Milena Georgieva BA Graphic and Media Design 19013119 Design and anti-design are constantly battling while at the same time being entangled and dependant on each other’s co-existence. In recent years graphic design has slowly started to turn its back to well-known approaches and increasingly appreciating their contraries more. To understand anti-design better, I consider two aspects of it - a way of thinking and a visual style. Both aspects’ core principle is challenging ongoing stereotypes. In the heart of the design/anti-design discourse is the fundamental goal of design - successful communication. When design becomes monotonous cliched graphics that replicate one another, it starts to lose its purpose. At this point, anti-design comes into play. It calls for questioning the trends and liberation of thought. According to the Anti Design Festival Manifesto (2010) “generic culture hypnotises us all into generic patterns, where control is visibly invisible” and “we are now left with a spiritual hollowness”. It goes on about consumerism’s role in the issue, which relates to the First Things First manifesto (Garland, 1964). In it, pointless advertising is rejected and focus is switched to meaningful projects. First Things First Manifesto (1964) Source: http://www.designishistory.com/1960/first-things-first/ This aspect of anti-design (anti-commercial) thinking, aligns with my hopes for my future as a creative. I want to work on meaningful projects that align with my values. Even though this is relatively difficult to achieve, I find inspiration in the studio that I currently intern in. We have some less exciting clients that pay well which permits us to work on cultural briefs during the rest of the time. But let us come back to design as part of commercial culture that follows trends. One can say that by making all graphics look alike, practitioners disobey another main goal of graphic design - communicating identity effectively. We need to remind ourselves of these basic principles because otherwise, our craft becomes meaningless. A parallel can be drawn between this scenario and the irrelevance of designers in some situations, like for example during a pandemic. As the article ‘Coping with irrelevance’ argues, these are times when we need to even more ‘prove that design CAN still offer help, strategies and solutions’ (Johnson, 2020). Therefore, design thinking needs to be constantly challenged in order to sustain itself. Apart from the thinking side of the discourse, another aspect to consider is the purely visual representation of anti-design. As a movement, it is characterised by using irony and kitsch (Moffat, 2011). However, as a term, I would say it is fluid – it changes its meaning according to the discussed timeframe. Nevertheless, its principles stay the same - experimentation and breaking free from established rules. The process of anti-design and design chasing is interesting to follow. Minimalism that was considered genius years ago is now deemed boring and ineffective. At the same time, what used to be described as ugly is making its way into the design scene as a groundbreaking approach. This happens because the audience gets tired of seeing the same repetitive style, and when something breaks this norm, it communicates more effectively. And successful communication, as we established earlier, is at the core of good design. As a very recent example of anti-design in practice, I want to mention the typographic decisions in the new Spotify Wrapped. There is an ongoing discussion about whether this is genius design or absolutely horrid. Some wonder how Spotify’s design team has let it leave their department, while others believe it is brilliant. An article titled “Spotify Wrapped is a Design Nightmare” (Creative Bloq, 2021) believes the choice of type is bad. However, at the same time, they comment that maybe Spotify “chose an awful font on purpose to get people talking”. Source: Personal Archive, Spotify Personally, I have no doubt that they did it intentionally. It is anti-design in action. Thanks to their clever approach, now people are discussing the brand, and design has served its purpose. As for its aesthetic appeal, I do not like it, but I appreciate its function and believe it is good design in that sense. Moreover, now that Spotify has adopted anti-design, more and more brands (that have not yet) will start implementing it in order to stand out. And perhaps… one day stretched type would become the norm.
To conclude, I believe that every norm needs an opposition, and at some point, every opposition naturally becomes the norm. Then the process is repeated. And again. And again. This is how design and anti-design intertwine and flow in and out of each other, empowering and sustaining one another. As long as there is design, anti-design will be inevitable. Bibliography ‘ADF MANIFESTO’ (2010) Anti Design Festival. Available at: https://antidesignfestival.wordpress.com/adf-manifesto/ (Accessed: 4 December 2021) Bamsey, A. (2021) Spotify Wrapped is a design nightmare. Available at: https://www.creativebloq.com/news/spotify-wrapped-font (Accessed: 4 December 2021) Garland, K. (1964) ‘First Things First’, The Guardian. Johnson, M. (2020) Coping with irrelevance. Available at: https://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/thoughts/coping-with-irrelevance (Accessed: 4 December 2021) Moffat, Ch. (2011) Anti-Design. Available at: http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/antidesign/ (Accessed: 4 December 2021)
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Freya Wilson - Graphic Branding & Identity In an article for the Art History Archive entitled ‘Anti-design’ Charles Moffat describes the Italian art movement of the 1960’s to the 1980’s as “a reaction against what many avant-garde designers at the time saw as the perfectionist aesthetics of Modernism” by so-called “dissatisfied” “design rebels”. Essentially, Anti-design is a subversion of minimalist principles and everything that people believed that design ought to be and do within this time, turning ordinary objects on their head to consistently question and challenge the status quo. With reference to the poster child of the Anti-design movement, the Panton chair designed by Vernor Panton in 1963, the iconic S shaped chair embodies all of the rebellious principles that summed up this time - asking its audience why does a chair have to have four legs? Why does it have to be perpendicular? Why does it have to be boring? With this in mind, I must admit to appreciating the core principles of anti-design, championing the questioning of existing practices and the act of challenging the status quo. As after all it is only critique like this that can lead to the much needed change and innovation that we want to see within our society In the exhibition ‘Waste Age: What can design do?’, the concept of design started to transform from being seen as the problem of our capitalist and wasteful society, to the solution that can save us from it. It is this constant reshaping of what design is and what it should be that really has the ability to do good in our world. However, to me this is the purpose of design anyways - we should not need to invent and name a subcategory for this - it is not anti-design it's just design, plain and simple. To me, the whole purpose of design is to question, critique, to evoke reactions, and to solve. Therefore it is my opinion that anti-design is not anti at all, it is very much ‘for-design’. Furthermore I