HATE HEARTS
BITTER SWEETS: THE HATE HEARTS
The advent of programmatic photography means a “still” image can now be far more dynamic than that name suggests. It can be altered in countless ways. And, as this project showed, this can be done to order.
What Hate Hearts were about
We took a much-loved type of confectionery. Then, rejecting its usual sugary sentiments, we added some fruity, crowd-sourced phrases instead. Et voilà! Verbally risqué pop art.
So if some potty-mouthed person wanted to see UP YOURS where KISS ME might ordinarily appear, we made that happen. And we did it, implausibly, through the use of photography.
HOW DID WE MANAGE THAT, THEN?
This was a joint effort between the following arts:
1) Modelmaking | Namely handmade plaster renderings of the base of the sweet. As well as letters in six varying tones. All courtesy of the craftsman Bill Turpin.
2) Photography & retouching | By yours truly.
3) Digital | The images were optimised for the website, allowing customisable functionality.
The letters weren’t fonts. They were digital pics; six for every letter. We made an automated tool to create CSS rules according to letter sizes and positions.
In a two-step process, punters typed words into line one. This was adjusted if and when other lines were added. Composite images were then dynamically rendered as high-resolution images for printing or sharing on social media.
HOW MANY IMAGES DID WE MAKE?
Users created 1,357 Hate Hearts in a fortnight.
MORE PROJECTS
GANGS OF LONDON
WHEEZY
BENEATH THE SKIN
ARIZONA
FOOTBALL
I CARE WHAT YOU WEAR
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
HATE HEARTS
MOVEMENT OF COLOUR
LET YOUR ITCH BE HEARD
A MOMENT OF REFLECTION
CUPIDS
DEXCOM