Week 4 - Aesthetics of the Extreme

When you think "extreme", what do you think of?

Tattoos? Piercings? Extreme sports? Well those are the first three things that came to my mind. In this day and age extreme could refer to many things, but overall, things just aren't as shocking as they once were. I can remember when I saw a face tattoo for the first time and I was so shocked, I thought, wow, that is crazy. Now you see people with tattoos on their face all the time, especially neck tattoos. Neck tattoos are more popular than ever. What about those ear extenders called plugs!?!?! I remember when I was younger, me and my family went downtown to the science center and as we were walking on the street I saw a guy with these weird things in his ears. Now everybody has plugs. The bigger they are, the cooler they are. I don't even notice people with them anymore, and actually now the new thing is nose plugs! People are actually putting plugs in their noses, so that their nostrils are extended. Now that's extreme.

 

What about this new extreme fad called flesh removal tattoo. I think this is VERY extreme. I had never seen this until I searched extreme tattoos on google. I cant believe people actually do this, and don't they get infected?!?!

With all these extreme activities, there is, of course, going to be some extreme design. These extreme athletes like these very busy, extreme layouts. For example, every MMA fighter has their own "look". MMA fighters have these extreme t-shirt designs that they wear before the fight to promote themselves. Its very smart, because not only do these fans know who you are by your "look",  but now they want to buy that merchandise that these fighters are wearing.

MMA isn't the only sport that has extreme design, motocross is also a very good example. Motocross riders have all these sponsors on their jackets and shirts. They also have these designs that usually have this distressed font as well as a bold graphic of some sort. 

These extreme designs usually have distressed fonts like these ones I found. These fonts are all relatively new to the design world.

How much more extreme can we get? That's the problem here is that nothing shocks anyone anymore, so whats next? At least we know as long as there is anything extreme there will be extreme design. Extreme sports aren't going anywhere, so as long as Shaun White is progressing in the half pipe, or as long as Twitch keeps doing tricks on his dirt bike, there will be a need for designers to create extreme designs.