Michael Wolff, media critic for Vanity Fair, sent shockwaves though the crowd at a design conference in December when he called all design “banal, trite and unoriginal.” Claiming that designers hadn’t managed to produce anything worth noting since the sixties, he concluded that “design is officially over.” Wolff was speaking at a conference to celebrate achievements in activist design.
After listening to Wolff’s scathing critique, Milton Glaser, creator of the “I Love New York” logo and among those who signed First Things First, gave what was widely described as a rousing and eloquent response in defense of design. Speaking by phone from his New York office, Glaser explains why he believes that Wolff, in delivering his diatribe, missed the mark. “Michael confused design with style,” he says. “We’re drowning in style.” But style, Glaser maintains, is just the way something looks. Design is far more comprehensive. “When considering a design, you have to look at the message in terms of its intention.”
But given the immediate nature of our relationship with design – one cultivated in a world where billboards, logos and 15-second ad spots scream incessantly for our attention – who has time to think about intention? Design is everywhere. If there’s nothing in the style of the well-intentioned design to differentiate it from all the other banal, trite and unoriginal corporate bullshit we’re exposed to every day, then the message is lost. AIDS in Africa gets swept to the side of our consciousness right along with Coke and CoverGirl.
Nardi, Sarah. "A Designer Moment." Adbusters. 2 June 2008. 1 December 2008.
One more vote for "content begets style" but along with a non-designer's (I assume non-designer anyway) critique that it still has to look cool, otherwise it can't compete, however, as a rugby team it shouldn't go and enter the superbowl.
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