Death to Design
Faesthetic used to thrill me. I thought it was brilliant. B&W, zine-like and loved the lack of text and article—an art-zine if you will. But a couple years later i’m just bored.
I have nothing against Faesthetic and I actually applaud the publisher, Dustin Hostetler, for devising such an innovative publication. He can honestly say he did something no one else had done before.
But…(there is always a but) it represents everything I currently hate about the field of design.
I don’t plan to blog about the me away from the monitor often, but I will disclose that I work in design as an Art Director. Maybe I am getting old or I’m a traditionalist, but it seems that design used to mean you opened up Quark and were a stylesheet guru. Illustrator has become the new Quark and expertly kerned type has been replaced with drawings of monsters, deer antlers and hand-drawn type. I won’t knock the hustle, I like illustration but it just seems that lately being a great designer really translates to being able to draw some sketchy hipster doodles.
Call me an idiot, but I believe, whatever the medium of the art, be it a drawing or an annual report, the concept should be king. And to me, a bunch of frowning clouds or yet another goddamn skull is empty art.
Design. Art. Illustration. Call it what you will, but please give it meaning.
**Note: As stated at the beginning of the post, I do believe Faesthetic has a lot of merit as a publication. I guess I was just ranting on my frustration with current design trends more than anything. There are definitely gems within Faesthetic chock full of concept. I chose the two pages posted above to illustrate the content rift I’ve been discussing. While the illustration on the left is fun and cute, there’s nothing behind it really. In contrast, I think the photograph page on the right is absolutely brilliant, unique and can be interpreted within many contexts.
7 comments March 7th, 2007