Why Clip Art Was Everywhere Until It Wasn't [video](www.youtube.com)

25 pointsby surprisetalk17 hours ago6 comments

gr33nq2 hours ago
Brings me back to the days of going to dgl.microsoft.com in Internet Explorer to explore the library of Clip Art graphics online. This was during the Office XP and 2003 days. Even today, that style comes across as far more authentic than the tacky AI-generated flyers you see plastered everywhere now.
- Xirdusa minute ago
  I remember people being scoffed at for using clipart, for pretty much the same reasons people are scoffed at today for using AI (low effort, samey, doesn't fit the rest of the visual style, and subjectively ugly.)
ameliaquining13 minutes ago
Would anyone who watched the video like to tell us what the answer to the headline question is?
- janalsncm7 minutes ago
  It filled a niche at the time when there weren’t a lot of easily accessible stock images of things. Clip art was the successor to analog “clip books” used for things like ads in newspapers.
  Once the internet filled that niche with more and better pictures, shipping a fixed database of images with your software didn’t make sense anymore.
  It’s a good video, worth a watch on 1.5x.
w-llan hour ago
Is there a name for the "clip art" or the style that like almost every 'Dry Cleaner' uses. I dont think its clip are but it shares many of the qualities and im talking coast to coast.
- kid6424 minutes ago
  Yeah, "pop art".
gedyan hour ago
Reminds me of a surreal 2000-ish clip art comic 'My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable':
https://theslingsandarrows.com/my-new-filing-technique-is-un...
Got a lot of laughs from the bizarre humor and clip art usage
gnabgib2 hours ago
(2023)
AspiringCapybaran hour ago
Now everyone just gets clipart tattoos