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http://www.heartagency.com/artist/LaraHarwood/gallery/2
struck my eye, in an age now where we all have a knowledge of bitmap or vector manipulation and even the least visual produce the same old boring conservative photomanipulation shit, especially on here, it's nice to see something "fresh" (although she's been going for yeeearrrs)
there is hope yet..
Pretty standard stuff IMHO. Nice enough Matisse-esque style but nothing that interesting.
Horses for courses.
slainte 🙂 rob
speak for yourself mate. if you can carry a conceptual and aesthetic idea through the international press for that many years and get paid for it, I admire you. That's not my argument, even If I have an argument! what I'm saying is - there is a better Mountain Biking aesthetic than fabulous photos of blokes on bikes battering through the same old greenery on a bit of a tilt trying to prove something with a bad helmet. Bicycling magazines could be totally jaxxed up and brought up to their creative level that I think they should be at by using totally unemployed, seriously talented but willing to do anything to get published Illustrators. Unbore the mags! It's the same every month right. get some serious illustrators to reveal that feeling we al have, make it different. It won't cost much to talentize-ise the mags. cos they are ****ing boring.
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You do realise that Groucho has been dead for quite some time? Go on then, submit an article - I'll take the photos, it'll be ****in amaaaaaaaaze-balls.
On a slightly unrelated note, I have a shoot on Monday morning, involving an office beagle. They're going to slap the images all over their lorries and sprinters.
Bagsy never being inside of dog.
sounds stupid, but what are you on about?
user removed! I'm not on a pisstake, I genuinely think bike mags think they need to change their aesthetic/visual ideas, it's stale. who buys this stuff, everyone can see their rad mates jumping off stuff in whistler on facebook pics, or on their go pro whatever - much more emotionally relevant on the internet. All the photo's look the same. Use illustration, it'll give the bike mag that fresh thing for it an edge and the talented ilustrators are so desperate to get published they'll do anything..
I unfortunately read asIt won't cost much to talentize-ise the mags.
it won't cost much to fill the mag with some dull art (that would probably bore me) I don't like the look of just because someone can't be arsed to buy an art magazine to satisfy their artistic thirst
Bit harsh on reading that back, but essentially I suspect MTB magazines aren't full of contemporary/fine/graphic/whatever art because they are about something else. Bikes and mountains and that...
p.s. I am allowed to say dull, it's simply my opinion, it just leaves me cold, carry on feeling free to enjoy it despite me though 🙂
no you're right too. but I think there needs to be something else that's all, as well. Done right. I want to see people riding bikes in fabulous landscapes well shot by brilliant photographers as much as anyone, but I can find it on the web too easily. I'd like to see fantastic illustrations of the ideas and fabulous escapes and ideologies that are banged on on stw day after day expressed through brilliant illustration in the mag. The sort of illustration that doesn't happen in photographs that is just as inspiring
Take a look at The Ride for a different take on the perceived idiom of what the bike readership wants. And illustrations too. I'd say our very own ST has pushed in a slightly different direction to the WH Smith derived norm. Look at the current #73 with Matt and Sim in some truly hideous locations. You're not telling me that aesthetic is going to sell more helmets. Christ there's a watercolour in the latest issue.
who buys this stuff,
the visually unaware who dislike change.
stop worrying.
OP I hear what you're saying, but the people who typically buy bike mags want pictures of bikes shredding the gnaarrr, not some hipster artsy stuff
...by using totally unemployed, seriously talented but willing to do anything to get published Illustrators.
So you'd like to take advantage of the young talent out there, at the same time ensuring that they don't have any prospects to look forward to because everyone's doing it for free? 😉
Also, I noticed some good illustration in Singletrack this month.
I do get what you're saying though. A lot of mags bore me these days. I don't know if it's my age (I used to read them cover to cover) but they don't often capture my attention (aside from the free socks 😳 ) and I'd love to see more [i]outside of te box[/i] stuff.
there is a better Mountain Biking aesthetic than fabulous photos of blokes on bikes battering through the same old greenery on a bit of a tilt trying to prove something with a bad helmet. Bicycling magazines could be totally jaxxed up and brought up to their creative level that I think they should be at by using totally unemployed, seriously talented but willing to do anything to get published Illustrators
Something like Bicycle Times?
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The problem, as I see it, is that Mountain Biking, even in all it's various sub-cultures, has now got to the point where all the parameters of the various activities contained within that descriptive have been set for some time. This leads to a limited range of things that can be written about/photographed/reviewed and so on, so the cyclical churn of the subject(s) happens over a fairly shortly-defined period.
Hence, it all starts to feel like you've rerad/seen it all before. Many times.
Nice to see Fred on the front of issue #003, BTW... 😀
Actually, that mag looks really interesting. Where can I get copies?
I'm not too sure if there is a UK distributor. Last time I got it, which was a few years ago, you just went on their website, took out a subscription for a year and it was air-mailed over.
Bicycle Times looks awesome. Does the content live up to expectations?
Just watched the you tube vid.
Snails, egg and chips 😀
Kevevs - Member
speak for yourself mate.
Slight misunderstanding on my part Kevevs - I read your OP as talking more generally, but from the rest of the thread I now see you were talking about the representation of cycling in the commercial press.
In that context I agree a bit - there is a pretty homogenous visual style to most of the mainstream mags. Privateer, Dirt and the new STW are playing with that but are still in the same ballpark.
Still don't like the stuff you originally posted, but then that's aesthetics I guess.
slainte 🙂 rob
interesting stuff (to me). In some of the more interesting mags there is defo room for some fascinating visual ideas. and why not eh. Some stuff can be far more inspiring than a photo! just un-make a bike mag boring and repetitive and I might buy it.
Nice looking mag, I particularly like the cover to 013, the girl on the bike; I'd like that as a poster.
Pretty standard stuff IMHO
My thoughts exactly. I deal with two illustrators who do that sort of style and I have never thought of them as being particularly special.
just un-make a bike mag boring and repetitive and I might buy it.
[url= http://www.dirtragmag.com/ ][i]Dirt Rag[/i][/url]* (from the same stable as [i]Bicycle Times[/i]) and [url= http://www.boneshakermag.com/ ][i]Boneshaker[/i][/url] - both interesting to read & nice to look at.
Kevin Nierman's covers for [i]Dirt Rag[/i] are always great.
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(*though I wish they would bring back the old beer review column....)