Away Messages is a series of typographic prints commissioned to send-off AOL's 1990s instant messenger service, AIM. "Away Messages" refers to the statuses you could set on AIM when away from the computer. These away messages, such as "brb," "leave 1" gOObYE." or "~*kewl*~" were places of typographic creativity in an era where design tools were inaccessible to nonprofessionals. As such, the misuse of the ASCII character set, mis-capitalizations, abbreviations, and misspellings became tools of creativity. These prints commemorate that creativity under constraint.
These images were created using a combination of 3D modeling in Maya, rendering in Adobe Dimension, and Photoshop for compositing.
Above: several versions of "brb" which make use of low-quality dithering from early GIF art.
Below: gOOdBYE.
Below: a broken heart for the death of AIM.
These prints remain available on Curioos in a limited edition.