find this label of ‘anti-design’ rather classist. It is perpetually perceived within the media that if middle to upper class people adopt values of minimalism like the trendy ‘capsule closet’ it is chic, desirable and heavily praised - and yet if those with lower disposable incomes have to go without the basics that a lot of us take for granted, it is trashy and looked down upon. William Morris' famous quote “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” is quite patronising to someone who doesn’t live in a large stately home handed down to him from his wealthy family like Morris had the comfort of doing. Additionally, in the critical piece ‘The Rise of Anti-design’, published in Creative Review by Megan Williams more recently, Williams describes the new-found popularity of designers “battling against minimalism with a visual language evoking the early internet.” And also summed up in Aiga Eye On Design 'The New Wave of Anti-Design’, as the increasing popularity of “the ugly, the untidy and the cheap”. This notion can also be seen entering popular culture and the fashion ecosphere with collections from big name brands like Yeezy and Balenciaga donning clothes for $1625 and up distressed and riddled with holes, as well as Offwhites signature ironic quotation marks on their “clothing”. As someone from a lower economic background, I do not agree with the trivialised fetishisation of the working class for fashion under the name of ‘anti-design’. Despite this, it is fair to say that in my short time within the design industry during my DPS year, I have seen first hand that abundance of strict rules with design, and the right and wrong answers that people seem to constrain design down to. But design to me should break rules, not create them - design is subjective and so will mean different things to different people - it cannot fit into a box, in fact we are told so often to think outside the box. We do not need to pick a side, ‘less is more’ vs ‘less is a bore’ - why can't we just appreciate, enjoy and learn from design, whilst continuing to question it. I personally do not think that we need to overcomplicate design by recategorizing it into subjects like this. I am anti anti-design. Design is simply design. In the same way we could argue whether jaffa cakes are cakes or biscuits - or we could just tuck in and enjoy them for what they are.
By Megan Field, BA Graphic and Media Design Currently I am a Graphic and Media design student at The London College of Communication. For my DPS year I have been working as a graphic design intern at a local merchandising business. I have learnt a lot whilst working here; from different methods around the designing process, to the types of Facebook adverts, for marketing purposes. I briefly knew the basics around business and marketing strategies, but this is another level. The most important lesson I have learnt is time is vital. You do not have time in the corporate world to spend hours designing for a client that will not pay much. Anti-design was a movement that started in Italy and lasted between 1966 - 1980. It is about bending and stretching the rules of design, which is what a lot of companies are doing to achieve sales and targets at this current day and age. According to the Houses of Parliament website. ‘The pandemic led to a severe recession, followed by a strong recovery. This briefly examines different aspects of the economic impact of the pandemic to date and outlines the key issues for the economic outlook.’ Due to the severe recession, many businesses had to go into administration. The main example of this being, Sir Philip Green's Arcadia Group’s Topshop, the woman’s clothing chain Bonmarche, and more! List of shops that have collapsed into administration in 2020 as UK lockdown hits high street. Covid-19 has massively increased the demand from a lot of consumers, so deadlines are tight. Meaning the quicker the designing the more profitable it is for the company and beneficial it is for the economy. However, due to the multiple lockdowns our economy has rapidly declined due to less consumerism, but there was a large increase in online shopping. Below is an image of a graph that shows the gross domestic product, which is a way to measure the size and health of a country’s economy over a period of time. This also got me thinking about how the government addressed the Covid-19 guidelines to the country. Remember, ‘Hands, Face, Space’? How could you forget? Those three words changed the nation. We went from crowded streets to a world where no one dared going near one another. Who knew that using a simple slogan could have so much power? The people behind it were the MullenLowe Group, a group of designers based in London. They created the ad, which shows a range of people washing their hands, making sure they are social distancing and wearing a mask in public areas. They explain that they are doing so to help protect family, friends, colleagues, and strangers. For me personally the focus of the ad would have to be the final scene where we are presented with the ‘Hands, Face, Space’ poster, that we familiarise with the NHS. I also thought about how powerful the slogan has become throughout the pandemic, and how slogans are becoming a way that designers have introduced as being the focus of their work. Hands, Face Space Video.www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr09ByDYuq4 When I think of designers that express themselves through language, I think of Barbara Kruger. She is an American conceptual artist, known for her signature style using large-scale black-and-white images overlaid with text. She would find and repurpose found images, juxtaposing them with short, abrupt, powerful phrases printed in Futura Bold or Helvetica Extra Bold typeface in black, white, or red text bars. She is also well known for being the creator of the Supreme logo, that we all know of. I love her work, because it examines stereotypes and the behaviours of consumerism with her used of collage over mass media method. I think her work is important to mention as her work is a great example of Anti Design, and signifies speaking the truth to power, and how minimalistic forms of art have just as much power in the world than maximalism. Barbara Kruger, 1989 - Untitled (Your body is a battleground) In conclusion my perspective on the critical writing of the subject of anti-design due to the pandemic, is that there has been a significantly large increase of minimalist methods to design. Businesses and the economy have been hit hard by the pandemic, so have had to change their business strategies. This includes the design process, and how it is imperative that their designers need to come up with simple, yet affective ways to go about the method of designing, so that it requires minimal effort, with a large profit made by the end of it. I have also learnt that not only are businesses relying on minimalism instead of maximalism designing, but artists are also doing it too! I was surprised to see that the government decided on using a very simple slogan, so that the public would respond to it, and easily understand, and not overwhelm them with a long list of rules to go by. In addition to this I think minimalism will continue to thrive, and with covid still being a part of our lives, with the pandemic we will never forget the slogan that resonates with us, and in my opinion, I think businesses should stick with the minimalist approach to design as they can successfully capitalise from it.
