In the popular mind, for longer than we can remember, the role of designers has been to make beautiful things. Understandably so. Up until the 19th century, the word design meant a ‘pattern’, to decorate, or manufacture utilitarian objects, such as a Wedgwood china teapot or a brass surahi from a ‘manufactory’ in Moradabad. Even… Continue reading Hello, Good Lookin’
Category: deep design
Love In The Time of Packaging
“It looks like a particularly unhealthy time to be a brand,” said the Slayer of Ordinary Design, a sardonic, sage and street-wise guru known more usually as The Sood, or sometimes the SOD, a term, as he pointed out, for a piece of turf—grass, earth and all. “First, “ said the Sod, easing into a… Continue reading Love In The Time of Packaging
A League of Ordinary Gentlemen
Come summer, the armies gather their men for one last climactic campaign. Wounds and fatigue must be ignored, hidden or repaired, or else the bodies in question kept out of the unforgiving battle. Loyalties are re-configured, enemies and friends re-shuffled, or is it every man for himself? It will be dark, but it will be… Continue reading A League of Ordinary Gentlemen
Design to Consumer: I’m Not Sure We’ve Met?
Design, properly understood, is inherently social. Designers make objects and symbols, for the eventual use of other people, to fit into, or sometimes transform socially determined situations. So an invitation to ‘share a fresh perspective’ at a consumer summit, to an audience of marketers, should hardly have caused unease. But inquiry is born from unease;… Continue reading Design to Consumer: I’m Not Sure We’ve Met?
Is it time to bury the logo?
Everyone loves a logo, or loves to hate one. Designing logos is the most easily understood example of the graphic designer’s work. Among the additions to visual culture since the 19th century, the logo ranks with television and cinema. Stand in Tokyo’s Ginza or New York’s Times Square and you will be overrun by them;… Continue reading Is it time to bury the logo?
Trending: The World In A Shade Card
It’s a modern, seasonal disease. The new year brings with it a thick flow of trend forecasts, cheery and sweeping, and we read them with the forgiving spirit that the holiday season demands. For Deep Design, it seems foolhardy to indulge, yet churlish to desist, so here’s a holiday smoothie on trends themselves. Some trend… Continue reading Trending: The World In A Shade Card
The Language of Identity
It was a film-maker friend on the phone. “I’m making a film,” he said, “on a new script that’s been developed for the Wancho language, spoken in Arunachal Pradesh. Right up your street.” Perhaps my friend was referring to my interest in typeface design? But my friend, aware of the distinction between the script (a… Continue reading The Language of Identity
Hidden In Plain View: Physique
Brands place a premium on attention, firing images and words shaped into messages to inform and persuade. Indeed, we live amidst a war for our attention, an exquisitely perishable wisp that lives in the now. But like breath, attention is a quick burning fuel that enables the flow of communication but does not add to… Continue reading Hidden In Plain View: Physique
The Currency of Design
“I refuse to add to the chorus,” said DOPE, as the Designer Of Practically Everything was known to his colleagues, “dissing the Rs 2000 note’s design. Instead, let’s treat it as an occasion to ask explore what design means.” I looked sadly at the new Rs 2000 note my newspaper had sent for the interview.… Continue reading The Currency of Design
Brand Is UX, Or Something Like That
The 20th century was the Age of advertising,“ said the Undisputed Strategic Panjandrum, known with awe as USP, “right up to the Great Shift or the digitisation of everything.