There are places I go on the internet to get design inspiration.
I go to places like this and I browse and browse.
And I realize: good design feels like a commodity.
Everybody has a well designed site now. If they don’t, they will in the next 5 years.
Everyone knows how important design is. We see the success of Apple and Dyson. We’ve seen the articles. We feel the feelings that a well designed product elicits.
It’s like design and design thinking and thoughts on design and the importance of design and “55 reasons why your next CEO should be a designer” is everywhere.
Design, even good design, is a commodity now.
And I think to myself: maybe it always was.
Maybe design isn’t earth changing and ground shaking. Maybe it’s just a service, a product, a craft. Like being a farmer or a fisherman or a table maker.
Maybe we wake up in the morning not to “be disruptive” and get recognition and change the face of design, but to ply the oars, cast the nets, sand the edges, put another layer of lacquer, fix the kerning, and simply provide a service to the millions of organizations that need help with presenting themselves to audiences.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Its sounds like you, at one point assumed, design was in fact art, as opposed to a craft. Clarify this. So we don’t get bogged down with semantics.
Good point, Courtney. I’m not exactly sure. I’m trying to understand the feeling I get when I look through a huge list of really well designed sites. There’s some, “that’s awesome looking” and a lot of “fuck, what’s the point.”
I’m not sure what that second part is. My hunch is it’s part idealism, part egocentrism. Idealism in that part of me is very Charlie just won a golden ticket and the world is magical and everything matters and we can all make such a big difference and we’re all going to heaven, lads! Then the egocentrism being I’m gonna save the world and I’m the most important and I’ve got the solutions and no one else can do it like me and I’m the best, I just know it, honest.
So, when I go browsing around an un-fucking-believably long list of excellently designed sites — sites much better than I could likely design — I feel this “what’s the point” kind of feeling because now nothing matters and I’m the worst.
I’m not sure if that’s true, but I think it’s getting at something.
So, I think I’m realizing the way out of this pit is to realize design is service, is sanding down wood, is waking up early to cast nets, etc… it’s a job, a job that needs doing.
Maybe that’s what you’re getting at with “craft.” Craft sounds to me like paper maché and ugly home-made clothes.
What sticks?
A few things in response:
This is probably something close to the overwhelming sense that “if everything is amazing then nothing is.” It happens to me as well and I attribute this to the internet surfing bubble I live in. On the one hand, it’s good to see so much good design out there. Good design helps the world of information, knowledge and communication. That’s what it’s for. But in regards to being a creative person who operates within that world of wanting to make a mark and contribute, the more ‘amazing’ design I look at, the more I feel like I’m spinning my wheels. It’s important that as a maker, I should be making for my own subjective happiness. My solution is to quit looking at it unless I’m researching a specific solution. It’s better to be making than looking. Always. Get inspiration for creativity and the desire to make from other sources and experiences.
Both good and bad design have always been used as a tool in commodity. Design as a practice is about communication. It can be used for artistic ideals definitely. But it is in general a separate activity. Not all designers are fine artists, and not all fine artists are good at design. I’ve witnessed this over and over. So there is a definite separation.
When rules get broken new ground is made. The lines between high art and commodity get blurred. New messages are created. When it’s NOT used for the purpose of convincing someone to buy a product of adopt brand loyalty, design can be much more.
Personally I feel like a lot of what constitutes ‘amazing’ design on the internet really is a moment of the grass always being greener. Other peoples ideas often look better than our own. We can see our own mistakes, hesitations, and doubt in our own work. We can’t see those in the work of our peers so easily.
When I feel the pangs of delusion it’s time to stop looking and push my self back into the making. I’m a maker. I have ideas and I have to see them executed because it’s hard wired into me. It’s my calling and the thing that makes me happy. The rest is existential, human condition bullshit and I can decide whether or not I give up or keep pushing my Sisyphean boulder up the hill. I’m of the mind that to give up would be cheating. It’s the easy route. And ultimately to give up one thing because it seems hard creates a slippery slope for every other area in my life that’s a challenge. Good design doesn’t happen accidentally. When we see others doing good work it’s important to remember that they go through the same kind of delusion from time to time and if they say otherwise they are dishonest. You would probably be able to see that dishonesty in their work at some point.
VOLLEY TO YOU.
Thanks for writing, Courtney – you’re a real gem!
“I should be making for my own subjective happiness.” I like this. I think this is what I’m smacking into: this is the only reason that matters. I’m learning it’s not cool anymore to be somebody in design… I think I thought it was.
I don’t know if that’s it… seems trite. But I like what you’ve said regardless: what matters — maybe the only thing that matters — is enjoying the making of the things.
I also resonate with design as “practice”… there are sets of rules, best practices, grids, line-heights, etc. That’s what I’m meaning to accomplish with the fisher/farmer/carpenter stuff.
I guess I feel I’m at a pretty introspective moment, looking at what I’ve created, what I enjoy, what my career has been and what it can be… A lot of potential, a lot of choices… I’d like to choose well. The image that gives me comfort is the simple craftsman, oiled leather apron, door opens, little bell jings, english accent: “sir, I need a sign painted for my haberdashery.”
Up to now design wasn’t like that. It was sexy, it was hollywood. I was the sleek creative director with the game-changing slogan. Now it’s more of a commodity, a sign that needs painting. Part of me feels a little, “that’s it??” about that. Another part has hair on its knuckles.
Am I making any sense?
Ultimately, I think we’re saying the same thing, Courtney. I’m just coming from an introspective place wondering about what sign I want to hang on the door of my hypothetical little shop… I’ve already got the apron, though, so that’s taken care of.
I think we are on the same page for sure.
The ‘making’ is for you. It’s not trite if it matters. To be even more pragmatic: I went through a phase after design school where I didn’t want to design any more. It conflicted with my inner painter. I thought everything I did, creatively speaking, was supposed to be for purely altruistic motives.
“No exchange of monies will soil these hands”, he said, shaking his paint thinner at the heavens…
Then I grew up. I did odd jobs that ultimately were no where near as rewarding. Also I wasn’t as good as at them as I was at design. I realized there were creative endeavors that pragmatic, and those that were altruistic. It was up to me to carve out a place for each. That part is actually hard. Being a designer is easy. I eat/sleep/breathe visual communication. Doing it well and challenging myself for me is the hard part. Plus I have to make a living and feed my monsters and pay for their roof. I may as well do what I’m good at.
Being disciplined enough to go out into the studio and do something “pure” when I’m tired and feeling like a creative sad sack is up to me also. I don’t have to. But if I’m not going to do it then I don’t have a right to complain about the fact that I get to push pictures and text around for a living. It’s my skill. It has shiny glittery days and sticky gross days. My fulfillment is my choice. Anything worth doing is worth it’s own inherent struggles.
Furthermore, practicing good design in anything you and I do is just a good fucking idea. We care about what we engage in, for money or not for money. Design is a reflection of the honest human desire create with care and consideration. Straight up. You and I would not be authentic in our work, craft, ‘pure’ projects, whatever it is, if we didn’t consider aesthetics and best practices.
Now my sign-painting apron has Chase all over it.
respect.