Flags, man. Think of how great they could be, summarizing the ideal and sentiment of a whole country in iconic form on a cloth canvas. But looking at the majority of what’s out there, it is mostly boring and ugly. The only flags I can think of as being interesting or aesthetically pleasing aren’t geopolitical (Earth, Pride, and UFP (Trek)).
I would say money too. There’s some progress being made in places. There’s definitely more people aware of the problem than with flags. It could use some work too though.
I would also say clown makeup, though Cirque duSoleil has made some strides in that arena.
Comic books. The artwork has sucked since the changes in the 90s. Plus there’s the whole lack of consistency ironically coupled with recycled plots. It shouldn’t be so hard to make an logical story arc with compelling writing that lasts longer than a graphic novel.
So you’re drawing a distinction between comic books and graphic novels, and saying comic books are terrible, when the good comic books are precisely what get called graphic novels.
Well, Alan Moore says he wrote comics. I’m inclined to believe him.
No way, man! The form is enjoying some of the best quality entertainment ever! The art itself is sterling, and the writing (yes, with some exceptions) is top notch. We’re light-years ahead of any time in the past.
We hit a localized low with the Lee/Liefeld “balloon-bosoms and microscopic feet” era. Nothing being published today is as bad as that!
Wow! Groucho Marx’s apocryphal quote that you should never appear in movies, or in this case comics, where the men have bigger tits than the women seems very apt here.
And that picture doesn’t even show off Liefeld’s patented CrotchVoid drawing style. All his characters look like their clothing is being sucked into their crotches.
That’s kind of the point of the thread. There are a lot of things for which aesthetics aren’t the primary purpose and yet either involve some form of craft or by their nature are a ripe medium. (Not that we can’t also discuss primary artforms that aren’t working or are under utilized too). Maybe I could have worded it better but I thought the examples would make it clear.
I’ll add…
Packaging, especially fast food bags and cereal boxes.
Advertising in general, though there are some notable exceptions especially billboards.
Example of something that is changing in this respect: statues/sculptures as a canvas - for example the cow project and other similar charity contests, where the same object is painted in creative different ways by different people.
And of course there has already been quite the renaissance already in cake art. I think it is getting started, but there needs to be more of and more variety of 3D printed food especially non desserts.
Also it has been done but there needs to be more pet cosplay, especially outside of dogs and cats. Including flea circuses.
But really money and flags are the closest to what it is. They seem almost naturally frameable, already have an under utilized aesthetic component, and are linked to things with great potential symbolism and meaning. I’d like more things like that.
I’m actually with you a lot of the way, just from seeing far too many US state and city flags, but I think you still might be selling the art form short…
Plenty of militant or totalitarian movements have very interesting or aesthetically pleasing flags, for example. 'Stand for unfathomable human loss, sure, but the brand recognition’s pretty dang solid.
Surely flags and coins could be more interesting, but STAMPS have really declined in quality since the 1950’s or so. For one thing no one uses them anymore, so no one notices them or cares about them, so they’ve essentially been ignored. Every common (US) stamp seems to have a flag on it, or a unidentifiable flower, or tries to be a mini-poster. When they got away from portraits they’ve been boring.
Flags are not an art form. They are functional. They’re designed to be easily recognizable at a glance or at distance, so that you can tell (say, on the battlefield, or at sea) who is friend and who is foe. These requirements favour plain, large, abstract shapes in bold, contrasting colours. That’s why you have so many tricolours. They may be “boring” and “ugly”, but they are doing exactly what they are intended to do, and moreover doing it much better than more intricate and less abstract designs.
Perhaps in the same way that user interface icons are. It’s fine to design them with beauty, novelty, and sentimentality in mind, but that is definitely not the overriding concern.