Rosemary Mitchell Design for Branded Spaces 19040831 For me, the anti-design discourse is a familiar movement that has reoccurred time and time again. Art has almost always reflected society (Satori Graphics, 2021, 3:56). This is good for design; it breathes fresh air into the rules. Anti-design isn’t anti, its pro. Including my thoughts from my recent experiences, I will reflect on this thought on anti-design with sources to complement and contradict my perspective. Covid-19 has changed society. Many People are angry and discouraged at the world (Satori Graphics, 2021, 3:36), especially younger generations. It seems anti-design shows design reacting to a change of society, and revolting. My thoughts align with Mark Busse, that sometimes rules should be thrown out the window and that’s what this rise in anti-design is doing. That’s not to say this a new thing. For example, this building was created in the 1970s and is a clear example of anti-design. An article from 1980 described the space as “a hard to describe composition, whose spaces and forces have to be experienced on the spot.” (Domus, 1980). Hermann P, Zentral Sparkasse Bank, 1980, https://www.domusweb.it/en/from-the-archive/2012/06/23/remembering-gunther-domenig.html You could use this description to describe current graphic design since the covid-19 pandemic. The image below is an example of the current online websites. The increase in radical online design is probably due to the world practically living virtually during the intense period of lockdown and this has been ricocheted into our ‘post’ covid lives. I think this has positive and negative effects on us, because we also need more physical stimulation from our surroundings, since being isolated due to the pandemic. For me personally I think anti-design is an important tide that has ebbed and flowed throughout human existence, therefore I think it needs to latch onto spatial designers again. Like it did in the 1960s and 70s. Diana Budds, a design writer, describes the work coming from the Italian anti-design movement of the 1960s as visions from an acid trip (Budds, 2017). These included interior design products such as sofas, coast stands and shelving. Making chairs that weren’t practical to sit on and shelves that were wonky (image below). Memphis Design Collection, https://designmuseum.org/discover-design/all-stories/memphis-group-awful-or-awesome Personally, this makes me more excited about anti-design and what it can be a metaphor for. Such as political symbolism, protesting government ideals and controls. In terms of my own experience so far on DPS, I haven’t produced anti-design spaces. I feel I need to learn initial principles and soak in experiences from my placements and opportunities to then be able to challenge the status quo. On my placement in Castle Howard, a lot of the rooms were traditionally designed. However, the area I mainly helped design and install made me think about how to approach anti-design subtly. I enjoyed creating this space and although it wasn’t about revolting against a change or political upheaval, I felt it had sentiments of anti-design as it was breaking away from the conventional. This makes me want to continue to create spaces with a nod to difference. Castle Howard, The Long Gallery, Lawson, 2021, https://yorkmix.com/simply-stunning-castle-howard-transformed-into-narnia-for-most-awesome-christmas-display-yet/ I have found sources that contradict my perspective that the current anti-design movement is mainly online and does have physicality. There is evidence of anti-design in physical spaces within this movement, however they are for deterring certain demographics and isolating certain public spaces. This type of Anti-design is going against what I believe is good about the movement. Benches have been designed to deter people from lying on them. This is exactly what anti-design was revolting against, against government control and isolating people. The image below shows “the Camden Bench a highly refined work of unpleasant design, impervious to essentially anything but sitting.” (99percentinvisible, 2016). This makes me feel that anti-design has a very broad definition and that anti-design for spaces is not being used in the way it was originally intended. Why is there this current differentiation between anti-design for digital and anti-design for physical spaces? The Wub (2015), https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/unpleasant-design-hostile-urban-architecture/ For me, anti-design also raises questions such as, how can you define what bad design is? The 2013 exhibition, Evil things: An encyclopaedia of bad taste, looked at objects that were defined as badly designed. I feel this exhibition drew up ideas of defining what bad taste and good taste is, is it anti-design? I personally think some of these objects from the exhibition are fantastic; like Philippe Starck's, lemon squeezer, this is an example of anti-design that has now become a staple artistic piece, influencing and questioning what a well-designed kitchen can include. We need more objects like these in this new wave of anti-design movement. They may not be practical for people to use but the point is they are showing us alternatives. Philippe Starck, Juicy Salif Lemon Squeezer, https://artblart.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/mkg_bc3aesedinge_zitronenpresse-web.jpg Spatial designers need to use anti- design and hop on this wave of this recent rise to break boundaries and make some noise to allow for change. Being a spatial design student, I personally want to be visually stimulated, especially now I can go out into the world and socialise with its surroundings. Maybe we need to design spaces that are uncomfortable, awkward and downright annoying. Thus, creating fresh ways of thinking for the new world we will live in. Bibliography/ Source References
