As sophisticated design pervades every facet of today's visual experience, the world seems sleek and stylized, from screen-printed t-shirts to wall-paper to stationary to the walls of the Whitney. But this aesthetic is not so hard to conjure up. It is aggressively stylistic, bohemian but bourgeois, and constantly alluding to some political or social commentary. Susan Sontag wrote that "design is mute," and so mistaking an Arab kaffiyeh scarf for a fashion accessory is effectively silencing the ur-culture and its aesthetic.
So here are some quickly conjured up hip images, done in just a few minutes each. Not that I am not proud of these silly things (the 2nd one done with kuso.net, the others by yours truly) but....it's easy, try it!
3 comments:
let's cultivate this shit
I would argue sophisticated design is actually a priceless rarity that unfortunately surrounds damn near no facet of nothing nowhere, and instead what we've got is this pervasive stylization (in th sense of Sontag) trying to fill the void.
Jeffrey Zeldman said it better than I could. To paraphrase: Style of this sort is a tautological subset or attribute of design. Where design uses a surface or object to communicate information (about the object, its function, how to best use it, where to take it, who it's for, etc), while stylization communicates only stylishness.
Are you still in New York? It would be dope to hang out with you some time.
best,
beau
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