BA HONS, GMD Ben Heathorn Craft or craftsman? Wherever there is a push in one direction, someone will push back. That is how we stand out. That is all anti design is, trying to be noticed and appreciated. In the right context, antidesign is simply digging your feet in and going against the grain of normal society. Industrialisation to arts and crafts, conformity to Punk, they both challenged the direction of the world which gained their spotlight. The industrial age sought to increase efficiency through the division of labour which the arts and crafts movement was strongly against due to the decrease in connection between craftsman and their work. William Morris was one of these individuals who strived to create meaningful and beautiful works that lasted. I would argue his, and others of the same belief’s actions can be labelled as anti-design. Morris has a clear vision for what industry production should look like which is stark contrast to the general progression of industry. This intern is a challenge of beliefs as well as breaking from the status quo. Digging our heels in... Breaking away from conformity, the punk era proved that beliefs in power systems are always challenged. Just as Morris would counter the industry, the up rise of punks sought to question those in charge. Economic devastation and poverty around Britain were taking its toll on the young and working class. All told to keep working and rebuilding the society to what it once was until some had enough. Punk aesthetic is notorious for being anti-establishment. When we are pushed too far we react by pushing back, Punks wore the distaste shown by the upper class as a badge of honour and made sure everyone knew who they were. Punks and the Arts and Crafts Movement are not a usual comparison, but they do show similarities. Whatever progression is made in one direction, another is made in the opposite direction. Punks were tired of being sold the image of conformity by a class that did not care about them. They made themselves stand out by going against, what was considered to be, the natural order of things. The Arts and crafts movement was a direct result of de personalising industry production and re centring the craftsmen with their craft. Both were born from belief. Both a direct response to what was the perceived progression of the times. Conformity in the face of change We can see this same power struggle with conformity today. The pandemic naturally made life more mundane and controlled. Our materialistic and consumerist society quickly met with their own reality of life outside of these ‘ordinary’ conventions. Some did not like the reflection starring back. Thus, people started moving onto more traditional hobbies, tropes of the arts and crafts era, making rugs, painting, and filling our homes with organic life such as plants, pets, and some cases children. People had rediscovered maximalism, after a very long period of modernism and minimalism, filling every blank space to create inspiration within four walls. People had instilled new hobbies as a direct consequence of staying home. Some no longer look for escapism through a world of products because they are not subjected to a world full of them. Now people no longer have an opportunity to escape the 9-5 with the pub, run away from an unhappy wife or avoid that cluttered loft. People have had no choice but to face these realities now that our world no longer enables them to escape. Some have chosen to take this time to grow and flourish within themselves or with family while others have had the world make tough decisions for them. We as individuals are making our homes our sanctuary rather than an intermittence between work and social lives. What can be taken from this? It is clear that progression is not linear. We as a community of individuals find it impossible to move forward in one direction. Trends come and go throughout history and so does design all the same but the question is ‘how will it evolve this time?’ Design is a pendulum of interest that never sits still, it will always keep swinging. In the time you have been alive, how many times have you changed your style, method of creation or reason for creating? We task ourselves to constantly learn and improve ourselves. Some choose to move with the times and others move the times forward. Ultimately, we all choose our paths and what to believe in. In design we do the same.
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Letting dreamers dream and the rejection of minimalism – design in the age of late-stage capitalism11/29/2021 Marco Riosa, BA Illustration & Visual Media As an Illustration student currently taking some of my sandwich year in a small micro mobility start-up, I’ve quickly become very familiar with some of the corporate design demands of today. It’s clear enough that most start-up’s want, or rather need, cheap and fast design solutions with maximum impact for their rapidly expanding needs. What isn’t as immediately obvious is the effect this kind of model has on innovation and design trends. As designers, we all know and perhaps quietly adhere to the famous triangle of quality– good/cheap/fast. The client can have fast and good, sure, but it’ll cost. Or they can have it cheap and fast, but it won’t look great. Good and cheap? It’ll take time. Time, clearly, is the necessary concession made by the collective corporate group think, as the modern start up has to be increasingly lean. Work smart, not hard- the consensus seems to be – it’s certainly something I’ve heard repeated several times in my role already. So, if time has gotten the chop – what does that mean for design trends? It appears that the collective design community has decided that the easiest way to design something that appears finished is to strip every unnecessary detail back. Minimalism? No thanks, we want it all. Increasingly being recognised as a genre in its own right, “Corporate Memphis” is the term the community seems to have settled on. Entirely emblematic of the modern age of increasingly tight deadlines, the modern commercial artist has had to settle for flat, often faceless beings. Of course, the style has had to keep up with the demands of today – so the faceless beings have been either diversified or have been simply removed of all realistic skin-tone to avoid any engagement in the diversity debate at all. However, it’s not all doom and homogenous gloom. Recently, there has been emergence of a new ‘style’, one likely developed in the spare time of energy sapped designers. Unsurprisingly, it’s a complete rejection of Corporate Memphis, and an embrace of maximalism. It seems that, in being denied the luxuries of time in the designer’s day to day work, we have begun to crave detail. Minimalism? No thanks, we want it all. It’s easy to see why maximalist design has become such a hit. According to data from the Federal Reserve in the US, millennials have been shown to be the poorest generation in history. In the midst of a rental crisis, we are forced to pay ludicrous amounts of money simply to have a roof over our head, and not even one we own. Our lives as designers are increasingly precarious and limited. In reality, we know that we cannot have it all. As designers and artists, we are quite literally paid to be dreamers. We create the visual language of the future, shaping the ideals of what people want to see. The natural response to “fast and cheap” as a dreamer deprived of luxury is “slow and good” – because it’s our work. This is for us. And we do want it all, because we are denied it. There will always be an alternative, non-critical interpretation of why maximalism is popular- but the answer is clearly in front of all us. Late-stage capitalism has rendered us physically and mentally poor, starved of the luxuries of time and room to creatively breathe – and tired from long, relentless work. So, we dream. We dream that we have all the time in the world, the budget to go all-out and achieve the high quality, innovative artwork we desire to see. In essence, we complete the “impossible” triangle for ourselves, because we’ve been denied it for so long. |
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March 2022
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