is-it-possible-to-draw-the-internet?-this-22-year-old-illustrator-gets-close

I don’t know what I just looked at. It involved a Nintendo 64 controller, that much is for certain. But then, what else? I believe there were dinosaurs? Gadgets? Disembodied breasts? I can’t say for certain. I just remember a psychedelic fever dream, one seen through a 13-year-old male gaze. Or perhaps a glimpse into the id of the internet itself.

[Illustration: Daniel Keogh]

This is what it’s like to explore the work of Daniel Keogh, a 22-year-old self-taught illustrator out of Bendigo, Australia. His pieces are visual onslaughts of internet memes, famous cartoon characters, and a whole lot of other free-association 1990s kid junk piled in, too.

“I suppose I’m just going for a sensory overload, whether it’s by color or sheer volume of content,” says Keogh. “I just want my art to make people stop and look, to be so full of information it’s undeniable.”

In another frame, I see a portrait of Jesus next to an AR15, next to a coconut drink, next to the Facebook Like button, next to a pink sprinkled donut. It’s like piles and piles of the familiar references of pop artists, told through the lens of social media sensibilities. It’s like the piece visualizes the daily online struggle of caring about gun control, someone else’s beach photos, and a ‘grammable dessert all in split-second scrolling succession.

Money Fight [Illustration: Daniel Keogh]

At first glance, the pieces appear to be pure chaos, but while the content is certainly random at times, the way Keogh actually constructs his layouts is akin to making a mandala. Over three days of drawing with a pen, Keogh works from a center focal point outward, carefully balancing each side with column shapes to ensure a sense of structure and symmetry. (Color is added digitally once the ink is scanned into a computer.)

Meme Supreme [Illustration: Daniel Keogh]

His most striking montage may be an overwhelming pile of heads called Meme Supreme. It shows every animated and cartoon personality from the past decade in one gigantic frame, from Arthur, to Naruto, to Bart Simpson, to Piccolo, to Pepe the Frog, to Yoshi. Across the frame, Keogh effortlessly mocks anime and PBS cartoons alike. “A lot of my earliest memories are sitting at kitchen tables trying to replicate images from Mad Magazine, so I think that’s where the ability to draw cartoons has come from,” says Keogh.

You can find more of Keogh’s work on Instagram. He also sells prints starting at $135 apiece.

10-shortcuts-made-possible-by.new

Who doesn’t love finding a good shortcut? A year ago, G Suite created a handful of shortcuts: docs.new, sheets.new, and slides.new. You can easily pull up a new document, spreadsheet or presentation by typing those shortcuts into your address bar. 

This inspired Google Registry to release the .new domain extension as a way for people to perform online actions in one quick step. And now any company or organization can register its own .new domain to help people get things done faster, too. Here are some of our favorite shortcuts that you can use:

  • Playlist.new: Create a new playlist to add songs on Spotify.

  • Story.new: Write about what matters to you on Medium.

  • Canva.new: Create beautiful designs with your team.

  • Webex.new: For an easy, fast, and secure way to start your personal meeting room from any browser, try this shortcut from Cisco Webex.

  • Link.new: Instantly create trusted, powerful, recognizable links that maximize the impact of every digital initiative using Bitly.

  • Invoice.new: Create, customize and send customer invoices directly from the Stripe Dashboard. 

  • Api.new: Prototype and launch your ideas for new Node.js API endpoints with this shortcut from RunKit.

  • Coda.new: Simplify your team’s work with a new doc that combines documents and spreadsheets into a single canvas.

  • Music.new: Create personalized song artwork for OVO Sound artist releases, pre-save upcoming music, and play the latest content with a single click.

  • Cal.new: Create a new Google Calendar event right from your browser.

OpenTable’s reservation.new, eBay’s sell.new and Github’s repo.new are also handy time-savers. Similar to .app, .page, and .dev, .new will be secure because all domains will be served over HTTPS connections. Through January 14, 2020, trademark owners can register their trademarked .new domains. Starting December 2, 2019, anyone can apply for a .new domain during the Limited Registration Period. If you’ve got an idea for a .new domain, you can learn more about our policies and how to register at whats.new

With .new, you can help people take action faster. We hope to see .new shortcuts for all the things people frequently do online.