Akanksha Goyal, BA design for Art Direction Since the start of the DPS course I have been working for a boutique design studio. Since their clients operate in the luxury sector, they mainly adopt a minimalistic style of design. While working for them I realised how minimalist design has become synonymous with luxury. On the other hand, anti-design as a trend is more chaotic, colourful and loud. This might imply that being bold cannot be considered luxurious or “sellable”. The notion of minimalism being capitalist has been rejected by a lot of young and independent designers. During the pandemic, many people turned to art and design as a form of communication and escape. Graphic designers were creating work more for pleasure rather than as a job. This, I believe, pushed the anti-design style forward in the arts community. Furthermore, the stylistic choices of this trend are maximalist which often don’t suit the taste of corporate culture or the mass audience. It was as if all young designers were screaming “Scr*w you” to the government, corporates, and clients. Anti-design also provides the opportunity for non-designers to experiment in the field, and ironically create kitsch work without being ostracised. Since anti-design refers to the rejection of traditional principles of what is considered “good” design, it allows people to create with more freedom. This includes playing with various types of styles, colours and textures. If we compare a more “commercial” album cover to independent artist shy kid’s album cover, we see that the former looks more traditionally designed than the latter. However, we can assume that the artist’s aim was to release music to the public without breaking the bank over his album artwork. The beauty of anti-design lies in the dynamism and flexibility it allows. Despite it being practised by independent creators as a hobby or a way of means, we can also see examples of anti-design represented at an editorial level. Creating what is considered anti-design works requires more design skill than it looks. I can now recognise that, when I create my designs for fun or to experiment with type, I am working with an anti-design perspective. As opposed to, creating minimalist work which surprisingly requires less effort. On a more technical level, this style requires a great eye for detail and an understanding of composition to create a balanced work of piece. The more brazen artworks that were created for fun can be considered the basics of anti-design, but upcoming socio-political magazines like Mushpit and Buffalo Zine explore anti-design from an aesthetical and technical point of view. The creators of Mushpit say, “We were both testing out jobs in fashion and were already quite disillusioned by our experiences. After one too many telling’s off about not packing a sample in the correct tissue paper, parodying the industry became a no-brainer. Our aim was an alternative and honest voice for young women.” By adding more chaos to the design they are stripping away the perfectionism that design and designers try to often achieve. In a world where everything looks Instagram-perfect and clean, the rise of anti-design has helped people band together and reject conformity and design for pleasure.
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March 2022
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