15 Sep 2020

Technicolor portals

When I was a child growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, I discovered a portal that shone in dazzling Technicolor onto a world that was – due to poverty, conflict and division – too often monochrome. It’s easy to romanticize and retrofit the 1980s and early ’90s as a time of neon lights and synthesizers, while overlooking the austerity of a pre-internet era in which access to culture outside capital cities was often so limited that it took on mythic proportions, required crate-digging and tape-sourcing quests, and was hoarded jealously. One exception was the transportive space of the amusement arcade, with its cacophony of sound and lights. My friends and I were soon banned from our local arcade – partly for minor acts of delinquency but mostly for being skint in a place that was fuelled by profit. Fortunately, we had one last refuge: at the back of a video-rental store on my street, in a working-class area of my hometown, Derry, was a single arcade game. That was all we needed.

Big feels from this. Like any narrative; games can take you to new worlds...and maybe a blueberry Slush Puppy while maining Blanka.

EDIT: Holy shit, the Slush Puppy brand is still really right! 👨‍🍳👌

About

Chancee is a designer who codes from London Town.

They have worked for the likes of Nike, Vodafone, Sky, Disney and Pearsons, won awards from Promax, BAFTAs, the Appys and The Drum. Spoken at The Waldorf and Southampton University - despite swearing like a sailor. Available for hire to draw pretty curves and code clever things.