5 ms·
A lot of the reason for these design trends is that no one has the courage to think differently, so you get huge numbers of companies all looking virtually iden
by olivermarks 5y ago
A lot of the reason for these design trends is that no one has the courage to think differently, so you get huge numbers of companies all looking virtually identical.
It's a bit like 'nobody gets fired for buying IBM/McKinsey' etc...no one challenges product managers and marketing when yet another adobe illustrator generated Memphis style brand identity & UI is unveiled, complete with multi cultural inclusive visual banality. At some point this will suddenly be deader than an animated gif of a flame and the next trend will quickly become ubiquitous.
- Guest42 5y agoI wonder perhaps too if the more prestigious resumes start coming from companies that embrace these trends, further reinforcing them across industry.
- lwhi 5y agoI think it's more ultitarian than that. Companies have traditionally got what they need by using these conventions. Hopefully that will change, because it sure is boring.
- thisCtx 5y agoWhen I’m trying to do computer tasks, I want to get them done, not decipher some design wonks metaphor and hyperbole. You want thinking different? Try trotting out a line that doesn’t start out like an old man pissed at them kids for not being as competent as folks were “back in his day.” The whole point of modern logistics is to simplify them so we can maximize time for ourselves instead of flogging the profit chant of last generations rubes seeking Valhalla.
- strict9 5y ago>with multi cultural inclusive visual banality Lumping in cultural inclusivity with your critique is quite revealing. There's nothing in the article or about this style of illustration that hints at cultural values, why include it in the tirade?
- jjoonathan 5y agoI see representation as a positive thing, but it's definitely part of the style.
- lupire 5y agoAnti-racism is on trend this year.
- TchoBeer 5y agoI think it'll stay for next year too, considering how many years anti-racism has been on trend.
- olivermarks 5y agoRacialization - making everything about racial characteristics and pitting races against each other - is what has been 'on trend' recently and the world is a poorer place for it. Anti racism has been around forever and always should be, because drawing attention to and excluding people due to their race is completely unacceptable in liberal democracy merit based societies.
- TchoBeer 5y agoI don't see how putting people with darker skin in art could possibly be seen as "pitting races against each other". Would the artstyle be improved if it only depicted white people?
- olivermarks 5y agoNo.
- hedora 5y agoThe pictures in the article include skin tones such as purple and fuschia. To me this visual style screams: “Of COURSE we’re totally ok with…those people we cannot correctly enumerate, even superficially. That doesn’t mean we’d include anything too controversial like those <insert racial epithet here>‘s.” To each their own, I guess. At least they’re trying?
- joe_the_user 5y ago...no one has the courage to think differently... Almost no ordinary company wants to present themselves as wholly bizarre and strange. Many companies want to present themselves as basically normal but with a few interesting quirks and affections. Getting that balance right is hard, so you get the system that the article describes; it lets a variety of organizations appear slightly different in more or less the same way. People manage "coolness" effectively for upward mobility integrate the unusual into something that's mostly mainstream - have a leather jacket or a quirky haircut or whatever. I'll spend time at industrial music festivals where no one expects to get but that's a decision and not the sort that anyone should expect a business to make. (also, you'd do well to avoid the multiculturalism issue)