I had wondered why cars often had so original design character, which I can explain with this example. I was at an auto show where a couple was looking at an Ol

I had wondered why cars often had so original design character, which I can explain with this example. I was at an auto show where a couple was looking at an Oldsmobile Aurora (pictured [0]). It's an innocuous design with the rear lights being the distinctive/only stand-out styling feature. I could overhear them both going back and forth, "I like the car... but those rear lights..."--a lost sale. Later model years appear to use split rear lights. That's when I realized how industrial design has to eliminate "reasons not to buy" often much more so than generate "reasons to buy". A bland design offends everyone about the same amount or less, an opinionated/ornate design offends some much more than that base amount. So in the end, with mass manufacturing and globalization, it means needing to appeal to greater masses and less ornamentation. I mean if it was my job to draft the streetlights, I wouldn't want to deal with a redesign because of pushback on artistic choices. I probably just want to get done on designing more resilient city garbage bins, etc. [0] https://cdn-fastly.thetruthaboutcars.com/media/2023/12/20/15471/abandoned-history-oldsmobile-s-guidestar-navigation-system-and-other-cartography.jpg?size=720x845&nocrop=1 https://cdn-fastly.thetruthaboutcars.com/media/2023/12/20/15...