Memes just got classier with this online Bayeux Tapestry generator
If you’re wandering around social media these days (and who doesn’t?), you’ll likely have encountered the pernicious byproduct of post-modern pop culture – the meme. In the right place and time, it’s hilarious. Unfortunately, it’s also repetitive. Everyone uses the same pictures and the same things again and again. Luckily, a bunch of enterprising chaps over on GitHub have created a blast from the past dubbed the Bayeux Tapestry generator aka the Historic tale Construction Kit that may bring the memes of today to a better tomorrow.
For the uninitiated, the Bayeux tapestry is an ancient, and by ancient we mean circa 11th century tapestry that depicts historical events leading to the Norman conquest of England. The art style is distinctive, with figures over a plain wool yarn background. It’s kind of like a comic, with a chronological sequence and a loose narrative but embroidered on cloth.
Now, with the Historic Tale Construction Kit, you’re able to assemble your own virtual Bayeux tapestry complete with the aged cloth background and overlay it with a host of figures, buildings, animals and the like along with your own text to create retro-esque takes on modern memes.
The interface is fairly straightforward and you can rotate, flip and resize images at will while text is simply a matter of you clicking on where you want it plonked down and typing what you want to write onscreen. You’re also able to save a tapestry to work on late or save it for export as a PNG file. There are, of course more skilled and wittier artists online and the Daily Mail has rounded up some hilariously tongue-in-cheek ones that are in time to celebrate the return of the original Bayeux tapestry for exhibition in the UK.
The HTCK is hosted on GitHub and was created by Leonard Allain-Launay, Mathieu Thoretton and Maria, who resurrected it from an original project made by two students at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. The HTCK can be used online or can be downloaded and used offline as well. Swing by here to class up your memes and take your meme game to another level.
