Welcome to Diverse City, Enjoy Your Stay
01.15.08 | Filed under Design, Ideas, Trends.
This is a follow-up on a previous article of mine, titled The Life and Times of Cool. As of January 15th, the post’s location on this site has not recieved any comments, which is the way I’d rather it; the post at Fadtastic had a few replies, some of which have prompted me to write a sequel to further explain the facts and my views on the matter.
One of the commenters on the article at Fadtastic, known as Dustin, had a fair bit to say in reply to my post. Though much of it seemed to be in rebuttal against what I’d written, I was nonetheless pleased with the stir it created in him, and others who read it. I’ll just highlight a few quotes from Dustin’s reply.
…it’s a bit to lofty to say that we can’t create another design bubble, to call for a revolution. This mimicking is the very nature of the beast. Does anyone remember what was before the 2.0 design trend? Everyone made Flash sites and didn’t understand why or how to do it properly, and before that everything was “too much 2advanced” and before that, 45 degree angles. It’s happened before, and it will happen now.
I can’t remember anyone calling for a design revolution before the rise of Web 2.0. I may of course be very wrong about this, but it just wasn’t like that back then. So I don’t believe I’m mimicking anything in that regard. I don’t believe I’m saying we can’t create another design bubble. I’m simply saying it’s a terribly bad idea to let ourselves fall into immature ruts and trends in web design. It hurts the web, and it makes us lose our diversity.
Select innovators exist who drive the whole pack forward and the majority are just a part of the pack who mimic these new trends. Is it ideal? No. Can it be changed? No. Does it ruin the industry? No. Innovators don’t wait to see the new trend, don’t ask for it, they just do it, because that’s what they do. It would be great if we were all innovators, but it doesn’t work that way.
Well said, Dustin. There’s really no question about it - innovators are the people who forge ahead into the unknown, experimenting and thrashing about as they go. This takes both experience and talent, a combination which not many people have, no matter what they say. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not really an innovator, but I’m trying my hardest to build a foundation for a career in design and photography, where I hope to reach the goal of being a true innovator.
There exist a large number of people who can interpret the current design trends and utilize them a successful and professional way in their own work, without having to be a slave to them. There also exist people who can’t survive without the direction being provided for them to copy, and there are yet those who have no real design sensibilities to utilize. Each of these groups plays their role…in the end, even with a lot of mimicing going on, we end up with an overall better design community.
Again, no argument here. I can find no fault in this point - it’s in general agreement with my statement that the Web 2.0 design trends temporarily took us down a few notches in terms of maturity, but when it was settled and exiting, we are emerging as a more mature community.
Another design trend is coming, you can see people breaking away from the current trends for some time now. This is a time to capitalize on that if you’ve been trying to do something different, because soon enough, there will be a new established trend and most of us will be very excited by that until we grow tired of that one too.
Whoa, tiger. History repeats itself, sure enough, but never truly in the same way. And there is nothing to support the theory that we’re going to have another design trend pass through like the Angel of Death in Exodus. If we continue to work hard to branch out and be both creative and diverse, this won’t happen. And I don’t think it’s a good idea to dwell on the current problems we face; instead, let’s concentrate on the good that we’ve done, and the solutions we can develop.
And hey, let’s loosen up a bit, OK? This doesn’t all have to be serious and dull. Contrary to popular belief, craziness is a virtue.
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