Budds D, (2017), Inside Italy Most Transgressive Design Movement, Available at: https://www.fastcompany.com/90149336/inside-italys-most-transgressive-design-movement Busse M, (2006), Innovation: Throwing Design Rules Out The Window, Available at: https://industrialbrand.com/throwing-design-rules-out-the-window Domus, (2012), Remembering Gunther Domeni, Available at: https://www.domusweb.it/en/from-the-archive/2012/06/23/remembering-gunther-domenig.html Satori Graphics, (2021), Will anti-design takeover the graphic design world?, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv7a3TcxugQ- 99pi, (2016), Unpleasant Design and Hostile Urban Architecture, Available at: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/unpleasant-design-hostile-urban-architecture/ My name is Anu and I am a student at London College of Communication studying Graphic Branding and Identity. Currently, I am a remote design intern at a branding and broadcasting agency. The moment I began my first internship, everything was new. From meeting new people, having a new work environment and a new outlook of how I see myself and my surroundings. My experience as an intern made me become aware of the limitation in creativity as we follow such strict principles of modernism that we would be told we are wrong if we do not follow it. Protesting this, the Anti-Design movement began to go against all the principles with the aim to ‘renew the cultural and political role of design.’ While modernism is about using grid layouts, having a limited colour palette to keep it minimal, and believing that ‘form should follow function', Anti-Design wanted more and more, purposely going against and bending the modernism principles by having bold and striking colours, mixing high and low materials, and embracing ornamentations and decorations. They wanted to put the ‘form before function.’ The strong impact of Anti-Design spreading in fashion, furniture design, décor and food styling would display people’s creativity and make imagination a reality when stepped outside those principles. Anti-Design was a way to express the message of not caring and creating designs however they wanted it. I admired the fact that although the movement had been dissolved, the idea and the concept of anti-design stayed. It shows the strong emotions of the movement and marks its influence on the design industry. As the movement is coming to light again, it will be more talked about and practised so I do wonder what the response to it will be. Those who are unaware of this movement could become intimidated as it may be overwhelming due to its rich use of colours and its decorative elements. Some may even avoid using the anti-design concept for a brand as it would come across as ‘ugly’, ‘unfinished’ or ‘untrustworthy’, even though calling it ‘ugly’ would be a compliment for the Anti-Design Movement. Anti-branding is a global movement against brands formed by a large number of society members in order to spread the word of disapproval and dissatisfaction with corporate actions (Holt, 2002, pp.70) Throughout the years, brands have changed their identity many times and more brands are now re-designing their logos to simple black and white colours with similar sans serif types such as BT and BALMAIN. These are a huge difference from their first logos which have been unique, and all had a distinctive quality. I think it has both pros and cons when converting to minimal logos. I feel that although the brands may lose its identity the consumers are used to and possibly being like other brands, the industry is constantly developing and their discipline changes with how their consumers interact with the brand. The brand now is becoming more minimal and more recognizable by the mark or style. They also would want their consumers to tell them the story and have the brand mean different to different people so people can display their own values to it. I think the brand which has succeeded in anti-branding is a cigarette brand called Marlboro by creating a minimal packaging which did not include the brand name or the description of the product to be known it was their brand. The red triangle was very impactful and memorable. no name This was a campaign for anti-design, and it was trying ‘to convince you that not having a design somehow puts them on the moral high ground.’ As many brands create a unique pattern or packaging, no name used the simplest design, lowercase Helvetica on a yellow background. The anti-brand approach attracted more people, getting demands on merchandise that was sold overnight. I found this anti-brand approach very smart marketing, unique and can’t be done again kind of style as it left a memorable impact. The fact that no name is straightforward and doesn’t pretend to be something else also adds a fun characteristic to the brand. For me, I think Anti-Design is exciting and I want to learn more about it. Breaking or bending rules is great. We can’t always be just designed by the principles. During my DPS, I have not created or taken part in an Anti-Design project. I don’t think I can say I am confident with my knowledge of Anti-Design so I would like to learn deeper into it, as well as about anti-branding. During my intern, I am designing posters, created newsletters and webpages mainly using grid layouts and making them simple and user-friendly. What I am doing in my internship is the opposite of Anti-Design which made me wonder and imagine what if I was to create an Anti-Design concept piece with the brand colours. Anti-Design has left a great influence on the design; it encouraged and reminded us that we don’t always need to be inside the rules. Breaking rules may be the best method for creativity to run wild.
