joshua davis bashing by CR
Out of context: Reply #104
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- mathinc0
Hmmm. While I think the booking of JD at a type conference is a tad odd. Daniel West did a good job of taking this to a really personal level - so is this outcome surprising knowing what kind of person Joshua Davis is? I've met and drank with Davis before and the guy is energy-filled and crass, which personally, I appreciated. This field has introduced me to way too many annoyingly reserved, ill passionate and pseudo intellectuals. I doubt any of them would tell a story about their axe wielding neighbor with the sort of glee and excitement of Davis. That's him. Love him or hate him, I guess West hates him.
As far as his work, personally, the guy made me a believer in flash and actionscripting. His art is of course subjective, just the same as it is for every artist working in any medium. But to say that his work is more suited to desktops and screensavers is going a little bit too far, or actually, it's not going deep enough imo. It would be like someone going to a high fashion runway show and then reporting that 'I wouldn't wear any of that, it's rubbish.' Of course! But when you look at the commercial stuff that Davis does, it's fitting and applicable. West seems to be lacking creatively to mentally make the leap between art and design, how ideas are formulated in the art that can then be translated and interpreted in design.
Personally I really like Josh Davis and while I appreciate his energy and crassness, I can understand how the eggheads would pick him out of the crowd for public castration. But they're design eggheads, and they're not the type to ever stray far enough from the flock to ever do anything meaningful.