The Value of Design
Comments: 4
James Spahr of DesignWeenie posts a succinct observation on an extremely annoying trend: the decreasing value of ‘design,’ specifically Blogger’s request for a new look.
I’ve done free work for people (and I’m hoping to do some more this week if I can organise the time, so it’s not like I’m against it per se) but it’s not something I can consider making a career out of, having bills to pay and mouths to feed. Things are tough all over, I know, but guess which parts of a project get the budgets pulled from underneath them first?
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Posted to General Rants • 2002.11.07 (Thu) • 13:21
Comments
Posted by resonance 2002.11.07, 14:35
I left the design business about 8 years ago when the web was getting started. It was clear to me that the notion of “design” was going be diluted by the bastards who bought a Mac and a copy of Photoshop and called themselves designers.
It was harder in print, mostly due to the material consequences of not knowing your stuff. If you mess up a job in print, there are thousands of copies of your mistake (technical or aesthetic, take your pick) being circulated around the globe. If you mess up on the web, you re-upload.
Don’t get me wrong—I’m very happy about the creative potential that’s unlocked by the millions of people who use the web as a place to express themselves. If fewer of them called what they do “design” then the term would still have some meaning for me. [It’s hard to communicate that in a way that doesn’t sound completely elitist.]
Posted by Christopher Walker 2002.11.07, 22:16
I agree entirely with the above, and no, it isn’t elitist, it is being honest and showing passion in something you care about.
As someone put it more succinctly than I ever could, “The Bathing Ape Wears No Clothes.”
I hope that’s appropriate.
Posted by Amol Hatwar 2003.07.11, 05:16
I like your design: Laid-back, approachable and casual colors, and most of all, a functional layout.
Posted by Jake 2006.01.23, 04:55
A Bathing Ape (BAPE) is it just Hype or is it truly a cultural phenomenon? Is the founder of A Bathing Ape, Nigo, an artistic genious or a shrewd businessman with a propensity for marketing and tapping into the vast expendable income of the world?s youth? Perhaps a question still in the balance! Regardless, no one can deny the impact of Nigo and the Bape Brand in the 21st century.
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