![]() Looking through history and looking ahead, Lindgren proposes new ways of teaching design, resetting our ‘factory settings.’ -Jarrett Fuller The Rape Kit’s Secret History, by Pagan Kennedy “One that, in keeping with the principles of ‘good design,’ turns them into efficient and interchangeable parts ready to hit the market.” Lindgren goes on to examine how design education creates a specific type of designer, that then creates a specific type of design, creating a stasis in the profession. “A school becomes a factory producing designers,” writes Jacob Lindgren in this essay published by the Walker Art Center. Graphic Design’s Factory Settings, by Jacob Lingdren I appreciate its textured approach to the subject, which Alioto treats as vignettes that examine the various corners of what lifestyle means in the context of history, photography, and contemporary culture. It feels a little like the digital equivalent of picking up a 12 page zine at a book shop. The piece plays with format-it’s a single serving website that folds in recommendations and a social media experience. In a series of short essays Alioto unpacks the definition of “lifestyle” and its naturally thorny implications. So when fellow EoD editor Meg Miller brought this piece by Daisy Alioto to my attention, I dove straight in. I am endlessly fascinated by stories that examine why culture and taste flow in certain directions. It’s always a good lesson for us to keep our brains open to the various ways we can cover the world of design. ![]() Throughout the year, we keep tabs (yes, literal tabs) on the stories that we wish we’d written ourselves. Good design writing happens everywhere, and in places where you might least expect it. Viewed through that lens, design writing isn’t just the purview of website like our own. Oftentimes, the language of design creeps into other parts of our lives-the way things look, the way things work, how the things we care about are presented to the world. Individual brands will need to be positioned not only as a better option, but offer additional services that competitors don’t and create a customer experience that goes beyond digital to communicate important values.Writing about design is never just writing about design. Future technologies will display differently and allow for blended physical and digital experiences that offer creative opportunity for logo, product and brand design. This becomes even more important for companies who are disrupting through customer experience over innovation. Stores, sales associates, shopping bags and location all create a connection a screen can’t, placing a greater importance for design in the D2C customer/brand relationship. The case for standout design over the herd is made further when considering the customer experience, growing technology and the accessibility of advertising. Product design, not just ads, are integrating this use of color and type so the product can be an Instagrammable experience in itself. Which in turn, helps with user generated content and cost savings. Writer Molly Fisher in "The Tyranny of Terrazzo, Will the millennial aesthetic ever end?", that “Instagrammable is a term that does not mean “beautiful” or even quite “photogenic” it means something more like “readable.” The viewer could scroll past an image and still grasp its meaning, e.g., “I saw fireworks,” “I am on vacation,” or “I have friends.” This trend is also fueled by content efficiencies. The resulting, pared down aesthetic focuses on product and messaging being legible over creative. The design has leaned into the digital world so far that the varying sizes of screens combined with social media platforms have dictated design choices instead of brand differentiators. It's important to talk through why we are not seeing much variation because it hints at where branding and marketing could go for future D2C companies. The D2C space is not a one size fits all approach and I think we will see the market rid itself of those that can’t differentiate themselves visually and meet customer expectations. The formulaic approach using san serif typography, solid muted color and photography that embraces the same design simplicity, brands are following a visual playbook that started with earlier successful disruptors like Warby, Thinx and Glossier and it will come back to haunt them. There are only a handful of campaigns from D2C brands that have stuck with me because they are simply not memorable. Despite seeing a variety of products all advertising a better, cheaper product over established brands, the visual language D2C brands are using all look like iterations of itself. As a New Yorker, staring at subway ads featuring new D2C products during commutes has become as part of the NY experience as having cake delivered at 3:00 a.m.
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