Slash at dot com at dot web org de (Flash plugin needed...not)

Above: Weird shapes


Let´s all take a look at the header of this
blog, shall we? ("Shall we?" comes up
frequently in two of my favourite YouTube
subscriptions, and it gets annoying after the
tenth time or so.)

Yeah, it´s a new one - I intended it
for my website I am trying to rebuild since
a couple of weeks, but unfortunately, drawing
stuff and posting here always gets in the way.
I only know basic HTML so this is not going to
be much actual work, but it´s not very exciting to
do. Well, at least I am not going to use
Flash. Boy, I hate Flash. Not in places
where it is actually doing something useful,
but I find illustrator sites that have "Loading!"
bars and moving stuff plastered all over them
replusive. I am not a web designer.

I also believe in functional aesthetics - something
that just works without any bells and whistles is
fine with me. I believe that the reason Google
got so popular as a search engine is not because
they are so good (I don´t think they find things better
than Yahoo or Lycos or whatever; I could be wrong though,
but I do not care) - but because it´s the title, a search bar,
and a "search" button (well, there´s more to it,
but let me simplify it as an example). So there aren´t annoying
ads, moving stuff, Loading! bars, scrolling crap,
embedded audio, auto-loading video clips, add-ons you
need to, well, add on - everything is stripped down
to the essence, and there you go.

Things should just work. There are
thousands of products out there that try to do
more and fail at the most basic level:

Hip looking jackets with no pockets. Parkas
that don´t even cover the kidneys (Ariel knows what
I am talking about). Cell phones that have cameras
and mp3-players in them, yet choke at every button
press I do. Micro-backpacks that carry a can of
soda, maximum. All those coffee machines that
cost a thousand bucks when all you need is a
ceramic filter to put on top of your cup.
I could go on and on.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I
think this is also reflected in my illustration work.
I am trying to strap my repertoire down to the most
interesting parts, putting more tension into it, and leaving
the distracting, useless information out.

Whoa, my first rant. I don´t like the word
"rant". Sounds pretentious somehow. Someone
should do a rant about rants.

And I hope you like my new "piece" (that´s
a stupid word too). My girlfriend is doing Sudoku and
swearing a lot because of it just as I´m typing this.