Amaya Crichton GMD When I was young, I used to watch a lot of YouTube. That was before anybody used their real name online. It was a phenomenon we tend to forget about: the internet used to encourage anonymity and individuality. Some of the most popular creators went by pseudonyms: MissGlamorazzi, DanIsNotOnFire, Allthatglitters21. That has all changed, and the trend of going by a quirky, fun name has passed. Now the channel names are: Ingrid Neilson, Daniel Howell, Elle Fowler. There was the same phenomenon happened with social media: MySpace pages were creative potholes- you could change and manipulate your heart out, adding music and custom HTML. Today’s social media landscape is very different- we have little to no control over the personality of our social media- it has become a huge conglomerate of simplified, clean websites. (Smith, 2020) Like Ernie Smith states in his article (2020), old social medias allowed you “take a piece of the internet land and make it your own”, sites like Geocities and MySpace get mocked today because of their often ugly looks, but these sites were some of “the most important and fundamental for digital creativity”. Suddenly teenage girls could decorate their MySpace page with hearts and glitter and smiley faces the same way that they were decorating their lockers and book bags. Of course, there was a reason for this shift in the internet- let’s not glamourize too much. For Youtube, they tried to control nasty commenters by encouraging less anonymity, linkining to their Google + profiles. For MySpace, the customised HTML was poorly done by the users (that usually didn’t know much about coding), and they would undoubtedly freeze-up web browsers due to deformed coding, or as a result of users placing high-bandwidth rudiments in their profiles—such as video, graphics, and flash. Also, by making clean, simple interfaces and experiences made it more accessible for translations for other countries and usage for people not so in-tune to the digital landscape. So there was definitely a practical reasoning behind the ‘loss of individuality’ online, but there is an element of loss: Jay Hoffman puts it best: MySpace was “ rough around the edges, but arguably, so was the web. “No one knew what it was going to be, and in this hazy, undefined territory many felt dare to surface their passions, no matter how minute or narrow” I can sympathise with the push towards Anti-Design, it’s a push back to a world that was less clean-cut, and nostalgically chaotic. In terms of my area of expertise, branding, I can see the frustration with this area too, aka: The Sans serif invasion. Brands have stripped their personality and individuality to appeal to a ‘cleaner’, ‘sleeker’ look- and I’m guilty of pushing this too. Around 2017-2018, it’s as if brands decided uniqueness was a handicap. It’s the same counterargument for the simplification of the web, but it just becomes a soulless swarm of look-alike brand iconography. Some theorise that this movement towards minimalism will end soon- it was more of an austere social response to the 2010 recession, but it seems have to have taken a tight hold of the industry. (Sienkiewicz, 2020) In the last branding & packaging internship I last worked at they were approached by a heritage brand to revamp their ancient packaging that they had hardly updated from the 60s. The immediate reflex is to simplify and cut out the dated elements. But maybe we should keep that banner and the clashing colours, and cool little icons that nobody uses anymore! I felt like it had so much potential to tap into them, to tweak them for a more modern market, but keep the ‘soul of the brand’ intact. Having these more ancient elements could be played as a strength rather than a weakness, making them stand out from all the modern sans-serif brands. I’m not sure what happened with that project, but I do feel like it’s reflective of the industry now, too keen to so-call ‘modernize’ packaging and branding, until they all look the same. And perhaps not everyone needs to implement the chaos and jarring nature of Anti-Design, but elements of it. I think it’s becoming painfully clear that we need more spice back into design: everything is sans serif and facebook-clean, and we can learn from breaking down all the rules. Just because sans serif is what we now consider ‘modern’, doesn’t mean that the more rudimentary design choices (implemented in Anti-Design, for example) are not good enough for today’s standards. Take Bon Mamman for example: I love that they’ve kept their handwritten logo for so long. Bring back handwritten logos! There’s almost this unspoken rule that you never, ever, handwrite anything- everything is clean cut Adobe software when it comes to type and iconography. (Whitney, 2017 )
Why? Maybe Anti-Design allows us to look closer at these unspoken ‘rules’ in design by breaking them down completely first. Sources: Kerr, D. (2012) YouTube gently prods users to go by their real names Available at: https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/youtube-gently-prods-users-to-go-by-their-real-names/ (Accessed: 27.11.21). Smith, E. (2020) No room for design. Available at: https://tedium.co/2020/07/14/social-media-customization-failings/ (Accessed: 27.11.21). Bourton, L (2021) Privacy friendly, customisable and no algorithms: An 18-year-old recreates a new functioning version of MySpace Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/tibush-spacehey-digital-270421 (Accessed: 27.11.21). Obirek, S (2017) Let’s talk about anti-design. Available at: https://blog.prototypr.io/lets-talk-about-anti-design-ea59798e0791 (Accessed: 27.11.21). Jamieson, R. (2016 )The New Wave of Anti-design Magazines Will Question Your Sense of Taste—and That’s a Good Thing. Available at: https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/the-new-wave-of-anti-design-magazines-will-question-your-sense-of-taste-and-thats-a-good-thing/ (Accessed: 27.11.21). Whitney, A. (2017) A Definitive Ranking of 23 Bonne Maman Flavors. Available at: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/best-bonne-maman-jams-reviewed (Accessed: 27.11.21). Sienkiewicz, R (2020) Why do so many brands change their logos and look like everyone else?. Available at: https://velvetshark.com/articles/why-do-brands-change-their-logos-and-look-like-everyone-else (Accessed: 27.11.21). 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.
