Opinion: Design Snobbery

I happened upon graphpaper.com's article about public sector design at the same time I ran across Winterhouse's 20/20 presentation on graphic design, which inevitably led to the issue of design snobbery.

Watch the 20/20 video (may take a second to load)—it is flat out condescending (and this from the people who run Design Observer, currently the most respected design blog around, despite the legibility challenges on their website). A prime example of the elitist art-school practice of telling people what is bad, but not WHY, and generally insulting their aesthetic or intelligence.

The public sector article, meanwhile, makes some very valid points about why a semi-ridiculous brochure for NYC's recycling program is actually succeeding. The best part is the spot-on projected "design-world hipster version" of the poster, which currently features cartoon characters of compost and recyclables: "You’d have a neat, grid-based layout with obscure cryptic icons for each type of recyclable: A little apple core icon for the composting, a little mouse or mobile phone icon for recycling electronics, a little shirt for the clothing program. It would look really slick, but would it work?"

As we all know, there is a gap between design that is lauded, studied, featured in magazines and the design that we live with on an everyday basis and are sometimes forced to create for our clients. What I'm becoming frustrated with is the persistent attitude that all of the everyday stuff is inherently bad. This attitude does nothing to increase productivity and problem solving, not to mention it demeans both the designer and the audience. Don't get me wrong—a little discrimination with substance can be a motivating force for designers to do better and aspire higher. But I'm finding that fewer and fewer designers are able to back their elitism with discussion, and snobbery without substance has become rampant. This results in many designers grasping and stabbing at what they think is a correct aesthetic and making design decisions without much thought. And so the snob gap widens...

If you are going to be a design snob, be able to back your opinions with discourse. If you are going to blast a typeface, a trend, a movement as baaad, be able to coherently explain why you are doing so. If you're going to worship at the altar of a particular designer, do your research and be able to tell people why their work is important and what you've learned from them. Discriminate where it counts, where it will make a difference. But also accept that there is everyday work to be done that it isn't automatically awful just because it won't win awards or be featured in magazines. Don't fall into the snob gap and become so focused on what is "great" that you are unable to function on an everyday level—aim to bring some of the principles of that greatness to the mundane. And while I'm not necessarily advocating the widespread use of cartoon compost heaps, recognize that communication is often much more complicated than acceptable typefaces and sleek presentation.

There will always be design snobbery. But if we all start using our heads a bit more, that elitism could become much more productive. Here's to better, wiser snobs.