Really enjoying the contrast between the Est. 1817 and the appallingly junky AI art. Love to see that shitty and distinctively AI-specific shade of red from a magazine that covered the John Quincy Adams administration. - ThreadSky

davidjroth.bsky.social • 174 days ago

Really enjoying the contrast between the Est. 1817 and the appallingly junky AI art. Love to see that shitty and distinctively AI-specific shade of red from a magazine that covered the John Quincy Adams administration.

Reposted from Phil Lewis

The October cover of The Atlantic

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/toc...

Comments

regalpastry.bsky.social•167 days ago

As a magazine cover goes, that probably get the editor to enthusiastically accept it.

I woula gone with two to three other ways of Republicans toting that Trump or him taking Republicans for a ride.

leahshaffer.bsky.social•173 days ago

Maybe it's a good cover because we're all bitchin about it but it is annoying if they used some sort of AI art generator. Art directors better watch the sheen because folks are either oblivious or have a strong aversion to AI art style.

oldschoolzero.bsky.social•174 days ago

With its ability to produce results equivalent of an ungraded assignment from an online photoshop course from 2005, AI is truly the technology of the future.

donbones.bsky.social•174 days ago

Hideous

classikmeef.bsky.social•174 days ago

Oh no the poor elephant was tricked and didn't nothing wrong how cru-el

docmcdoom.bsky.social•174 days ago

I can accept the aesthetics of the cover. What I can't accept is the elephant, and my good friends the Mercers and Kochs and Alitos, are unwilling captives.

It's like they asked Dick Cheney to summarize the current state of things.

mariabustillos.bsky.social•173 days ago

That and the tenth-rate heavy-metal-album-cover, budget Frazzetta sheen on the roof. A whole aesthetic derived from some Hawaiian-shirt-clad '90s sysadmin's idea of really kickass art

andrewpaul.bsky.social•173 days ago

's-s-s-sir, the elephant. it's... it's smaller than Trump'

'I SAID PRINT IT GODDAMNIT'

mariabustillos.bsky.social•173 days ago

YEAH that's the other thing, so super pathetically suggesting the elephant is so small and sad and chained up like Dumbo, when IRL Trump can barely keep his seat in the lurching howdah of that screaming rampaging full-grown elephant

andrewpaul.bsky.social•173 days ago

and suggesting that the elephant in this scenario/metaphor shitshow was worth saving to begin with...

mariabustillos.bsky.social•173 days ago

millions of hearts for that observation ALSO

dsmith1980.bsky.social•174 days ago

Because I’m a real party animal I recently read a biography of Henry Clay and it’s amazing how Trumpy Andrew Jackson was w/r/t being a homicidal megalomaniac authoritarian but, if you must hand it to him, he wasn’t literally trying to destroy the country.

dowhilebreak.bsky.social•174 days ago

AI art is the velvet painting of our time but without the quirky charm of intent.

pearlriverflow.com•174 days ago

THAT IS A STREAM NOT A ROAD

joshuajfriedman.com•174 days ago

lol! 1857, but it's hard to read

davidjroth.bsky.social•174 days ago

Uh I'm more of a letters guy than a numbers guy.

babayaga25.bsky.social•174 days ago

Damn, you can even see the white outline around the Trump art that had to be ham-handedly stapled in there.

Print journalism is truly dead if you can't find a nephew with Photoshop Phriday skill levels.

robjackel.bsky.social•174 days ago

Can't expect a cash-strapped upstart publication like this to be able to pay a cover artist.

johnbrownstan.bsky.social•174 days ago

I'm still trying to figure out what this is supposed to mean.

Trump is... carting a circus (?) elephant (GOP?) through the DC swamp? Is Trump a carnie? Is he defeating the swamp or part of it? Is the elephant just along for the ride?

