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October 04, 2007
the lust to make the world intolerable 2
Another sad thing about America: boring car colors.
No surprises there.
Tony forwarded me a comment submitted to his blog, which he did not post. It was in response to the comment I left about the new taxi logo design.
The comment was this:
Eric, you can't be serious commenting that things are so ugly in America. "Constant agony"??? You're a pretentious, sheltered fag that no one wants to sleep with, is what I'm getting.
In the first place, no one who has ever met me would doubt that I am in constant agony.
Secondly, yes, I am pretentious.
Thirdly, I have no idea if anyone wants to sleep with me, since I don’t participate in that particular activity or pastime or hobby or pastime.
(Really, I don’t get what all the fuss is about with the whole sex thing.)
Fourthly, SHELTERED? From bad design? I was born in and have lived my entire life in the United States of America. How could I possibly be sheltered? Maybe if I was Swedish or Austrian or Brazilian or Spanish, but I am American! I am constantly exposed to horrible design on a daily basis! Or on any basis!
Americans often make the argument that there are more important things than good design or than making things aesthetically pleasing. This is usually based on the mistaken belief that good design costs more money than bad design, but, I agree: there are more important things than good design.
There are also more important things than:
Sex
Dessert
Drinking alcohol
Attending parties
Going to the gym
The internet
Traveling
Reading books
Watching movies
Listening to music
Having children
Having a job
Eating a variety of foods
Drinking beverages other than water
Earning wages above subsistence level
Sleeping in anything other than the most basic lean-to or cave
Exposure to sunlight
Having legs
As Alec Baldwin’s character on “30 Rock” responded when asked why he was wearing a tuxedo, “It’s after 6:00, what am I, a farmer?”
But in the United States we have low standards and lower expectations.
Posted by eric at October 4, 2007 11:36 AM
Comments
10 bucks says the queen who sent that to you collects Hummels of children with flags, which are so much more butch than the others.
A little hyperbole is good. Apparently bad design is encouraged by people worrying about their pennies being spent on things other than their Hummers and their breast implants.
Posted by: copperred at October 4, 2007 12:43 PM
Bravo Eric, bravo.
Posted by: Tony Rizzuto at October 4, 2007 12:54 PM
No, there really isn't anything more important than sex.
Posted by: TED at October 4, 2007 01:17 PM
Maybe that's true TED, but there's something better than sex; something that stands behind good sex and good design.
Posted by: jason at October 4, 2007 02:18 PM
Eric -
Just a couple of comments. First I only read your blog, I don't know you, so as for the agony and the pretentious part, I will take your word for it and since you choose to live in NYC, it doesn't completely surprise me.
Second, you are a handsome lad and since time flies by and beauty is fleeting, I suggest you stop waiting for your prince and dive in and get laid regularly and properly. Don't get me started on missed opportunities. Don't get me started.
Finally I am with you on the bad design thing. I think there is completely too much "design by committee" in this country and this is along with a basic sense of puritanism and an aesthetic bar that is set much too low is much of the problem. On the other hand exactly WHO is the arbiter of really good design? Is it your fancy art director friend Tony or would he impart too much of a garish Long Islandy type influence in his standards? (I kid, I kid) But really, who is to say what design is REALLY good?
Posted by: Boomer at October 4, 2007 02:22 PM
Boomer:
Time already flew!
Oh well. We all lose our charms in the end.
Posted by: Eric at October 4, 2007 02:29 PM
I can tell you that 'design by committee' is the reason for most bad designs. It is my profession, but when I speak of font consistency or color branding, all of my coworkers roll their eyes and say 'pshaw!' and disregard my recommendations. And most CEOs and bosses think they know good design, by the way.
Posted by: jimbo at October 4, 2007 04:43 PM
good graphic design is difficult to find these days because now anyone+everyone (and their nephew) has access to graphic software.
also, too many companies now hire grads with no experience to do senior design work for lesser salaries.
and sorry to say, but there's a lot less guys doing graphic design these days, which is why so much contemporary design is soft and timid... women don't do hard, pop, and punchy.
Posted by: A.J. at October 4, 2007 05:37 PM
Thank gawd you reminded me that the 30 Rock season premier is tonight.
Jimbo, I'm a copywriter who works with some very talented designers. I feel their pain nearly every day when the voices from on high say, "too busy" or "there's not enough of something-or -other". These are the same MBAs who have us writers labor over a campaign for weeks and weeks, only to completely change direction with a quick "or how about BLAH" the day before the deadline.
Posted by: Lucky Pierre at October 4, 2007 06:08 PM
I couldn't agree with you more, Eric. I find it even more reprehensible when good design goes bad. Case in point:
When a long-time icon of packaging design in Canada was abandoned for this train-wreck, it left me fuming.
I continue to refill what is now my vintage salt box rather than purchase and therefore endorse such and ill-informed and insulting design decision by the manufacturer.
My boyfriend thinks I'm nuts.
Posted by: Kurt at October 4, 2007 08:24 PM
Oh my God, Kurt. I'm so sorry.
I expect more from Canada!
That old Windsor Salt box is beautiful.
Posted by: Eric at October 4, 2007 09:05 PM
Don't hate me but I really don't care about design and have no eye for it.
And nothing is more important than going to the gym. I plan to be buried next to the free weights.
Posted by: David at October 4, 2007 11:09 PM
Gosh, Eric, I think we have a kind of reverse-pretentiousness in operation. We've made a fetish of down-home, of just-a-regular-guy. "He's a multimillionaire, but you'd never know it. Likes corn flakes for breakfast. Goes bowling. Wears coveralls."
There are countless examples of superb design created in this country. But fineness is not our cultural norm, I'd say.
Posted by: burnside at October 5, 2007 07:58 AM
Eric -- you have not lost your charms.
Yet.
Posted by: Jack at October 5, 2007 08:30 AM
Yet another example of misplaced admiration for cultures that have absolutely destroyed their suburban and extra-urban landscapes with brutalist concrete monstrosities. Not a one of the nations you named is exempt. And THESE are the nations you look to for good design? Yes, favelas are very chic. So too the sewage streams of Christiania. American design isn't any worse than any other nation's design--it's just an easier target.
Posted by: Rex at October 5, 2007 10:01 AM
Have I been providing other examples of misplaced admiration for cultures that have absolutely destroyed their suburban and extra-urban landscapes with brutalist concrete monstrosities?
I didn't realize.
In other news, the new taxi logo is starting to grow on me. A TINY BIT.
Posted by: Eric at October 5, 2007 11:23 AM
Eric,
Why do I feel the need to reassure you of your charm and attractiveness? Youth and Beauty aren't mutually exclusive. Pretension? Well we all went to college for a reason, didn't we?
And perhaps Tony's comment was really referring to actual sleep, not the euphemism for sexual intercourse (in all it's forms). Do you snore perchance? Or are perhaps thrashing cover-hog?
I can mostly take or leave sex, but without sleep, I get become somewhat unravelled.
Posted by: Paul at October 10, 2007 10:39 PM
I love it. I just so wish I could fast-forward you twenty years and see how you turn out. There are so many possibilities. Some horrific and some absolutely wonderful.
Once upon a time, a man owned only a small patch of weeds, but he had good muscles and a machete with which he hacked away at the weeds trying to shape the garden he saw in his mind when looking down, he saw, half buried in the stoney earth....
Posted by: Father Tony at October 14, 2007 11:34 AM