The state of design in the USA
Hello from sunny Florida,
I'm in to my last night of vacation in Florida, I fly back to the UK tomorrow and I'm appalled by the tourist tack that exists around International Drive.
I did come down for the theme parks and to do the tourist thing, but the signage and billboards are awful from a design point of view and compared to even the biggest tourist traps in the UK it's horrible.
This isn't a USA bashing thread by any means, I've had a great time here, but that designer in me cringed at the twee, saccharine, utterly trite nonsense around Disney and the surrounding parks.
Disney is particularly horrific, glad I did it and went there but by god, it's like it's stuck in the 1980s. Universal Studios is much better but still very poor from a design standpoint looking at the advertising.
On the plus side, there's nothing better than sitting pool-side with your MacBook finishing some collaborative design with an ice cold beer before heading off for The Hulk ride to get some extreme G-Forces.
Working freelance I've not had a proper vacation for about 3 years ad this has been a well needed break, albeit whilst working by the pool, It's also made me realise how good the calibre of design is in the UK and the talent we have there.
I'm contemplating moving to Florida to start a design revolution and push the place a bit more upmarket.
Anyway, it's 00:30 here and I have to check out of my hotel at 11:00am tomorrow so I'm going to get some sleep before I embark on a 14 hour flight home.
On the plus side I'm flying Delta, the best airline I've ever flown with so far so looking forward to the journey.
I'll soon be back about to about 3°C in London vs 27°C here :o( and shivering my ass off as I see over the next stage of our move to new premises, a big cold warehouse and office complex that has no heating yet.
Just thought I'd drop you guys a line while I'm out here.
Hope you're all doing well, I'll have some critiques up again soon.
Kev (plugz.co.uk)
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So true.... We all have to
So true....
We all have to admit that european design is years ahead of US design. At least regarding industrial design. I'm not much into graphic design though...
Hey Kev I'm going to London in a very near future to personally deliver my portfolio to some studios over there. Wanna buy me a beer? :D
it's clear
I enjoyed the opportunity to visit France, Holland and Germany last month and I was really pleased with graphic design (and a bunch of other things).
Talking about logo design in Europe has probably been heard before, but I was amazed at the number of type based logos (especially Helvetica) that I found. It seems that the aim there is to truly communicate, simply.
Design for advertisement was exquisite too. I particularly enjoyed Orangina's amazing illustrations for billboards on the streets.
I live in Los Angeles and I am NOT proud to say that, at least what you see in the streets (including areas like Hollywood) is design that is boring and does not push any limits, with few exceptions. Of course I am talking about what you see at airports, freeways, public places.
Cheap and Fast
Here in the states we err on the side of cheap/fast with regard to the 'pick two triangle of design' (Good, Fast, Cheap).
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Powerpoint is not a design application
You think Florida or LA is
You think Florida or LA is bad? Swing by Utah and check out the 98% of company names that include the words: Rocky, Mountain, Heritage, Pioneer, and West - and the overwhelming use of the Papyrus font.
/sigh
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Perfectly Lost Designs
"…the Web design community is hopelessly distracted by technical fetish." ~Andy Rutledge
No wonder you've got tons of
No wonder you've got tons of work.
You forgot the word Zion is pretty popular too, and '...of Utah'. :)
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Powerpoint is not a design application
Oh, how did I forget "Zion"?
Oh, how did I forget "Zion"? Maybe I smushed it in with "Pioneer" in my mind.
Everything in central Utah is marketed with plenty of emotion creme and religious references for the Mormons.
Gah.
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Perfectly Lost Designs
"…the Web design community is hopelessly distracted by technical fetish." ~Andy Rutledge
Yep. Don't forget Pioneer
Yep. Don't forget Pioneer Square!
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Powerpoint is not a design application
BHahaha! Priceless!!! You
BHahaha! Priceless!!!
You know what... europeans do have that idea of US design :D
Same thing here in Colorado...
I am so sick and tired of the cliché mountain-scene in EVERY logo here if it has "Colorado" in the name (i.e. Colorado Metal & Iron). It is so overdone—like the Got Milk? slogan EVERYWHERE—that I am ready to puke whenever I see it.
So I feel your pain, seraphim, being in the rocky mountain region, as I am, too.
suzanne maestri-walters :: graphic designer :: www.onegirlcreative.com
Don't get me started.
First, welcome back from the Realm of the Rat, Plugz! Been there. Done that. Not doing it again. :)
I just had to explain to a client why they couldn't put an image that they downloaded from Wikipedia in their brochure.