Marta Freire BA (Hons) Graphic and Media Design Since we opened our eyes for the first time, we tend to confront outcomes that teach us correctness. Our behaviour is adapted to survive to social norms imposed on us. As well as the coordination of certain types of words and topics we should discuss with others. In theory, this so-called “the correct behaviour” would work to build a functional structure of a society. Therefore, if we think better about it, why are these specific characteristics be associated with “correctness”? In fact, what is correct? This matter not only applies to society itself, but the same problems also repeat in numerous other factors, such as design. The concept of design has been changing throughout the years. It has been evolving like any other thing on this planet. This article intends to explore how people’s perception changes with the evolution of design. In other words, what do we find politically correct? The word politically correct is a term used to define what a society considers acceptable. We can express this term in many ways, corporal language, specific words, gestures, colours, or any other type of expressionism. We all know how pressured someone can feel upon society judgement regarding differences. We forget that this type of “unusual” is going to evolve to the prospects of a future generation that will consider what once was “different” to “normal”. Like everything else, the meaning of “Politically Correct” changes to embrace the future. There are various attributions to the world of design. Depending on the field selected, this world can meet fashion, graphics, books, and some other more. Most of them had an upbringing in the world, both with good and bad between people’s eyes. Thinking about being different, Coco Chanel is remarkable for that. She was the first woman to take into consideration women’s comfort in dressing up. Although Chanel started by selling hats to famous actresses, Coco later would become an icon for her sporty, comfortable, and casual elegant clothes. She renewed fashion by presenting trousers and suits to the female public for the first time. At the time, corset was a must in a women’s wardrobe until it got replaced by comfort. However, during World War II, due to her affair with a German officer that resulted in the dispossession of her Jewish Business partners, Chanel became a disgrace in the public eye. American Vogue turned Chanel successful into the celebrity we recognise nowadays after she tried to come back to the fashion scene with mixed feelings from the public. Her fashion is still strongly predominant and keeps influenced multiple designers throughout generations. Ironically, Coco’s clients were very sophisticated ones, and her clothes came from the poverty she went through as a child: “Some people think luxury is the contrary of being poor. No, it is the contrary of vulgarity.” – Coco Chanel to TIMES. Since I managed to talk about Vogue magazine, I would like to specify a graphic designer that specialises in bookmaking. Her name is Irma Boom. I believe she is these artists that can prove how anti-design is more than collapsing rules. Her books consist of the exploration of typography at its best. It also includes the practicality of minimalism and the resources that it contains. Boom’s books go against all the rules that a “proper” book design should be: clean, readable, good content. So why is she so special? Well, that is what being a designer is. As an artist, her imagination to explore size, textures, space, and colours gave Irma the capacity to shape the rules against the right. Pic.1 – Irma’s book “Boom”. This rule also applies in architecture per se. Recently, I have travelled through Copenhagen. Sometimes, I would see myself walking between beautiful traditional buildings until one in the middle would surpass the traditionalist. I thought to myself – “Oh, that’s odd!” – but at the same time, I could not resist the temptation to appreciate how its differences would turn that house into an exceptional work of art. Right, maybe I just admired it because it was different from the remaining ones, but is it not what makes it unique for breaking the system? Pic. 2, 3 & 4: Copenhagen houses I found during my trip. Before a conclusion, I want to refer two of my favourite artists that I believe will help structure a better end to this article. I am talking about Walt Disney and Camilla D’Erico. Certainly different categories, one is an animator and, the other one is a painter but that is not what I want to mention. The adversities that we encounter as creative can be harsh, especially if no one believes in our potential. Walt Disney had the dream to make dreams come true by making his imagination alive with his cartoons. No one had faith in him at first since that was a crazy idea. People told him that no one would want to watch cartoons for a very long time. In a similar prospect, Camila had a specific style based on Japanese comic books. One day, her professor once said she would not become successful if she kept her way of drawing. Nowadays, she is an independent artist with exhibitions and selling products. Following a specific way of doing things does not mean it will give success. In conclusion, doing the things stated as politically correct or following certain tendencies sometimes would not lead to such success stories. The unusual becomes usual once created. I am writing this article for all the young artists that aspire to expand their art. We all have insecurities, especially if we do not get the support that we would like to. Remember all these great minds that changed the world, and people would criticise their ideas for not following what is typically correct. Different can be good too. Good luck to you all. References: Jennifer Latson - TIME - August 19, 2015 - "How Poverty Shaped Coco Chanel" - https://time.com/3994196/coco-chanel-1883/ Wikipedia - Last edit: November 28, 2021 - "Coco Chanel" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_Chanel Zena Alkayat and Nina Cosford - Library of Luminaries - 2016 - "Coco Chanel: An illustrated biography" - Book Rhonda K. Garelick - Random House New York - 2014 - "Mademoiselle Coco Chanel and the pulse of history" - Book Ovais Mehboob Ahmed Khan, Nabil Siddiqui, Timothy Oleson and Mark Fussell - Packt Publishing - 2021 - "Embracing Microservices Design: A Practical Guide to Revealing Anti-patterns and Architectural Pitfalls to Avoid Microservices Fallacies" - Book ICA - "ICA opens major survey of maximalist art and design on June 26" - https://www.icaboston.org/articles/ica-opens-major-survey-maximalist-art-and-design-june-26 Ruth Jamieson - Eye on Design - May 11, 2016 - "The New Wave of Anti-design Magazines Will Question Your Sense of Taste—and That’s a Good Thing" - https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/the-new-wave-of-anti-design-magazines-will-question-your-sense-of-taste-and-thats-a-good-thing/ Michael Johnson - Johnson Banks - March 3, 2020 - "Coping with irrelevance" -https://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/thoughts/coping-with-irrelevance“All Eli Anapur - WideWalls - October 22, 2021 - "Creating a New Reference Point - Moderne Art Fair's Adeline Keit in an Interview" - https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/moderne-art-fair-adeline-keit-interview Ways of Working - Student Examples - http://www.diplomainprofessionalstudies.com/202021/archives/04-2021 My name is Catarina Archer. I’m a proud Portuguese, Graphic and Media Design Student at London College of Communication, currently taking my course directly from my living room, as a consequence of the pandemic we have all been stricken by. During the first term of my DPS, from live briefs to interviews and internships I engaged with design quite in a different way of what I was used to.
