What ARE young people listening to these days? Graphic Design edition.
December 3, 2021 12:55 AM Subscribe
I'm updating a graphic design assignment for the course I'm teaching. I need a short quote (possibly lyrics from a song?) that my younger students might connect with. Challenge: this is an online course with students from all over the world and the way it's structured makes it difficult to ask the students themselves what they might like.
I don't have the power to change the assignment in any way, only to choose new quotes.
The assignment: Students are given a short quotation. They must create a design that conveys the mood of the quote. They are not allowed to use any illustration or added images. They must use only the words of the quote, changing the colour, texture, size, shape, etc of the words so that the meaning comes across visually.
My problem is that all the quotes I've got at the moment tend to be from quite a long time ago and might only appeal to my older students. They are also a little bland, to be honest. My students range from 18 up, all ages, really. Most of them are from South Africa, but I'm getting more and more from all over the world.
The quotes that have worked well in the past have a clear emotional tone, and have at least some words or phrases that can be expressed visually in a fairly straight forward way. Better if they are short too.
To give you an idea, some of the quotes that have worked well:
Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams fly, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
Examples of quotes that have not worked well, either because they are on the abstract side, or because they refer to a context the students simply don't understand:
Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before
(Students got really hung up on trying to depict the concept of choice, and what kind of evils are we talking about here - concentration camp horrors, Dracula, or too much champagne, too many lovers? )
Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
(This one was just hopeless, it's too long, and the context too obscure. I had a student who was convinced it was referring to Tiger Wood's divorce, which, you know, interesting but I'd prefer something that is a bit more part of their world.)
So any suggestions for quotes that my younger students might connect with? I'm thinking song lyrics, but anything evocative, passionate, humorous would work. It would also be great if it's not too sexually explicit or sweary, as while I don't have a problem with that, the company I work for definitely will. Any ideas?
I don't have the power to change the assignment in any way, only to choose new quotes.
The assignment: Students are given a short quotation. They must create a design that conveys the mood of the quote. They are not allowed to use any illustration or added images. They must use only the words of the quote, changing the colour, texture, size, shape, etc of the words so that the meaning comes across visually.
My problem is that all the quotes I've got at the moment tend to be from quite a long time ago and might only appeal to my older students. They are also a little bland, to be honest. My students range from 18 up, all ages, really. Most of them are from South Africa, but I'm getting more and more from all over the world.
The quotes that have worked well in the past have a clear emotional tone, and have at least some words or phrases that can be expressed visually in a fairly straight forward way. Better if they are short too.
To give you an idea, some of the quotes that have worked well:
Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams fly, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
Examples of quotes that have not worked well, either because they are on the abstract side, or because they refer to a context the students simply don't understand:
Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before
(Students got really hung up on trying to depict the concept of choice, and what kind of evils are we talking about here - concentration camp horrors, Dracula, or too much champagne, too many lovers? )
Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
(This one was just hopeless, it's too long, and the context too obscure. I had a student who was convinced it was referring to Tiger Wood's divorce, which, you know, interesting but I'd prefer something that is a bit more part of their world.)
So any suggestions for quotes that my younger students might connect with? I'm thinking song lyrics, but anything evocative, passionate, humorous would work. It would also be great if it's not too sexually explicit or sweary, as while I don't have a problem with that, the company I work for definitely will. Any ideas?
Okay, this might initially sound like the opposite of what you asked for since it’s an old song, but I was trying to think of songs that might be recognized by young people around the world, and I was reminded that on karaoke trips with local teenagers (I too was a teenager at the time, lest this story sound too weird) in both China and Indonesia in the past ten years, someone chose the song “Don’t Stop Believing” and loads of people knew most of the words. Even if one doesn’t know the song, I think these lyrics fit the vibe of your examples:
“Don’t stop believing; hold on to that feeling”
I also like this lyric from BTS’s “Permission to Dance”, which was really big over the summer (and BTS is a global sensation if there ever was one), for the potential to do something visual with the words “fall” and “land”:
“We don’t need to worry, cause when we fall we know how to land.”
You might have already thought of this, but given the success of the deadlines quote, you could try looking through more quotes from Douglas Adams, or maybe, idk, Oscar Wilde or someone else with a reputation for being quippy.
posted by chaiyai at 1:17 AM on December 3, 2021 [2 favorites]
“Don’t stop believing; hold on to that feeling”
I also like this lyric from BTS’s “Permission to Dance”, which was really big over the summer (and BTS is a global sensation if there ever was one), for the potential to do something visual with the words “fall” and “land”:
“We don’t need to worry, cause when we fall we know how to land.”
You might have already thought of this, but given the success of the deadlines quote, you could try looking through more quotes from Douglas Adams, or maybe, idk, Oscar Wilde or someone else with a reputation for being quippy.
posted by chaiyai at 1:17 AM on December 3, 2021 [2 favorites]
Given the huge range of genres young people listen to, I suspect this is likely to be isolating for a non negligible portion of your cohort.
posted by turkeyphant at 8:34 PM on December 3, 2021
posted by turkeyphant at 8:34 PM on December 3, 2021
I feel like going for what's trendy could easily backfire, as it feels inauthentic to who you are. "What's this teacher doing quoting Christina Aguilera?!" (Obviously, I would run into the same problem.)
Instead, how about a timeless quote? Rumi is always a good source. I did a quick google search for visual Rumi quotes because it feels like what you're after is a quote that has easy visualization cues in it. See if any of these could work.
posted by nadise at 5:20 PM on December 4, 2021 [3 favorites]
Instead, how about a timeless quote? Rumi is always a good source. I did a quick google search for visual Rumi quotes because it feels like what you're after is a quote that has easy visualization cues in it. See if any of these could work.
posted by nadise at 5:20 PM on December 4, 2021 [3 favorites]
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posted by Zumbador at 12:56 AM on December 3, 2021