Webpunk is a fairly fresh trend in anti-culture, unusual, screaming, illogical. Someone seeks to express their inner state through collages in this style, to encrypt some idea in them, someone uses it in their work, because it is fashionable, young people “peck” it, someone - in order to to draw attention to their "Avam" and publications. One way or another, webpunk is worth getting to know it thoroughly.
Webpunk - what is it
Webpunk at first glance is a collage in which several components that seem to be quite alien to each other are fantastically connected:
- antique statues, often deformed or "flowed out", as well as other examples of classical art;
- fragments of phrases (often used in Arabic script);
- 3D dolphins and whales;
- screenshots of sites with antediluvian graphics, as well as the first versions of Windows;
- 8-bit and holographic pictures;
- smiles;
- all kinds of cut objects: flowers, hamburgers, greens, decorations, etc.
Web punk can rightly be called a model of anti-design, which denies logic, universally recognized artistic techniques. I immediately want to note that the style of webpunk has nothing to do with the subculture of punks and their symbolism - even there is nothing similar in this direction, drawing its inspiration from futurism and different layers of the past.
Webpunk Feature
Webpunk style collages take place where you need to show the blurred border between reality and fantasy, natural and artificial, as well as between present, past and futurism. The symbol of the direction is a crystal-clear CD (therefore, many webpunk effects somehow give the collage or its individual elements a resemblance to the surface of a CD-ROM), which can hide an infinite variety of meanings.
Webpunk is also characterized by nostalgia for the nineties - as in the time when the Internet seemed something enormous, mysterious, hiding tons of possibilities. Hence the use of graphics from the time of Windows 95 and 98.
So, webpunk - what is it:
- pictures and screenshots of gif, png format - these are the elements superimposed on the jpg-image;
- conscious adherence to the amateurish approach - the creation in Photoshop of a heap of clippings of images, screenshots, text. Cropping photos is deliberately coarse, filters are standard or not used at all;
- the insertion of three-dimensional images on a "flat" background - the irony of the ideas about the space of nineties web designers, as well as all kinds of beating of images in the style of "retro-futurism";
- Echoing the pop art of the golden times of youth, webpunk is distinguished by the introduction of consumer goods into collages, again with an ironic context - hamburgers, cans of soup, labels for chocolate bars, Coca-Cola bottles, etc .;
- active use of glitch - aesthetization of interference, visual errors on the screen (white noise, overly compressed photo, image on a broken display);
- the use of the same nineties in the collages of popular heroes of video games - the dolphin from the game on Sega Ecco the Dolphin leads;
- To enhance the contrast, elements of ancient art are often used - architecture, sculpture.
Webpunk History
It is believed that the ancestors of the webpunk were the musical styles of Sea Punk and Vaporwave (sipunk and waveporewave) - the designers drew ideas from the design of posters, clips, and covers of collections of these artists. For example, the image on the CD of the Arca group, made by the Californian design team Blute, the design of the disk Seapunk Volume 1 Limited Edition by Albert Redwine, created by Kevin Heckart.
Sami A. Redwine and K. Heckart consider the year the Webpunk movement began in 2011, when it occurred to Albert to make dolphins a symbol of the Coral Records label (sipunk - "sea" punk). Then the sipank migrated to a fine culture, where its special feature was the appeal to the underwater world, neon colors. This phenomenon is quite well-known: in 2013, the newspaper The New York Times reported on it, the themes were used by Rihanna, Azelia Banks.
Later, the sipunk absorbed some of the signs of waveporewave, and only then a fundamentally new phenomenon "began to bud" from it, which they began to call webpunk.
Using webpunk
One cannot but relate the popularity of the style to its accessibility to a wide audience - any confident PC user with the most general skills in using graphic editors can create a creation in web punk format. How to do webpunk is to fill the space with absurdities, acid colors, gradients, stickers and clippings. Designers themselves call webpunk-style work "melting the web." The lower quality the sources, the more illogical and artificial their combination, the greater the chance of success and popularity with the creation.
One successful example is an online resource launched by Tim Nolan in 2012. The resource in the first three weeks of its existence scored about 880 thousand views. Its design combines the works of impressionist Claude Monet, pictures of the nineties web space and musical accompaniment from the system sounds of Windows 98.
Where to find webpunk style images
The Tumblr resource is considered the most "top" place of "residence" of images according to the canons of webpunk. You can also be inspired by creations on thematic profiles and on tags on Facebook, Instagram, VKontakte. In particular, in the last social network, the favorite communities of followers of the Webpunk style (what it is - you can also find out there by the participants' works) are:
- "WEBPANK".
"✞✞✞WΣBGHΣTTØ✞✞✞".
"☯SΣADRΣAM☯".
"∆ØPΣ!".
Webpunk: how to take a photo
The most popular editor for creating collages is considered Adobe Photoshop, which allows you to work with layers, quickly switch between them, add all kinds of effects.
Depending on your idea, work can be completed in minutes. So, how to make webpunk in Photoshop:
- select a background (it can be your jpg photo), open it in the program;
- find on the Internet various webpunk inserts in png format (they’re just looking for them - "webpunk png"), save them and paste them in a layer-by-layer collage;
- each layer can be edited - expand the insert, resize it, apply “Plastic” or other filters to it.
To put an image on social networks, you need to merge all the layers, select the jpg or png format to save.
Photo editors for webpunk
For those who do not have the skills to work with Photoshop or are used to creating on a smartphone, we’ll introduce a number of editors to create a masterpiece on a gadget. Webpunk editor for iOS:
- AVATAN - has a large collection of free stickers on the photo, the ability to insert labels and glitch effects. By the way, on the AVATAN Plus resource, users upload backgrounds, textures and stickers suitable for webpunk collage.
- Pic Collage - a set of stickers, insert text.
- Thematic webpunk editor Tropix.
- Cyber FM.
- Glitche
For devices based on Android, a special Web Punk photo editor has been developed, available in Google Play.
Collage Effects
You can “stitch” an image both by applying layers with the effect in Photoshop, and by using the following resources:
- Snorpey.imtqy.com is the simplest online editor. You upload a photo - and it is immediately distorted. You can change its quality, use the controls to achieve the necessary concentration of the effect on your image, and then save it.
- Airtightinteractive - Imageglitcher. In addition to the glitch effect, the illusion of a stereoscopic picture is also added. In addition to pumping the effect itself, the service allows you to adjust the contrast of the picture, and then save it to your device.
- Corruptus.puaga - transforms any image of your choice in gif or jpg format. There are 7 effects for your choice, 2 of which destroy the picture, 5 - simply stylize it. After processing in the selected version, the system will offer you several image options obtained using this effect. Your selection is saved in the computer.
Answering the question: “Webpunk - what is it?”, We, first of all, have in mind a peculiar style that has its own characteristics, which are mainly used in the web environment. Of course, for many connoisseurs, he seems illogical, vulgar, without artistic value. However, it is precisely these areas of anti-art, as the realities show, that the future of art culture is. Moreover, any owner of a PC or smartphone can create his creation in the style of webpunk using graphic editors and images from the Web.