Wednesday 10 December 2014

A Eulogy To Clip Art

image credit

Microsoft announced that it's replacing the cheesetastic images with web-searchable galleries, effectively ending clip art as we know it. The collection of images that have graced so many PowerPoint presentations, family newsletters, and school-field-trip calendars is no more.

Clip art may have been clumsy and weird; it was also earnest, and full of the possibilities that came with our newfound capabilities as publishers and creators and communicators. Here's a eulogy for a form of artistic expression that added wonder and whimsy to the words of a youthful Internet.

1 comment(s):

NotMarian said...

So it's encouraging non-copyright use of other people's art. At least with their clipart we knew there was permission granted to use the pictures (in a limited way, true, but still it wasn't stealing from someeone else's website.)