As a design student, I learn about design theory and design rules. That is certainly not surprising information. However, there is also encouragement to experiment and define my style. In the outside world, I target myself as a photographer and art director more than a designer. However, I cannot hide the significant influence of a design degree. If asked, I say I gravitate towards minimalism and simplicity. I am not particularly keen on strictly following rules, however, I have got quite a clear vision of what beauty means for me. I often aim to deliver a perfect art piece (whatever it actually is). Therefore, I perceive Anti-Design creations as an interesting challenge that can reformat my perspective and widen my creative horizons. First of all, how to understand anti-design? Practically, Anti-Design features are usually clashing colour palettes, alignments ignoring classic rules, seemingly bad font choice or illegible typography (Santori Designs, Will ‘ANTI DESIGN’ Takeover The Graphic Design World!?). It consciously violates the rules of design and socially accepted ideals of beauty. To capture a more philosophical aspect of the movement, we can have a look at the Anti-Design festival that went on in London in autumn 2010. Neville Brody, the founder and organizer of the ADF, describe the vision of the event as: The Anti Design Festival is anti-everything. The Anti Design Festival is anti-nothing. While the ADF is not against design, there is also a need for change. We are not anti-design as much as we are anti-everything (Neville Brody for itsnicethat.com, July 2010). The ADF aimed to challenge contemporary stereotypes and homogeneity in the design field; it was created in response to 25 years of the cultural deep freeze in the UK as an antipole of the well-known London Design Festival. However, the history of Anti-Design discourse goes further back to the 1960s. The movement originated in Italy as a reaction to an increasingly widespread diminution of the social relevance of design at the expense of the capitalist enterprise. This artistic stream embraced the ephemerality of capitalism, consumerism, and the language of the mass media (Oxford Reference, Anti-Design). Demonstrating these two examples of the 2010 ADF and 1960s´ Anti-Design upsurge helps us to understand the return of anti-design tendencies in the present day. There is a certain pattern of stagnance that is followed by a change. The coronavirus pandemic threw us into a strange period of uncertainty and recession. Many priorities have changed considerably, new ones have emerged. For the creative industry, the usual flows of inspiration dried up. So it was necessary to find different ones. Nothing remained as we knew it. Many things stopped to matter in the light of current events. The urge to transform has become real. The world has turned into chaos and the design decides to answer to this change. There are many signs of the rising popularity of anti-design in the post-pandemic era. For example, let´s take a look at predictions for 2022 graphic design trends. The website 99designs.co.uk prophesies an entrance of anti-designer, especially but not only for web design. For the last 10 years, we were stuck in strict creative conventions. That has led to homogeneity across the digital landscape. Recent trends show that many artists are pushing boundaries to bring creativity and diversity back. In a world that generally leans to futuristic minimalism, Anti-Design can be perceived as problematic and too messy and chaotic. I cannot see anti-design as a synonym of absolute chaos. Being an artist (no matter what your style is) gives you a unique opportunity to see AD as an expression of freedom. As an expression of what creativity should be in the first place. It delivers a new form of beauty. Youtube creator and designer Tom Cargill points out that anti-design still requires talent, anti-designers are still designers. The only difference is that they are brave enough to disrupt the comfort zone and cause chaos by creating ´ugly, imperfect´ artwork. Beauty, perfection and art are such subjective concepts. I believe that the Anti-Design trend is a great opportunity to open our minds and refresh a design landscape. It is a movement, it is a rebellion, a discourse. It comes and goes, let's use it for our enrichment. Maddie Fiedler BA (Hons) Design for Art Direction maddiefiedler.com
1 Comment
Robert Urquhart
1/7/2022 06:07:49 am
Love the comment 'the Anti-Design trend is a great opportunity to open our minds and refresh a design landscape. It is a movement, it is a rebellion, a discourse. ' - it is indeed - and discourse is so important - great to see passionate writing here on the subject - thanks for sharing!
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