Yuqing Pan / BA Graphic and Media Design The aesthetic of modern graphic design is defined as clarity and simplicity after World War. Bauhaus, De Stijl, and Swiss International provide designers with design principles and elements that function as self-correction tools. From grid systems to legible but not decorative sans-serif, from elementary geometry to dynamic asymmetry, all these assets build a foundation of design education. After mastering basic principles, designers can park in a safe harbour of aesthetic values. On the contrary, anti-design is about low-fi images, disordered typography, or colour palette with strong contrast. It is believed that a professional graphic designer would not consort with ugliness, untidiness and disorder. Traced back to the 1970s, DIY aesthetic that appeared during punk movement featured grainy black-and-white images, cut-n-paste letterforms and photocopied printing. Its chaotic typography puts no effort into creating an enjoyable reading experience, completely ignoring the holy rule 'emphasise clarity over any other element' by Moholy-Nagy. Ransom note style has become a symbol of defiance for decades. The visual language of punk proves the power of rule-breaking design in shaping culture. Ugliness is no longer a pure taboo in design. Steven Heller wrote in his article, "Designers used to stand for beauty and order. Now beauty is passé and ugliness is smart." More and more design cases appearing in recent years prove designers' eagerness to explore this intelligent track. The traditional standard requires typographers to do their job following handwriting habits and taste in calligraphy to achieve a perfect balance. Latin-America-based type foundry Latinotype subtly break the rules in their Magazine Grotesque published in 2020. The outstroke extends beyond body in some letters. Even though considered as the fixture of the 'ugly' type, the overbite 'a' and the underbite 'g' creates a unique awkwardness and humour. Another imperfect typeface example is about ink trap. Ink trap was born to solve undesirable spreading under terrible printing conditions last century. To avoid excess ink would soak outwards and ruin the crisp edge, Matthew Carter cut the inside corner deeply and made a slim junction. The typeface has a strange silhouette as rugged as a random paper cut, but it performs excellently in small size. Now lots of type designers inspired by this special strategy include it in their designs. ABC Whyte from type foundry Dinamo revives and rethinks about ink trap in the context of variable font technology. Combining curt and curvy lines, ink trap in Whyte brings an impressive personality to the typeface. Yui Takada, probably the most controversial designer in Japan, is also a fierce supporter of ugly design. His style featuring violent contrast colours, twisted typography, and intentionally strange layout, is directly named as 'new ugliness' — seemingly unmethodical design results from his observation of street design. Rather than creating decent work, He values the urge to express and a sincere attitude behind the creation of people who never receive design education. His shift from aesthetic design to ugliness leaves a deafening question: Are we going to obey the establishment forever, or jump out from the design formulary to absorb something new? Ugly design questions the assumptions and values underlying tradition in the form of intentional untidiness. The embrace of ugliness promotes critical thinking and experimental working method in graphic design realms. It is an opportunity of creating a new visual language. In an era when people are weary of disciplined and sugarcoated aesthetics, ugly design joins the carnival of celebrating flaws, manifesting its power in shaping culture, and leading us to a realism playground. While ugly design provides a fantastic opportunity to break, to explore, to innovate in graphic design world, is it a possible threat to the creation process? New technology, like big data, has already changed the way we get information. People cannot stop switching Tiktok and refreshing Instagram once they connect to the Internet. Audiences nowadays might be more design-literate than ever but also more short-tempered and impatient than ever. To please these irritable eyes, designers, willful or not, are more likely to create frenetic pastiches. Mike White also suggests that the rapid stream could confuse the research process. The original design insight tends to be diluted or even misunderstood as its content description would not be saved and read with the visual reference. When a particular visual language is singled out as a trend, it is worth doubting that its critical core can still be preserved. Bibliography Triggs, T. (2006). Scissors and Glue: Punk Fanzines and the Creation of a DIY Aesthetic. Journal of Design History, 19(1), Pp.69-83. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3838674 (Accessed June 2, 2021). Worley, M. (2015). Punk, Politics and British (fan)zines, 1976-84: 'While the world was dying, did you wonder why?" History Workshop Journal, Pp.76-106. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/ 43917310 (Accessed June 2, 2021). Eskilson, S. (2007). Graphic design : a new history. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. Trabucco-Campos, A. (2021). The case for ugly design. [online] Fast Company. Available at: https://www.fastcompany.com/90672231/the-case-for-ugly-design. Bennett, H. (2021). Is graphic design too trendy? [online] www.itsnicethat.com. Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/is-graphic-design-too-trendy-graphic-design-080221. TOKYO TDC (2020). TDCDAY2020: Yui Takada / Presentation, Chiharu Watabe / Message. [online] www.youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnuIAW2IjII [Accessed 29 Jan. 2023].
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