Sunday, April 10, 2011

The New American Reality

After racking my brain this weekend about what to focus on for the project I have decided to go a completely different direction. I was going to write about that here, but instead I figured I would wait until our presentations on Tuesday and share something different. I was recently forwarded this video called The New American Reality. It has no speaking in it, instead it has some background music and uses typography and semiotics to portray an idea. I think this video effectively answers the part of the project that asks us "does design provide hope for the world culture". Here moving type is used as a method of informing as a means of educating people on what it means to be American for the large population of half Mexican half American population. I love the use of the puzzle piece in this video. I find that if the creator used any other symbol/object that the video would not nearly be as strong as it is. I myself will never know the feeling of being a part of two very distinct cultures, yet I find that just knowing how to speak a little Spanish and a bit of French opens up a new world for me that I would have never been able to experience without the knowledge of understanding a foreign language.

Enjoy!

(If for some reason it is taken down, here is the direct link to YouTube for it: http://youtu.be/pQnhuj11zgI )

13 comments:

  1. This is a great movie.

    I love the puzzle piece. I think it's such a great symbol for things like this - I am one person but I am so much more, and at the same time I am one person among so many others.

    I just hope that it doesn't start to get too overused!

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  2. The video is simple, to the point and moving. It shows that everyone needs to understand that there are others that are becoming a part of this country and it's time for people to start accepting and recognizing the reality.

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  3. True, the puzzle pieces are a nice metaphor for a nation of immigrants. There's really only so many ways to portray that metaphor, however, before it starts to get tired.

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  4. That was an effective and tasteful way to make an important point. Thanks for posting.

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  5. This was great, I loved the mix of music and the constantly changing type with the puzzle piece. They all fit very nicely to portray such a strong topic.

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  6. The type was so simple, yet so effective and powerful! I loved how the puzzle piece interacted with the text, sometimes even becoming the text.

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  7. The typography in the video was very dynamic and worked well with the theme in regards to expressing two different worlds/cultures.

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  8. I think that was a great video but a lot of the statistics were scaring me about our world's overpopulation!

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  9. The business behind this video is interesting to me. I've never seen a demographic advertised to potential clients before.

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  10. WOW. I have to say that I felt that the puzzle piece was me. I was born in Mexico and raised in the U.S, and everything that the video said described me to a "T". I love this country, but at the same time I love my culture. It is so hard to juggle both as you grow up, and being an artist I feel has helped me with this duality. I know my fellow classmates have seen my work in that I have been trying to juggle both cultures. Even for my Capstone project I am still dealing with this issue.

    And I am glad that this video did such an amazing job of representing me and others like me.

    P.S I too used the puzzle piece for Mark's class project in working with a non for profit.

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  11. I was thinking the same thing as Nina while watching! I also believe that the video did a great job of staying unbiased (or at least not negatively) on a topic that usually is. Text is so interesting with its personality, video does a great job of demonstrating what can be done.

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  12. I have used a puzzle piece in some of my designs they're very informative yet simple and I know they are used but I don't see them as often as I would think.

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  13. I think the motif of a puzzle piece is really interesting and makes you think about it's message.

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