Why I Hate trends
As I mentioned in another post, my background is in industrial design. And when we go back to industrial design history we can see the difference between something that is good for one year… or something that was made for life.
Ok… Hate might be a little to much… I just think that we have to be careful before going after every major trend that appears in all the portfolios and showcase websites..
Most of the design icons we know are from the 50’s up to the 60’s (maybe some early 70's). They were designed in a time when you payed attention to every detail, where the build quality was something to think off… you were doing something for life… The selected materials, the way they where used and where they were used made a difference.
The same applies to fashion, I remember that most os my clothes when I was a Kid came from one of my cousins.. they they probably still went to someone else. Stuff just got fixed if there was the need.. you thought if you really needed something before buying it… (It’s funny that one of my favorite apperels brands still does this: Patagonia). I love Adidas Superstar, Vans or Chuck’s All Stars… I love the Omega moonwatch from 1969. I love old Porsches.
One of my favourite pieces os storage is the Vitsoe 606 by Dieter Rams. The wat that it was designed, the modularity, the way you can adapt it to almost every situation, they way it evolved (when it was made there weren’t any cd’s and some modules were designed after to adapt to the need). The materials are just top Koch quality. Side panels in solid aluminium; first class woods, and all the hardware and fixures are just great.
They are so good and so well build, that you can still find then in Ebay for really high price, but also in a lot off modern stores, fresh out of the factory… But is it really that expensive?? I don’t think so.. You can go into Ikea (nothing against) and buy a bookshelf for maybe half or 1/3 of the vitsoe price… but, is it going to be build for life? Is it something that as the aestethics that you are still going to love it after 10 years?
The truth is… I’ve got a bookshelf from ikea because i couldn’t convince my wife that buying the Vitsoe was a better solution… I personally always prefer to choose something for life… I like using black t-shirts because its always alright… I like things that are timeless…
But going back into the subject of this post… the good part of vitsoe is that you have really simple colors and textures… when is white or black going to be out of fashion? Never…. simple as that… but when you talk about every other trend… you had the browns and oranges in the 70's… the bright colors of the 80’s… etc… All of those might be again trendy, but there was a time when you were just tired of them…
Talking about logos.. graphic design is amazing… branding… love it.. design a logo and stationary… makes my day! Now look at all the brands that have the same logo for ages like Fed Ex, IBM, Dell, car companies, you name it… and the ones that are always changing. Mosto of the companies that are always changing their logo are just following the trends, A few years ago you were just doing vintage sign inspired logos…
For me the reason for that is simple… usually companies that have a long tradition are from a time when designing a logo, producing most of the materials, business cards, store decor, etc… was really expensive.. took a lot of time and you still had to educate the costumer that it was still the same company behind that new logo. It was normal to spend 2 or 3 months just doing research.. trying every possible combination of colors, iconography and typography.
New companies in the other hand.. almost no one prints nothing… you go into illustrator change the logo, update your app, update your website, email signature and its done… no big deal… and if you have material to print.. no worries… you use digital printing processes and you don't have to print 10 000 copies of each… There’s a lot behind all of that…
Now we get into software and apps development… I’m currently working as a Lead Ux in a tech startup… And I love it… We might not always get the information we need… we might not have the time we need to try new stuff.. we are always designing new stuff.. and we are always bombarded by the latest trends in UI… The thing is… to make a back tto back change of the overall look of our platform it’s going to take ages… and we work in a kind of fin-tech…and it is B2B only…
We might not have the opportunity to fresh things up every time we find something new and we think is cool.. In my case i need to worry about users that use the same system for ages… they use systems with 10 years+… they dont care about the background gradient and if you try to put stuff in big bol titles… they will kill you because you are wasting “screen real estate”. They are brokers and traders and just care about their bonus… I need to pay attention to detail, to contrast ratios, to font size… but show as much as possible when they need it…
Every decision I make I have to live with it for at least 5 years… if not more.. Our users don’t want to learn a new interface every 2 years… I can make it better… I’m a part of the team that creates new functionalities, but i cannot spend most of my time changing everything that i did in the past year…
I have to say I still love some cool stuff in interfaces.. love when an animation just makes sense, when everything is easy to use, and when everything is right were I was expecting to find it…
Why I love MacOS? Easy… now it is way cooler.. lots of cool stuff.. works great in this multi tasking / multi device era, but… because if you could use in in the 2000’s you can still use it now..
You can find the elements in the same position… with the basic same icons for finder views.. the dock bar it is still the same… Now in windows… That is not the same.. I loved Arturo Toledo design for windows 7 (I think), that had the same kind of logic that you could find in a tablet or in a windows phone… but it was wayyyy too different from what users where used to..(and slow). I love a good grid, loved the typography in it… but they had to roll back to almost the same thing they had before… Now image the frustration for a professional user.. losing a million dollar business because he couldn't find a document… Explorer didn’t work exactly the same way…
I love good design, but most of all I like to be productive, and I love to do something that I know my user can and will use with ease…
Using design trends is “easy”… just go into Dribble, Pinterest or Behance, pick up your favourite design, and make yours… But to create something timeless and functional… that is the Hard Part.