Poll: In these troubled times…


Photo by Nature Explorer

Back in November, we asked Motionographer readers how they were doing financially. At that point in time, pieces of the sky had already started falling, but the full economic Armageddon hadn’t hit everywhere yet.

Our poll results were mixed, but mostly positive. 67% of the 5,134 voters were either maintaining the status quo or doing better than ever. 22% were making less money, and 14% (or 720 people) had been laid off and/or couldn’t find work.

As promised, I want to revisit the poll now, just to see what’s changed. This is far from scientific, but it might give us some indicator of a shift. We’ll keep re-posting this poll every four months or so. Please post your personal experiences in the comments. It’s good for people to hear the stories (both good and bad) behind the numbers.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Posted on Motionographer

Poll: In these troubled times…

Poll: Shepard Fairey

obama-fairey

Over in the Quickies, I recently tossed up an interview with Milton Glaser regarding the work of Shepard Fairey, and it sparked some heated discussion. I thought it’d be interesting to put the issue front and center for a little Motionographer Talk Cycle action.

If you aren’t familiar with Shepard Fairey, take a minute to read up on him (yes, that’s a Wikipedia link). Well-known in design and street art circles for his Obey imagery, Fairey’s more recent Obama posters (see above) launched him into the mainstream, spawning hundreds of variations from friends and foes alike.

It turns out the Obama work (like much of Fairey’s work) was based on a copyrighted image, in this case owned by news media giant Associated Press. Fairey, sensing an eminent lawsuit, filed a pre-emptive lawsuit against AP in order to protect himself from claims of copyright infringement.

All this, combined with a retrospective show at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, has brought Fairey’s body of work under the most public scrutiny the artist/designer has yet endured. He’s long been under fire for his creative practices, but now he’s bubbling up in mainstream media’s headlines.

Most of the coverage, including the impassioned comments of readers, touches on a rich complex of issues, including authorship, originality, art vs. design, and commercial interest vs. artistic expression.

Okay, so now for the poll:

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Posted on Motionographer

Poll: Shepard Fairey