silhouette paintings

<image from design*sponge here>

i have a huge crush on picture frames (like many others i believe). and a beautiful collection of them almost give me a fetishistic excitement.

same for the black silhouette ink drawings. believe it or not, i dreamt of illustrator at some point in my life, and started noticing those mysterious silhouette paintings from time to time in flea markets (many times in seductive old picture frames). always thought i would rather create my own, but never got to it for my lack of determination. with a little research, found out those black silhouette drawings were started as a cheaper alternative for portrait drawings in 18th century, but their flat depiction is indeed the beauty of them as it accentuates the subtle detailed line within its dull surface. the ones shown above are by Abra Ancliffe which is wittily unconventional as each face contains another face in itself as if the person is ‘thinking’ of another. i have to say i still love the original black drawings better, but definitely a combination of worn-out gold frames with those black silhouette drawings are the unbeatable charm!

Filed under: fascination , art, design, drawing, frame, illustration

what a website means in life

While working in the business creating websites for retailers, I got to wonder how much it means to build ‘a website’ out to the world: how much impact it brings to the retailer himself, to its buyers/users, and to the world.

Since World Wide Web got huge since the 90s, internet took over every man’s everyday life. Basically, it made everything possible through its network: people read news, play games, talk with friends and family, do shopping, order food, etc etc. I recently read an article on Time magazine that there’s not only a service that broadcast weddings on the web to family and friends in a remote location but even a service that allows a groom and a bride to exchange vows over webcams! Yikes.

Despite all the doubts on the aftereffects this WWW revolution brought to the society – i.e. loss of human contact, digital quality control -, it’s undeniable it certainly plays the central role in modern life.

According to this theory, I must be working in one of the most prominent industries in this time. However, while websites are places where people spend a big chunk of their time everyday, the depth they put into each website is so shallow, it is hard to say time and energy each website took to be presented to the world (except for those amateur websites built poorly) is getting paid off with people’s enough attention and appreciation. My major suspicion is it’s because web exists in a digital form and does not have a tangible existence, thus, people tend to take it less seriously than things they can perceive the ‘realness’ of. A coffee shop one person goes to everyday certainly means more than a website he visits everyday. It just brings less memorable existence in his memory.

So websites are rather ‘useful’ in life than ‘meaningful’ – just like why Myspace is quite efficient to keep communication but not the best way to build great friendship. This argument supports why people make a big fuss about analytics and usability studies on webs. There’s big money involved, which is apparently what this world is evolving around (Not trying to sound skeptical but just trying to make better sense of what it is I am doing). So what does a website mean in life? For retailers, money. For users, easier life. For the world, well, a win-win game that makes world more convenient and profitable, not necessarily in the most graceful way, but who cares – as long as it’s quick and easy just like how McDonald’s is still surviving after all these lawsuits!

Filed under: scribbles