But I do have to say, Nashville has an excellent art and design community and is very supportive to the arts in general. We moved from South Mississippi in 1993 and I sometimes have to stop and remember what it was like living in that black-hole of culture and appreciate where we are now.
I also agree that Europe in-general takes the lead in design trends as compared to the U.S. I like to think that I keep my finger on the pulse of pop culture, and that often means reaching outside the U.S. in most cases.
Terry Thornhill
e-zign Design Group
could be worse...
could be vegas where everything has a picture of a slot machine in it. or the BAD designs put together for nightclubs that last a few months at a time. it's discouraging sometimes. I will say though, that it'll push me once i can do some work. Being limited by my work visa right now. :/
soon i say, soon.
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Architectural Technician - Multimedia Designer
www.ArchMedia.us
Phew!
I was slightly worried I was going to get lampooned for being anti-american on this thread.
Glad it's not just me.
;o)
Nah, we're aware of it. And
Nah, we're aware of it. And although certain areas are worse than others - hopefully if we bring it to the center of attention, it will begin to change. :)
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Perfectly Lost Designs
Don't worry, plugz...
As long as that schmuck Bush is our president—I, too, am anti-American.
God, I can't wait until 2008—but that's another thread for another blog. LOL
suzanne maestri-walters :: graphic designer :: www.onegirlcreative.com
Well observed
I'm in west Michigan, and commercial design simply cannot angry up the Dutch conservative blood, or we may have wooden shoe riots. So, if anyone makes their way here for some reason, expect something your mother would like.
-Johnny
Don't judge a city by it's tourist traps
Tourist traps are probably the worst way to judge an area's creative class. Sadly, the crap you see in these areas works very well to separate tourists from their money and the cost of the work is low so I don't think you'll see tourist traps embrace good (and more expensive) design any time soon.
Orlando has a great creative community that is growing and getting more organized by the day. Check out Florida Creatives which is currently holding monthly happy hours in Orlando and soon other cities in FL.
Re: Don't Judge...
There's really something to that. I know I have been asked to re-do some design work on several occasions to make things appeal to a certain demographic... one that is more influenced by "cheap-looking design" over "good design".
It might be a bit embarrassing to admit, but one of my first jobs out of school was for a firm that did art for NASCAR t-shirts. (Yikes!!!) Of course, there I was just out of school thinking I was gonna use my talents to make NASCAR fans appreciate good design... but I quickly found out that when you're dealing with certain demographics, "bad" design actually sells much better than "good" design. And in the eyes of those who sell (t-shirts, in this case), the "bad" design BECOMES good by the fruit it bears.
Maybe it's just where i'm
Maybe it's just where i'm from, but there's really lots of good design here. Billboards and signage is pretty decent. Of course, there's always bad design, but honestly DC/BALTIMORE sort of takes the high road on a lot of things it seems.
I have however noticed that there are hardly any "risks" taken. I think a lot of that is because of the multitudes of different cultures and people that come here. I mean, in my neighborhood growing up there were a ton of diplomats from lots of other cultures.
What is amazing though, is that most of the design is outsourced to the big design cities. It's super hard to get a job for design around here. I guess that's just the way the cookie crumbles. Seems places that want to spend the money on good design, want to buy the designer's name as well
life is great; without it, you'd be dead.
I'm in San Diego and hear
I'm in San Diego and hear Los Angeles is the same way (my old company outsources all creative now because 'everyone else is doing it'). There seems to be some cache now on the part of firms regarding which firm does your creative work.
It's so dumb because you end up spending MORE rather than less. They think it saves on their bottom line but I know this to be untrue. I've seen the numbers.
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Powerpoint is not a design application
moved to Ontario from London, UK
I moved to Ontario from London, UK nearly three years ago and I noticed differences in design. To be honest, I never looked down upon it or saw English design as better or more sophisticated - it's just a cultural difference.
Orangina
Here are the Orangina ads I was talking about in France (thanks Ivan)
http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/orangina_octopus
US Design
I spent twelve years in an Ad agency where I felt 60-70% of our design was client driven. Overall our execution was excellent. Our goal in delivery was to create good design that Sells or Gets results. We achieved that goal with a very small creative team of four and ranked in the top ten Ad agencies for Silicon Valley by the Business Journal. Of course things change and downturns in the economy have not been of much help. 2009 will hopefully change things.