Do you want to know how the Screen Bean characters looked like. Figure 1, below, may refresh your memory!

Figure 1: Some Screen Bean samples

These Screen Beans were a prominent part of the Clip Art Gallery app that provided graphics for Microsoft Office programs. Screen Beans were not created by Microsoft themselves but licensed from a company called A Bit Better Corporation. Their site now just contains a single page that lets you know that they no longer sell these Screen Beans.

That’s a far cry away from a decade or more ago, when these Screen Beans were hugely popular. Internet access was not as fast or widespread then as it is today, and most presentation designers did not depend on online stock photo sites. Rather, most of them bought huge collections of clip art spread across multiple CDs and DVDs. Even Screen Beans were available as a clip art collection you could buy, because not all Screen Bean graphics were available from Microsoft. You could always upgrade to a larger collection.

Do you want to use some Screen Bean characters today? Fortunately, Microsoft still holds a redistribution license for some Screen Beans, and your PowerPoint slides could get that vintage look! Figure 2, below shows Screen Beans available for download from the Office website many years ago.

Figure 2: Screen Beans from the Office website

Screen Beans: A Graphic Legacy

Origins

• Creator: A Bit Better Corporation — an independent design firm focused on fun, expressive stick-figure illustrations.
• Product: Screen Beans — faceless characters with exaggerated poses, ideal for workplace and communication scenarios.
• Released: Mid-1990s — when PowerPoint was becoming the lingua franca of business.

Microsoft Collaboration

• Licensed by Microsoft: Screen Beans were included in the Microsoft Clip Art Gallery, starting in the Office 97 era.
• Distribution: Found in PowerPoint, Word, and Excel — quickly became the “default” clip art choice for millions.

Parallel Influence

• Dennis Austin’s Role: Though not involved initially, Dennis Austin joined A Bit Better Corporation in 1997 as a partner, following his tenure as PowerPoint co-creator.
• Duration: Stayed with the company until 2012, contributing to its design and consulting work.

Fading Fame

• Screen Beans grew ubiquitous—so much so that they became a symbol of overused visuals in corporate slides.
• By the 2010s, Microsoft stopped bundling traditional clip art, favoring more dynamic online images.

Vintage Appeal Today

• Still Available: Microsoft retains a redistribution license for certain Screen Beans—allowing users to download and reuse them for retro flair.
• Fan Following: There’s even a Screen Beans fan page on Facebook—proof that nostalgia never really fades.

The post Faceless Characters: Screen Beans appeared first on Mediamazine.

Why no face? Because once you add facial features, things get specific. Is it a man? A woman? Young? Old? Smiling? Frowning? Suddenly, we’re telling a story that might not match the audience. Instead, faceless figures are like blank canvases or unbranded mannequins—neutral, versatile, and relatable. They’re the Swiss Army knife of visual communication: ready to represent a kid in Kenya, a senior in Sweden, or an executive in Ecuador without picking sides.

Faceless characters have appeared in everything from street signage to user manuals. Ever seen the bathroom sign stick figures? Yep, they’re part of the faceless family too — keeping things simple, universal, and easy to recognize across cultures. Faceless characters are like avatars in a multiplayer game where you haven’t customized yours yet. They signal: “This person could be you — or anyone else.” Gender, age, ethnicity? Irrelevant. What matters is their human-ness, not their appearance.

Think faceless characters are a modern PowerPoint thing? Nope — they’re old. Like, really old. We’re talking “grandparent of civilization” old.

Long before humans got artsy with stick figures and abstract avatars, they were busy decorating cave walls — not with selfies or family portraits, but with faceless animals!

Where can you find these paintings? One location is a famous cave in Lascaux, France. It’s basically the Louvre of the Stone Age. What’s drawn there? Lots of animals. Horses, deer, bulls — all outlined like shadows cast on a campfire-lit wall. No eyeballs. No snouts. No happy little smiles. Just silhouette-style creatures, as shown in Figure 1, below. These are like nature’s version of cardboard cutouts.

Figure 1: A painting of the Giant Deer from Lascaux
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Let’s time-travel again, this time to 3300 BC — to the incredible Indus Valley civilization. Think of it as one of humanity’s earliest neighborhood societies, complete with cities, plumbing, and yes… mysterious animal seals.

What are these seals, anyway? Imagine stamping your signature, but instead of your name, you use a silhouette of an animal. No eyelashes, no smirks — just a clean, simple outline. It’s like emoji design meets ancient artisan skills. One popular seal shown in Figure 2, below shows an elephant that’s basically the James Bond of animals — cool, composed, and faceless. It’s not a portrait, it’s a symbol. Just like a company logo doesn’t need a CEO’s face, these seals didn’t need detailed features to send a message.

Figure 2: Elephant Seal, Indus Valley civilization
Source: Wikimedia Commons

So, you’ve seen the elephant seal from the Indus Valley civilization, right? Not the animal seal, mind you—the carved kind from 3300 BC that looks like a minimalist logo from a prehistoric startup.

No face, no fuss These animal figures are like ancient shadow puppets—no facial expressions, no dramatic flair, just bold outlines. They’re the original “Keep It Simple” champions of visual design. Think of them as prehistoric clip art designed for maximum interpretability.

What did the elephant mean? Could be:

• Memory (because elephants never forget),
• Strength (they’re huge and majestic),
• Ownership (“Yep, this one’s from our tribe!”).

In short: symbols, not selfies.