Design, as a lot of people know, as well as a lot of people don’t, is right in the middle of creativity and functionality. It is something anyone can associate with almost every area as we know them, but it is exactly what makes the difference in how those areas relate. If you go and search for design definition on google, you’ll be able to see that a range of options appear, for the definition to be applied to various areas: “design definition in art”; “design definition in engineering”; “design definition literature”; And through something as simple as this, we can see, as Paula et al. (2010) that design definition “in general” is in fact is related to the idealization, projection, creation, development of a product, which is something obviously relatable to any work area; Be it a communication campaign, an industrial piece, or a concept, design will be applied in order to make it stand out and, therefore, make a difference on people’s lives. And what is it that makes these product stand out? The most straight forward way for something to stand out it is the difference you can notice on it, or the better way of functioning that will save so much time to the user - but isn’t it the whole point to make something look so different from other similar purpose products, and more functional than all of them at the same time? If only one of design’s principles wasn’t to consider a product’s features within the whole context of its existence. (1999) The purpose or product a designer tries to reach, is what drives them through the creative process - being this exactly what defines what path the product will take. While design in its normal format is exclusively directed to the functionality and goal of the product and is, therefore, much more contained in terms of liberty for the designer - Anti-design by definition, was an artistic movement which took place from 1966 to 1980 (2011), talking about it nowadays, would make it a contrary division of the design world, would just define it as the most free way of creating a designer can have. Because of that, nowadays anti-design, will be exactly what will bring news and differentiation to the design world - this way, anti-design will be the element that will keep minds open, create new trends, and keep design from falling into banality. Design must keep its creativity; and this can only be possible by letting someone completely challenge everything that’s expected for something. For it to challenge everything, it must not follow design’s product achieving rules. As my first industry experience, I engaged with design and marketing on a quite corporate environment, where I had space and liberty for being creative on my tasks, but not that much. That got me to experience what it is to work straightly for a goal, not being supposed to change anything too much, and just keeping the visual language as it always is, just changing products for a cleaner look organizing them in a more logical way. This design work is obviously what is more needed on the industry world people are used to; The design that meets deadlines, the design that applies more easily to companies necessities is obviously much more easy to understand and include on the fast evolving world we live in. Only except that design shouldn’t be divisible in this way; in fact it is not. The human world's way of functioning is what ends up dividing everything, even if, as design, it is not divisible. This way, designers that, like me, work in order to achieve a company’s goal, are not working for design, but for the company; Not being designers in a company, but being employees of a company and developing the typical tasks of a designer, with the illusion of being free to achieve the best format a product can achieve. As Michael Johnson (2020) refers, during the times we are living in, we don’t actually need design to make us buy fizzy drinks or cars, people and companies might not even know, but what the world needs from design at this moment is for it to jump out of the box and actually develop something good for it “in general”, and not for “design in art” or “design in engineering”. In times of need, design comes and saves the day by working for design, and not for separate companies with their particular goals, even if sometimes we think that’s what design is about. And it is, but not quite in that way. On other of my industry experiences, I got to experience what “anti.-design” would ideally be. To develop a concept from scratch, that goes against all we know as, in this case, pedagogical scheme in schools. In order to insert lego in schools, and show this “schoolification” (Steen Kabel, 2020) way of teaching, that there are possibilities for pedagogy to grow. But shouldn’t anti-design go against everything, also including lego’s brief? In this case, anti-design comes in a more “tamed” way, showing us that in fact it isn’t so much of a wild movement inside design. This wold make both sides of design merge into the same thing, which leads me to believe, once more, there’s no such thing as a division in what design is. What there is, is a human incapacity of conceiving designs definition. Catarina Archer References: Paula, Adma & Semensato, Cassiana & Silva, Plácido & Paschoarelli, Luis & Silva, Danilo. (2010). ‘Breve história e análise crítica do ensino do design no Brasil’ To be published in Convergências Revista de Investigação e Ensino das Artes. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282614043_Breve_historia_e_analise_critica_do_ensino_do_design_no_Brasil (Accessed: 1 December 2021) Doyle, S. A., Broadbridge, A. (1999) 'Differentiation by design: the importance of design in retailer repositioning and differentiation’, International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 72-83. Moffat, C. (2011) Art History Achieve. Available at: http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/antidesign/ (Accessed: 2 December 2021) Johnson, M. (2020) Johnson’s Banks. Available at: https://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/thoughts/coping-with-irrelevance (Accessed: 1 December 2021) Kabel, S. (2020) ‘Playful learning in Danish municipalities’ Available at: https://www.legofoundation.com/en/learn-how/knowledge-base/playful-learning-in-danish-municipalities-professional-journeys-of-change-in-early-childhood-education-and-care/\ A reflective piece by Inês Botequilha.I’m a Graphic and Media Design student at London College of Communication and currently interning in an Artificial Intelligence startup in Barcelona, Spain. By experiencing new things and getting to know lots of new people, I have been on a fruitful discovery of new perspectives regarding how other people see the world and the impact it has on me. This question is very