6-8-24
ive been juggling a number of ideas and projects right now and ive been seeking a lot of inspiration for said things-- one thats been a journey has been graphic design to inspire my website. i feel like i keep chasing all these ideas with it but not settling and starting anything... its probably because i have no familiarity with graphic/web design (outside of the basics i do) and so i just. feel like im looking and looking but not sure how to even start based on what i find cool.
I have dug through numerous design trends of the early 2000s, obvious a time i grew up in and am very nostalgic for. and there have been many artists making call backs to nostalgic looks. but i wanted to make sure i could pin down and separate the differences of design instead of something vaguely a mash of it all. especially because on the revival of old web, i feel like nostalgic websites often ride off the general my space vibes and other 2000-2009 web aesthetics like flashy gifs and backgrounds. which is all well and good, and i think one thing about it is that it is simple! and its easy, which is why so many personal sites looked like that. but there was so much more graphic design trends through these years that are very familiar to many-- they just were often seen in advertizing, fashion, or design of corporate/product websites. i have seen the resurgence of sci-fi/cybercore Y2K which is a design style we saw outside of websites. video games, movies, etc. i see it more on the web now as people explore it in their own indie art. but i want to see more than just that as the nostalgic graphic design for the 2000s, ya know?
So like, what I mean is that i went searching for terms and images that fit some of those other things i remember. one that definitely came to mind (and i mentioned in my last blog) was "corporate grunge" of the 90s. edgy, grungy, rough textures with that typewriter font. i do like this look a lot as i already love the grungy vibes, and i do want to lean on that too, but i started recalling looks that were more relevant to me growing up (as i was born in 99, the grunge look was fading when i was really consuming stuff). This first started with me just recently pulling out my old UB Funkeys, and getting the game working. Seeing the art design made me start to recall exactly what elements i liked from around that time and i knew better what i wanted and figuring out what kind of design i needed to study. This journey into design started with me remembering the video game: De Blob. If you havent seen the game or its look, definitely search it- but i also ripped some textures for myself too. I was thinking about video games already, and was thinking about a lot of use of grungy things lingered as designs became more clean-- graffiti especially, and similar designs off of it. I liked the way i saw 2005-2010 design start to go more colorful, but i enjoyed seeing the funky shapes. Trying to define this look with words is always a little tricky thought.
There is a point where "aesthetic" names are so ridiculous and there are so many and people dont even actually call it that, so there isnt a way to google it anyways. of course, it is annoying to not have the right words either. luckily the general bigger category a lot of what i think of from my growing up is "frutiger metro" (want to add, when i do bring this up and also mentioned De Blob, i am referring to frutiger metro and its abundance of sub categories that clearly inspire that game). i love frutiger aero as much as the next guy, and i definitely grew up with it, but i think the other sticks more because of the colors and vibes. i associate it heavily with music and art and creative things which makes sense as they often incorporated things like music imagery and other "pretty" things. "vector bloom" "funky metro" etc are things that hit as "oh, id love to do that".
its been tough look at all this design stuff and feeling like id love to create that so badly because its... intimidating. because i havent ever done design like this. and i get very perfectionist about the preparation to even do it ('gaining knowledge' as if i can sit here looking and learning and just magically do it w no problem when i open the canvas). typical "vectorbloom" is a bit more detailed than i'd probably like to do. taking that simpler look that also relies on thick, stylized/funky graffiti is a look i like, and considering i still like the 90s grunge graphic design, in my head i basically want to mash them up. but the graphic design is the first hurdle i need to get over... and i know at some point i gotta force myself to really give it a shot even if i dont feel ready.