I remember a time not long ago when there were no rules. Some people called it a free for all, others claimed it was chaos, design for designers they used to say… but I saw it clearly as a rebellion against the mediocre, against modernism.

Before the rise of the design blogs, I used to pick up a copy of Emigre and read passionate essays written about design theory. The direction that visual communication would take in the new millennium seemed vital to the profession and even the world. This might sound elitist, and in a way it is and was, but at least there was a sense of upheaval which is lacking in today’s design discourse. Back then, there were manifestos, plans of action. The First Things First Manifesto comes to mind as a hot topic, but what happened? Nothing. Everyone signed it, all designers signed it anyway (sustainability makes a lot of sense), but in the end they were only words on paper.

The design blogs of today don’t hold much of a discussion on the issues… an article about which actor would play which designer celebrity comes to mind. The profession has fallen back into complacency and modernism and mediocrity are apparently good enough. Strangely enough, Jeffery Keedy’s essay in Emigre Issue No. 64 titled “Design Modernism 8.0″ written in 2003 seems to ring just as true today. 

“Helvetica”, the recent documentary film by Gary Hustwit brings the issue right out in the open and straight to the public. Though I agree that the film shows both sides in designers preferences for typeface helvetica, it also is a discussion about modernism. The problem is that the public comes away from the film with a new preference that they didn’t know about or consider before. Now there are people out there (potential clients) and even design students who scream “I love helvetica, I want this to be helvetica” as if this is what everyone’s doing and I should be doing it too (without knowing what it means).

Now I imagine a world, or maybe one in parallel, where designers are forced to use helvetica and stick to the tried and true system of modernist grids and rules that have worked in the past and will always work. A nightmare scenario begins to build where mediocrity is always acceptable (just make it look good enough) and communication that doesn’t relate to the ever changing world around us. I can only hope that this isn’t the case, a bad dream and nothing more. We should be optimistic about the endless possibilities in design, less full of angst and less comfortable with what we already know.

 
In 1963, way ahead of it’s time, the Heineken brick bottle (WOBO – world bottle) solved a recycling and housing problem at the same time. Alfred Heineken envisioned a product with a complete life cycle that could efficiently serve two purposes.
“The final WOBO design came in two sizes – 350 and 500 mm versions that were meant to lay horizontally, interlock and layout in the same manner as ‘brick and mortar’ construction. One production run in 1963 yielded 100,000 bottles some of which were used to build a small shed on Mr. Heineken’s estate in Noordwijk, Netherlands. One of the construction challenges “was to find a way in which corners and openings could be made without cutting bottles,” said Mr. Habraken.” (via Inhabitat)

 
In today’s society information flows freely and rapidly through wires and over air waves around the globe almost instantaneously. We know so much, or would like to imagine, about each other that we often lose track of ourselves. The answer is the personal annual report that is informative, and a record of the years that so easily slip away from us. The information designer Nickolas Felton (mgfn.net) has perfected this for himself by creating a visually meticulous account of his life. 

Check out this 3-D alphabet pop-up book, this very elaborate Alice in Wonderland pop-up book and the Wizard of Oz pop-up book. You might have also seen the Lexus pop-up ad. And this is yet another ad.