interesting to respond to and relates a lot to my ongoing experience here in Barcelona, as it is a very unique and diverse city in which we can get to know tons of different people with different ideals which has been very prolific to me in terms of my perspective regarding everything, specially the ideals the Anti-Design culture stands for. This pandemic has made us more conscious of the world that surrounds us. By spending so much time at home, we have learned to start paying attention to matters we haven’t before. As we weren’t caught up in the rush of our previous daily lives with loads of activities and schedules, we were allowed to finally stop and start subverting our daily norms. These new perspectives against over-conceptualized things in our lives have a lot to do with the concept of Anti-Design which is starting to shape our society and become more and more of a topic nowadays. The Anti-Design movement questioned society norms and used strong colours, scale distortion and lots of irony. By striving for uniqueness, anti-designers want to “do-it-wrong” and backwards to prove us that sometimes being different and anarchic in our choices can have the most honest and successful pathway for everyone and applying this to design is starting to reformulate our beliefs and the so called “trends”. Our Modernism followed the idea that objects have to be consistent and permanent, Anti-Designers feel objects should be temporary, as quick to throw away and replaced by something new and more functional, as things don’t have to be developed the same way and following the same style and norms. Also, relating to the concept of sustainability, which is very addressed nowadays, as things should be created considering their “end”, so if we keep in mind that things are temporary and not permanent is much more easy to create innovating things with a sustainable end. This pushes us to consumerism, but a healthy one, where we think about what we’re buying and not doing it just because an influencer posted it or it was on sale. By bringing up consumerism and sustainability, it immediately reminds me of its relation to fashion, which is an area that is being very influenced by the “anti” culture. The concept of questioning the “authenticity and status quo of fashion itself” and an “opposition to the fashion establishment” (Not Just a Label, 2014) is called Anti-Fashion. This is a field where stylists and designers are obeyed to create “never-before-seen” pieces and trends, so it couldn’t have more to do with anti-design. By bringing up the terms consumerism and sustainability when talking about Anti-Fashion, I meant that the mindset of things not being permanent and always searching to innovate has a lot to do with making environmentally friendly fashion choices. This means we should choose sustainable ways of producing it, by using renewable materials and reuse others. Anti-Fashion (2014) Available at: https://www.notjustalabel.com/editorial/anti-fashion Deconstruction of second-hand pieces or “upcycling” is a good example of how anti-design can relate to more sustainable choices, by creating new “crazy” pieces through existing garments. “Upcycling is situated as a counter cultural way of working as it contradicts conventions of fashion design and fashion education, demanding that the design process begins with ready-made, second hand garments.” (Monasterios-Tan, 2019) which means we can find this rebellious culture in almost every new concept created nowadays, because, as I said previously, we started subverting our daily norms and now we want to change them and question them in almost everything we do, specially considering the term sustainability. Besides furniture, magazines, fashion, décor and other areas, there’s one, very related to us in which the anti-design culture has started to express itself on. Graphic design has a lot of rules, grids and structures we’ve always had to obey and they are starting to be broken by this revolutionary “new” culture. “Design is an art form, and creativity is defined by curiosity, exploration, and experimentation. Anti-Design (2020) Available at: https://www.madewithover.com/trends-copy/anti-design
The artistic spirit will always wriggle away from safe spaces.” (Over, 2020) and this is what has been defining art throughout the years so, us graphic designers must be able to learn the basics and principles of design which remain to be important so we can make something that doesn’t look “terrible” and apply all this imagination and creativity we have. With this we can say that “confident designers can venture far out to sea, but they remember to never lose sight of the lighthouse” (Over, 2020), because besides this new expression of “rebellion” to the rules and trust in the authenticity of things, we remain to unconsciously have aesthetical norms in our brains which allow us to be confident, but also know the rules before we decide to “break them”. In conclusion, the anti-design culture relates a lot with what we’ve been pursuing since this pandemic started, to shake things up and to look beyond conventional, it “challenged the materiality of life as we knew it, creating new domains of the sensible that brought into view human and non-human actors that were previously invisible or neglected” (Adams, Barbara; Marenko, Betti; Traganou, Jilly; 2021). By being confined at home, our attention has started to demand different and unexpected things, not what we were used to before and during our “3 months stay” at home highlighting the anti-principles of not pursuing perfection or what already existed, but more interesting and authentic domains applying this to everything in our lives, including the examples I gave of fashion and graphic design. So, as Obirek (2017) said, “anti-design is your recipe for attention for the next couple of years to come as it can fit any mood you’re trying to produce”. References Monasterios-Tan, Daniela (2019) ‘Sustainable design as Anti Fashion’ Cumulus Conference Proceedings Bogotá 2019: The Design After Cumulus, Bogotá, 2019 Available at: https://www.academia.edu/43143136/Sustainable_design_as_Anti_Fashion Ban, Lavinia (2014) Anti-Fashion Available at: https://www.notjustalabel.com/editorial/anti-fashion Over (2020) Anti-Design Available at: https://www.madewithover.com/trends-copy/anti-design Adams, Barbara; Marenko, Betti; Traganou, Jilly (2021) ‘Design in the Pandemic: Dispatches from the Early Months’, The Journal of Design Studies Forum, Volume 13, Issue 1. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17547075.2021.1873667 Obirek, Simon (2017) Let’s talk about anti-design Available at: https://blog.prototypr.io/lets-talk-about-anti-design-ea59798e0791 |
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