The Bleed, Vol. 12: Zoomed Out

LETTER

Dear Readers,

staff

from the Do you remember when “zoom” was a camera lens, “zoomed in” was taking a close-up of something far away, and being zoomed out was…well, still camera related? Who knew that one day, the advent of a world-wide pandemic would mean that Zoom calls would be the vehicle through which we lived our everyday lives? Who knew that we would spend so much time connecting with others through a video lens that we’d experience serious fatigue from our (primarily) virtual lives? Suffice it to say, we’re “Zoomed out”.

“Zoomed out” is used to indicate an intense case of video fatigue. No longer are our homes safe little bubbles, we now video-chat, attend classes, and conduct meetings through that little computer camera. As a result, we are finding it much harder to separate ourselves enough to get that “down time” we used to find at home.

We’ve devoted this issue of the Bleed to exploring how folks are adapting to our new remote lives (“Workspaced Out”) and how innovation in design has continued to march forward despite the radical shift in working environment and the unique challenges of the past year. This exploration is deeply meaningful to our team. Every year, the graduating class of our graphic design program produces The Bleed as a capstone project upon graduation. The group of students who produced this issue have spent over a year of their education experience–for some that’s nearly half–trying to figure out how to create and grow with their fellow students by way of countless Zoom calls.

At the same time, having endured this pandemic for over a year, we’ve had the chance to zoom out and explore topics beyond COVID-19, such as NFTs (“Million Dollar JPEGS”), motion graphics (“A Brief History of Motion Graphics”,) and fun brainstorming techniques (“Bisociation”). In our own way we wanted to express the original common meaning of “zoomed out” – looking at the world through a wide lens.

We hope you find this issue of The Bleed as relevant, informative, and entertaining as the staff had creating it.

Chelsea Callas Deb Hanson Heather Van Doorn Hailey Fisher