So, here is a design Lesson from 3300 BC. Faceless design isn’t about what you leave out… it’s about what you allow others to fill in. These seals let people project their own meaning, instead of forcing a fixed identity. That’s graphic design wisdom that’s still valid today—from logos to avatars to presentation icons.

Faceless doesn’t mean featureless. It means universal. The Indus Valley was onto something major—way before Instagram filters and PowerPoint icons. They knew that when you strip away the details, what’s left can speak louder than ever.

Just when you thought Indus Valley seals were a private animal club… surprise! Humans started showing up — but not the detailed, selfie-ready kind. These folks were just as faceless and iconic as their four-legged companions, as shown in Figure 3, below.

Figure 3: Indus Seals and the Indus Civilization Script
Source: The Indus-Sarasvati Civilization

Whether it was a majestic bull or a mystery person, the artistic vibe stayed consistent: think “shadow puppet chic.” Bold outlines, zero facial drama. These figures were more like stick-on icons than portrait paintings — clean, simple, and universally relatable.

Hold on; what about all the fancy sculptures found from the Indus Valley sites? Great point! The Indus Valley wasn’t a one-trick pony. They also made stunning 3D sculptures — from detailed figurines to graceful terracotta works. But here’s the catch: the seals (those little engraved stamps archaeologists love) were mostly flat, two-dimensional, and proudly faceless.

Think of it like using icons in a slide deck. You could use a full stock photo with detailed expressions — or just a neutral silhouette that lets viewers imagine themselves in the scene. Indus Valley artists chose the silhouette route, long before we had PowerPoint or Canva.

Ready for a time-travel jump from 3300 BC to today? Buckle up — we’re heading to present-day India, where the spirit of ancient design is still alive and sketching!

Nestled in the lush corners of Maharashtra, India, the Warli people are like the creative descendants of ancient seal-makers — only instead of clay stamps, they use mud walls and rice paste to craft stunning art that feels timeless. You can see an example of such art in Figure 4, below.

Figure 4: Warli art
Source: Geetesh Bajaj

Notice the style used in Warli paintings. They use characteristics very similar to art from thousands of years ago:

• Two-dimensional
• No frills
• No facial features Basically: if cave paintings and stick figures had a stylish, minimalist baby — this would be it.

Who’s in these paintings? Everyone! Farmers, dancers, drummers, animals, trees — all drawn as faceless silhouettes, like they’re part of a universal village mural. It’s less about “who” they are, and more about “what” they’re doing. Think emoji storytelling, minus the smiley faces.

Hold onto your paintbrushes — because this tribal art form isn’t just old… it’s Indus Valley old! Some historians suggest Warli art may have first doodled its way into history around 3000 BC (source: Wikipedia).

Let’s be honest: ancient artists weren’t sitting around saying, “Hmm… I need to design something inclusive and globally relatable.” Nope! They weren’t chasing diversity quotas or UX guidelines.

So, why faceless? Nobody’s really sure. Maybe it was style. Maybe it was symbolism. Maybe facial features were just a pain to carve. But one thing’s clear — less face didn’t mean less meaning. These creators somehow stumbled onto a formula that feels tailor-made for today.

They may not have intended it, but these ancient artists created designs that still vibe with our modern world. Faceless characters aren’t missing something — they’re offering something bigger: relatability, simplicity, and timeless storytelling.

Note: This post is an observation and makes no claims of historical accuracy!

The post Looking at Faceless Characters appeared first on Mediamazine.

But even with all those limitations, the black and white pictures speak volumes — probably more than the images of today. First of all, the photographers then had to be experts — film was expensive, and the photographer could only see the results of his or her workdays after the actual shoot.

A few years ago, Google teamed up with the folks at LIFE magazine to bring this amazing collection within a special LIFE photo archive, with some pictures dating back to the 1750s. This was open to everyone, and you were free to use these pictures for non-commercial usage.

And that was great — but in a behavior that is not typical of Google, this search would often not work, and even when it worked, results were sparse. In fact, Google’s search for LIFE magazine pictures did not even show all the pictures that they had indexed! And if you notice the area highlighted in red within the screenshot, above, you’ll notice that they have not even updated the year of the copyright info — that still reads 2008 and we are in the year 2013 now!

So go ahead and enjoy the pictures from another era. Some of these pictures may be a little disturbing though — but they do bring some history alive!

The post Pictures from the TIME LIFE Collection appeared first on Mediamazine.

The post Shwup is now muvee Cloud appeared first on Mediamazine.

1. You can order a DVD of any media you upload to a Shwup album.
2. All albums you create can be shared with a custom link so that friends or family who are not Shwup members can see your uploaded stuff.

The post Shwup Adds DVD and Custom Link Features appeared first on Mediamazine.

Look at the screenshot below.

When we get another similar mailer from Apple, we’ll make sure that we blog about that one too!

The post Another Valentine Mailer for Apple iPod appeared first on Mediamazine.

You can learn more about Animoto here.

The post Animoto’s Valentine’s Day Greeting Cards appeared first on Mediamazine.

The post Apple’s Valentine Ad appeared first on Mediamazine.

Read more here.

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Figure 1: Photobucket comparison Free vs. Pro accounts

The only problem is that Flickr, one of Photobucket’s competitors, has been providing unlimited storage and bandwidth for the same price for years now! However, in comparison to Photobucket’s Pro offerings, Flickr’s Pro accounts don’t provide FTP access and premium tech support. Not yet!

Figure 2: Photobucket’s Pro account

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