Clair: An Introduction

My name is Clair and I am a third year Intermedia student. Sometimes people give me a funny look when I say Intermedia, but it basically means I use things like video, audio and photography (sometimes alone, but more often mushed all together) when making art.

This is my first design course, although I have always been interested in design. I have a few friends who are designers, specifically graphic designers, and I've tried to pick up what I could by being around them as they do their commercial works; cd's, posters, book covers, restaurant menus, logos, etc. It's an interesting feeling when you instinctively know you like/dislike something aesthetically, just by glancing at it.

Similarly, I feel the idea of "retro" is something we all know. If shown a series of images, each with a different style, I suspect we would, without too much trouble, be able to pick out the retro ones. Whether or not my specific idea of retro matches yours, there is a shared understanding of retro as something older, something dated.


When I think of the word retro I think of video games. I was a Nintendo kid and growing up in an age where gaming went from simple pixelated 8-bit characters in the 80's to the current state of realistic, crystal clear HDTV, it has been a pretty incredible change. Although, it's not only the character and game designs that have transformed, along with it the consoles, controllers, packaging and advertising have shifted to become more modern and more functional.

Although even after such huge advances, there are still thousands of people who still own original Nintendos and Ataris, who design computer hacks to play older games on their newer systems, who wear t-shirts and get tattoos of characters from games they played as kids. The idea of retro gaming is a widely popular one, and I believe it has to do with nostalgic and sentimental connections to childhood and what is, for some people, a right of passage.