In which there are random opinions
Mar. 17th, 2008 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
herzverstreut_buHere are the remaining opinions from that meme from... uh, a week ago.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
heartpause wanted me to talk about my favorite recent graphics trend. To be honest... I don't have one. If we're talking "real"/commercial graphic design, I don't really follow that closely enough to keep up with trends, and in LJ graphics, I feel like things have been really stagnating for a while now. It's something I've ranted about before, but for at least a year now, maybe longer, the trend with icons seems to be "simplicity", i.e. crop (sometimes more creative, sometimes less) and some layers of colour, the exact shades of which seem to differ from fandom to fandom. Supernatural, for example, mostly seems to be about a murky yellow-green, while bandom wavers between the bright, bright cyan and a relatively natural colouring. Now, don't get me wrong, I think simple icons can look great, but it's a "trend" I'm really, really bored of.
Disclaimer: Maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about, because I don't spend that much time in the icon community (such as there is) but a quick look over![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
takenote_icons, icon_tutorial and iconrants seems to confirm my thesis.
flimsy wanted my thoughts on "fashion/hair". Well, there's a lot I could say about that, depending on what interests you in particular, but just my general thoughts... When I was thinking about it on the bus earlier, I felt like my opinion could best be summed up by "Express yourself through fashion, don't express yourself through fashion", if that makes any sense. What I mean is, fashion and hairstyles are very important for shaping the world's image of us, and let's face it: very, very few of us honestly don't care at all what other people think of us. In social settings, your style will send out certain signals and you will attract different people and different reactions depending on what you wear. Of course that's superficial, but as Zlatko, the Grand Seigneur of German reality TV, once said: "Looks is the first thing you look at." So, since you (and by "you", I mean I) can't talk in depth to every single person you meet in order to make them realize what a shining personality you have, you need to convey some of that through your choice of clothing and hairdo. (Even if said choice is just "I don't care about what you think about my looks right now, so I'll wear this ratty shirt and not wash my hair.") This is why my own style tends to reflect my moods pretty accurately, and I sometimes skip through the whole range from gothy to jeans-shirt-no-make-up to preppy to hippie in the span of a few days. It's not a conscious decision (nor do I think it should be, ideally), it's a part of who I am.
However, I think a lot of people go a similar, but (in my opinion) wrong way, by not fitting their clothes to their personality, but to what society seems to think their personality should be. Ok, not exactly, I have a hard time phrasing this. What I mean is the people whose self-esteem comes from having the "right" clothes, who distinguish themselves not by following their own style, but by knowing what's trendy (or what's the "must have" in their subculture of choice) and confusing that with having taste. Does anyone know what I'm getting at? Sometimes it's necessary - for job interviews or other formal occasions - but it's not what fashion should be about.
Anyway, on a more superficial level: I really, really enjoy high fashion and fashion photography as an art form, even though I loathe the whole industry. (There's a reason ANTM is my guilty pleasure, ahem.)
And finally,bitter_crimson wanted me to blog about "TENTACLES". Uh. Tentacles are pretty cool, in that "wow, nature came up with some funky things" kind of way? Tentacly things are fun to look at! I always kind of want to touch them. NOT LIKE THAT. Although the history of tentacle sex (or the bits and pieces I know about it) is rather fascinating, but then so is the cultural history of sex in general. Anyway, when I was a kid, I always wanted a pet octopus, and "Octopus's Garden" is one of my favourite Beatles songs, so yay for tentacles!
There was supposed to be a song-by-song review of "Goodbye Blues" here that's actually all typed up and ready, but this post is getting too long as it is. So look out for that tomorrow. ;)
heartpause wanted me to talk about my favorite recent graphics trend. To be honest... I don't have one. If we're talking "real"/commercial graphic design, I don't really follow that closely enough to keep up with trends, and in LJ graphics, I feel like things have been really stagnating for a while now. It's something I've ranted about before, but for at least a year now, maybe longer, the trend with icons seems to be "simplicity", i.e. crop (sometimes more creative, sometimes less) and some layers of colour, the exact shades of which seem to differ from fandom to fandom. Supernatural, for example, mostly seems to be about a murky yellow-green, while bandom wavers between the bright, bright cyan and a relatively natural colouring. Now, don't get me wrong, I think simple icons can look great, but it's a "trend" I'm really, really bored of. Disclaimer: Maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about, because I don't spend that much time in the icon community (such as there is) but a quick look over
takenote_icons, icon_tutorial and iconrants seems to confirm my thesis.flimsy wanted my thoughts on "fashion/hair". Well, there's a lot I could say about that, depending on what interests you in particular, but just my general thoughts... When I was thinking about it on the bus earlier, I felt like my opinion could best be summed up by "Express yourself through fashion, don't express yourself through fashion", if that makes any sense. What I mean is, fashion and hairstyles are very important for shaping the world's image of us, and let's face it: very, very few of us honestly don't care at all what other people think of us. In social settings, your style will send out certain signals and you will attract different people and different reactions depending on what you wear. Of course that's superficial, but as Zlatko, the Grand Seigneur of German reality TV, once said: "Looks is the first thing you look at." So, since you (and by "you", I mean I) can't talk in depth to every single person you meet in order to make them realize what a shining personality you have, you need to convey some of that through your choice of clothing and hairdo. (Even if said choice is just "I don't care about what you think about my looks right now, so I'll wear this ratty shirt and not wash my hair.") This is why my own style tends to reflect my moods pretty accurately, and I sometimes skip through the whole range from gothy to jeans-shirt-no-make-up to preppy to hippie in the span of a few days. It's not a conscious decision (nor do I think it should be, ideally), it's a part of who I am.However, I think a lot of people go a similar, but (in my opinion) wrong way, by not fitting their clothes to their personality, but to what society seems to think their personality should be. Ok, not exactly, I have a hard time phrasing this. What I mean is the people whose self-esteem comes from having the "right" clothes, who distinguish themselves not by following their own style, but by knowing what's trendy (or what's the "must have" in their subculture of choice) and confusing that with having taste. Does anyone know what I'm getting at? Sometimes it's necessary - for job interviews or other formal occasions - but it's not what fashion should be about.
Anyway, on a more superficial level: I really, really enjoy high fashion and fashion photography as an art form, even though I loathe the whole industry. (There's a reason ANTM is my guilty pleasure, ahem.)
And finally,
bitter_crimson wanted me to blog about "TENTACLES". Uh. Tentacles are pretty cool, in that "wow, nature came up with some funky things" kind of way? Tentacly things are fun to look at! I always kind of want to touch them. NOT LIKE THAT. Although the history of tentacle sex (or the bits and pieces I know about it) is rather fascinating, but then so is the cultural history of sex in general. Anyway, when I was a kid, I always wanted a pet octopus, and "Octopus's Garden" is one of my favourite Beatles songs, so yay for tentacles!There was supposed to be a song-by-song review of "Goodbye Blues" here that's actually all typed up and ready, but this post is getting too long as it is. So look out for that tomorrow. ;)
