Graphic Journey Blog

Digitally deranged

I wrote this post in May 20I0. Things have only got worse.

I come from the analogue generation. Television used to be broadcast in 405 lines. Recorded music pressed out on vinyl. Typing was done on a red Olivetti portable and my Olympus OM1 used 35mm role film and of course, the artwork for my design creations were produced in mechanical form using little more than some board a surgical scalpel and some rather smelly Cow Gum. 

The digital age changed all that. But only for some. Many of my contemporaries positively bristle with pride at the fact that they don’t get within 3 meters of a Macintosh. In fact, many can hardly work out the functions on a mobile phone let alone the TV remote. Not me, I positively enjoy embracing the new, even though at times it can be a trial. But I have slowly come to realise that I am digitally addicted. We’ve had, shopping, alcohol, drugs, betting, food, and sex addiction. Now we have new temptations - Internet dating, email, Wikipedia, iTunes, Facebook, Google, Skype, eBay, Twitter, gaming, and blogging (Okay I know), etc to become addicted to.

Apparently, the average time a person spends at the computer each day is 6 to 8 hours. So the worst case scenario is almost 3000 hours or 121 days per year. Imagine sitting in front of your Mac for 3 months 24. 7. And designers, because of the nature of their work, spend even more time looking at that seductive screen. Isn’t it a bit crazy? A report published by the Mental Health Foundation highlighted concerns that technology is being used as a replacement for genuine human interaction. Nearly a third of young people questioned for the report said they spent too much time communicating with friends and families online when they should see them in person. This is very sad.

Do you think you might be addicted? 

Here’s a simple test. Can you walk past your Mac without checking your email? Likewise can resist those little alerts from your iPhone or Blackberry? Do you text message when having lunch or supper with friends or even in bed? The number of times I have seen people

texting while crossing the road completely oblivious to the dangers. Do you get regular headaches or dry eyes? Do you have any time or space away from your digital gismos? To find out more I have added a link to an addiction test at the foot of this post.

When I got back to my house in Dorset last month I discovered that my Internet was down. It stayed that way for eleven days. For the first couple of days, I had major withdrawal symptoms. But on the third day, all was tranquil and I started to do all those things that I used to do pre Internet. I had more time on my hands to do stuff. One moment I was in the garage cutting up wood and being very macho. The next on my knees planting lavender and being aware that summer was revealing itself all around me - something you miss when glued to that screen. I sorted out old clothes and odds and ends to give to the local charity shop. I reorganised my cupboards. Spoke to friends on the telephone. Read. And also took quite a lot of pleasure from just looking at the sky. It was all good. And I realised what I had been missing, what the digital age had robbed me of. So now I am trying to digitally ration myself in favour of a more analogue way of the world. You should give it a try sometime if only to discover that you are digitally addicted. Oh yes, my internet finally got fixed, after a bevvy of engineers, trucks, and a lot of head scratching. It turned out to be squirrels; they’d gnawed their way through the wires on the telegraph pole. Now that’s what I call analogue.

Think you're addicted? Check HERE

And just as you thought it was safe to go back into the water, along comes this man (alas no longer) with yet another temptation...

 

I want one! 

 

 

Carl Sagan: The Cosmos

Back in 1980 the American astronomer Carl Sagan presented a BBC series called The Cosmos.

Rather like Jacob Bronowski’s earlier series, The Accent of Man (1973,) it was part of that gentler age of television documentaries when things moved at a far slower pace, leaving the viewer more time to absorb and reflect on what they were being presented with. The Cosmos had the same kind of presentation. But the one thing that Sagan had that has transcended time and style, was his beautifully crafted words.

His copy was deceptively simple, minimal, human, moving and special. It is a real case of the minimal conveying the maximum.

The 13 part series is filled will Sagan’s observations about our planet - or as he called it the ‘pale blue dot’...

Just make a cup of coffee and have a listen to his beautiful words. You need to filter out the rather bad futuristic music (if only they’d had the wisdom to commission Brian Eno) and the  primitive computer graphics.

Just close your eyes and just listen to the beauty of Sagan's words. Click here

David Chaloner remembered

This is David Chaloner ...

 

 1944 – 2010

Today is a very sad day. I will be saying goodbye to my very dear friend David Chaloner whose funeral service it is at 1p.m. He came into my life less than three years ago, but made an enormous impact on me. We were born in the same year. Both from working class backgrounds and with no formal design education. We shared an enthusiasm for life and very much believed in ‘living in the moment’. We spent many a long and happy evening at the Groucho Club dissecting life, people and experiences. There was never enough time. And now time has run out and he has gone.

But David was also a wonderful poet. He loved words – something we also shared. He brought warmth and happiness into many peoples lives. And even through the difficult struggle with the illness he had to endure over the past two years, he still maintained his sense of humour and optimism. David was a beautiful man who will be bitterly missed by all who knew him. But he leaves behind his work on the printed page, which will keep his sprit alive. Here is one of his evocative poems, set in a typeface that we both shared a great love for, Baskerville…

 

Wise words

 

Personal journal: Mother

This is my mother whose birthday it is today... 

My first tentative steps in the sea. With my mother at Broadstairs in 1945. 

She would have been 93 had she not died seventeen years ago quite suddenly in the street. She went shopping and never reached home. To all of you who have lost a parent you will know what a shock it is to lose part of your history. Although they may have gone they stay in our hearts and minds every day. My mother was an ordinary working class woman who had a tough life and never fulfilled her innate creativity. But she was very inventive in her own way and continued to express herself until her death. In the last years of her life she took up needlepoint. She would spend hundreds of hours sewing small abstract pieces. This is one that she gave to me a few months before she died...

 When I look at it I always think of her… 

Happy Birthday Mum.

Comic book-ends

In London you mostly get this type of mindless, unsophisticated graffiti…

Occasionally you can get a bit of wit…

But if you go to Brussels street art is on a completely different level. Why? Well, because it’s the home of this little chap and many of his comic strip friends…

I was there last week and was really delighted to see the following array of building end street art dotted around the city and on the metro. Belgium has such a wealth of comic strip artists, both historic and modern. And the Belgians positively celebrate them on their buildings. Here are some that I snapped and some from the Bussels pictures blog...

 

Now why can’t we immortalise our own comic strip heroes in the same way? They really put a smile on your face on a dull day.

 

Sam Serif # 20