Hey all, Zack (aka SpaceTimeTrvlr) here, once more...
For the past couple days, I was unable to access my blog due to every browser on my computer throwing a 403 Forbidden error every time I tried to access it. Thankfully, I finally figured it out shortly before I started typing this entry; turns out my antivirus was blocking all "blogspot.com" links due to it thinking the site was "suspicious". After setting it to allow this domain, I'm finally back to blogging in peace!
Anyway, have you noticed just how bland everything has become in the past decade or so? Everything from buildings to soda cans and especially technology went through significant downgrades in their designs compared to previous decades. Luckily, there seems to be pushback against this recent trend of making everything flat and boring, if a few recent rebrands are anything to go by (i.e. Pepsi, Apple, etc.), plus lots of folks in my generation (Gen Z) are growing sick and tired of everything getting oversimplified to the moon and back. Speaking of my generation, it seems that maybe I'm more influenced by the older generations than I let on, considering my obsession with music and aesthetics from bygone eras, including time periods that I wasn't even alive in. But, I'm getting off-topic, aren't I...
I managed to catch the tailend of the Frutiger Aero era of graphic design when I was a little kid (born in '05, BTW), and admittedly, I was kind of intruiged by Flat Design in its early stages when I was growing up. Maybe it was because I was also intrigued by pretty much any new trends in technology back then, but I don't know. As I got older and entered my teenage years, I grew to be much less optimistic about all this as Flat Design was becoming increasingly more prevalent everywhere and "blandification" as I like to call it, was consuming everything in its path. My local Target got rid of the neon lights and snack bar (Starbucks? Aren't there enough of those already?!), McDonald's moved to a new location that looked much blander than the old one, and so on and so forth.
One of the biggest casualties of blandification has gotta be the Internet. Certain websites used to be fun and full of personality, and you used to be able to customize pretty much everything about your personal web and social media pages. Now, for the past decade or so, our options have become severely limited, with most sites only allowing you to set your profile picture and banner. THAT'S IT. That's why I really like sites like Blogger, which still allow for the full extent of customization you used to have before most sites got oversimplified to oblivion. I'm loving how the look of my blog has turned out so far, and I'm glad I was able to make a page to reflect my personality and interests!
With that out of the way, I'll get out of cranky-old-man mode and leave you with a concept drawing I did to try and visualize how this blog would look while I was on vacation earlier this month, which I made using Colors! 3D on my 3DS.
Until next time, peace out! ✌
