Brings me back to the days of going to dgl.microsoft.com in Internet Explorer to explore the library of Clip Art graphics online. This was during the Office XP and 2003 days. Even today, that style comes across as far more authentic than the tacky AI-generated flyers you see plastered everywhere now.
I remember people being scoffed at for using clipart, for pretty much the same reasons people are scoffed at today for using AI (low effort, samey, doesn't fit the rest of the visual style, and subjectively ugly.)
Clipart was the AI slop of the time. People with zero creativity or taste creating horrible flyers, posters, letters, etc. by randomly vomiting effects upon effects on text with very dubious positioning and proportions
It filled a niche at the time when there weren’t a lot of easily accessible stock images of things. Clip art was the successor to analog “clip books” used for things like ads in newspapers.
Once the internet filled that niche with more and better pictures, shipping a fixed database of images with your software didn’t make sense anymore.
Is there a name for the "clip art" or the style that like almost every 'Dry Cleaner' uses. I dont think its clip are but it shares many of the qualities and im talking coast to coast.
The section of the video on “scratch board art” claiming it was ubiquitous is very odd to me. I’ve never seen art in that style despite being of the generation that would have. It’s discussed in the video as if it was some kind of cultural touchstone of the era and I promise it was not.
Brings me back to the days of going to dgl.microsoft.com in Internet Explorer to explore the library of Clip Art graphics online. This was during the Office XP and 2003 days. Even today, that style comes across as far more authentic than the tacky AI-generated flyers you see plastered everywhere now.
I remember people being scoffed at for using clipart, for pretty much the same reasons people are scoffed at today for using AI (low effort, samey, doesn't fit the rest of the visual style, and subjectively ugly.)
The Office suite during that era was very legit.
Clipart was the AI slop of the time. People with zero creativity or taste creating horrible flyers, posters, letters, etc. by randomly vomiting effects upon effects on text with very dubious positioning and proportions
Would anyone who watched the video like to tell us what the answer to the headline question is?
It filled a niche at the time when there weren’t a lot of easily accessible stock images of things. Clip art was the successor to analog “clip books” used for things like ads in newspapers.
Once the internet filled that niche with more and better pictures, shipping a fixed database of images with your software didn’t make sense anymore.
It’s a good video, worth a watch on 1.5x.
Is there a name for the "clip art" or the style that like almost every 'Dry Cleaner' uses. I dont think its clip are but it shares many of the qualities and im talking coast to coast.
Yeah, "pop art".
The section of the video on “scratch board art” claiming it was ubiquitous is very odd to me. I’ve never seen art in that style despite being of the generation that would have. It’s discussed in the video as if it was some kind of cultural touchstone of the era and I promise it was not.
"High art" is just what the chosen people tell you to value. Be your own individual and you can choose what is of artistic value to you.
Reminds me of a surreal 2000-ish clip art comic 'My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable':
https://theslingsandarrows.com/my-new-filing-technique-is-un...
Got a lot of laughs from the bizarre humor and clip art usage
(2023)
Now everyone just gets clipart tattoos