Pirates', and, if I remember rightly, the book went out of its way to make these robbers seem heroic and exciting.
Maybe that emotionally warped a generation of school children, and left them vulnerable to psuedo native/clannish rock nonsense.
We have melamine 'Asterix' trays and mugs, aimed at children, but definitely favoured by 40-year- olds for themselves, because it is their own icon. Equally, the chopper bag.
I am sure the day will come with our business at Sugarbag Bue when
people look at the stuff we stock and say'
'what on earth were they thinking?'
–hopefully by then, like all wise people we will have had the wisdom to hand the choosing on to someone else!
'what on earth were they thinking?'
–hopefully by then, like all wise people we will have had the wisdom to hand the choosing on to someone else!
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