Same energy:

calmthoughts.bsky.social•174 days ago

Is someone just trying to waste your time; then you are not actively doing A Democratic Task on the priorities? Wasted days! Time to be active is now! We must build a stronger Democratic Coalition to make certain we STOP THE REPUBLICAN FASCIST TAKEOVER OF ALL OUR GOVERNING INSTITUTIONS. Be active !

davidjroth.bsky.social•174 days ago

Yeah it rocks. Another poster mentioned that the idea of the GOP elephant as Trump's captive is pretty funny at this point as well.

acidrains.bsky.social•174 days ago

So many questions! I’m stuck on that carriage, which resembles no historical illustration I’ve ever seen. Is it a prison van for the trapped elephant? A hearse??

djregular.tech•174 days ago

The artist is Justin Metz, and I don't know if it's AI, but his work is extremely Worth1000-coded. https://www.jtmetz.com/portfolio/

philadlj.bsky.social•173 days ago

I wish they’d consulted me, the artist responsible for the Oslo Honda Accords

leokitty.bsky.social•174 days ago

david i'm confused by the people expressing that they think this is good

davidjroth.bsky.social•174 days ago

It looks like shit, but also is stupid/obtuse as a visualized metaphor. So I can see the appeal.

johnwtomac.com•173 days ago

It’s great that visually-illiterate editors finally have a tool to help them overrule the better judgment of the art department.

theamitie.bsky.social•174 days ago

Tough to tell if there was a circus metaphor here or if it’s a dragging the 1800s back to Washington metaphor that only AI can muddle so terribly

jdvdub.bsky.social•174 days ago

The artists says they were inspired by the covers of Stephen King and Ray Bradbury novels. So there’s a chance the idea here is “Trump’s
disrespect for norms is as scary as the thrills to be found in a paperback horror novel.”

leokitty.bsky.social•174 days ago

tfw you know something wicked this way comes happens at a travelling circus and nothing else

jdvdub.bsky.social•174 days ago

That’s what I think happened, yes, exactly.

georgem.bsky.social•174 days ago

ChatGPT Barnum

leokitty.bsky.social•174 days ago

i need an explanation of the bird that i think is a red tailed hawk?

else.social•174 days ago

the one in the tree looks like a crow, is there a hawk somewhere that I'm not seeing?

leonardpierce.bsky.social•174 days ago

Feels like both climbing to the driver’s bench of a carriage and wielding a bullwhip of that size are far beyond the capacity of even an AI version of Donald Trump

ejwolf.bsky.social•173 days ago

googled it for you: On the cover: illustrator Justin Metz borrowed the visual language of old Ray Bradbury and Stephen King paperbacks to portray a circus wagon on its ominous approach to a defiled Capitol. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Bradbury’s 1962 masterpiece, was a particular inspiration.

arc315.bsky.social•173 days ago

I first became aware of Metz because he did an atrocious AI illustration for THR a month ago.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/election-2024-hollywood-silicon-valley-1235967050/

robpollard45.bsky.social•174 days ago

Is it just laziness? Cheapness? Time pressure? Higher ups think it looks good?

All of the above?

Related, this is FX's lead promo image for The Old Man. Why use a goofy "modern" AI image? How does it fit a prestige show that features multiple old actors?

https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/the-old-man

davidjroth.bsky.social•174 days ago

This feels like an attempt at an homage to the old painted cover VHS boxes/posters. But I agree that every time I see it I think it looks worse.

robpollard45.bsky.social•174 days ago

Boy, if that's their intent, it whizzed right by me -- I never got "VHS box" vibes from that show.

shanecedt.bsky.social•174 days ago

I don't find AI art valuable at all. Finding out a AI developed it cheapens it and imo makes it worthless. It's just a cost savings item. It would be cool if this cover was made by a human, but those days are gone now.

mattberry05.bsky.social•174 days ago

did Trump really do that

davidjroth.bsky.social•174 days ago

He's doing it now

jmritchey.bsky.social•174 days ago

It's 2003 PS3 game red, and requires destroying an old growth forest every time it's used.

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