Parasol
BRIAN WILLIAMS
CREATIVE/ARTS/TECHNOLOGY
LONDON, UK
brian [at] parasol [dot] io
For commercial projects please go see Diane.
PROJECTS
ME ME ME
UNFINISHED WORK
Modern Classics
Comparing the career trajectory
of English modernist author
Virginia Woolf with Nintendo’s
Super Mario franchise
(1922)
Super Mario Bros.
(1985)
This early effort already displays many of the elements that would come to characterise their most celebrated works.
It might not be today’s most referenced or beloved, but the seeds of true creative revolution are here in plain sight.
(1925)
Super Mario Bros. 3
(1989)
The style they are widely known for today comes into full flower, the first of a string of undisputed classics.
(1927)
Super Mario World
(1990)
The rough edges of its predecessor now softened and the style refined, its breezy smoothness belies a complexity that takes time revealing itself.
Simplicity in the moment-to-moment, but profundity in the bigger picture.
(1928)
Super Mario Galaxy
(2007)
What could have been a retread is instead a seismic twist on a well-worn formula. A textbook example of something initially seen as gimmicky or thin later seen as pioneering and prescient.
(1931)
Super Mario 3D World
(2013)
The style reaches its zenith of poetic expression, providing space for multiple characters to play. Brimming with so many new ideas, this work can inadvertently make other properties seem underthought and coarse.
(1937)
New Super Mario Bros. U
(2013)
A back-to-basics retreat to the familiar that suffers in comparison to it’s predecessors, and could fairly be criticised as unnecessary.
There’s no question of its quality, but given what’s come before, what does it add?