There used to be a World of different design schools, each of them proud of their own roots and achievements. But “living in a global village”, as McLuhan would say, has put us on the best course toward losing our identity.
of Graphic Design
For many years now I have been collecting books about art and design. I have found this both a passionate and nurturing pastime. I see learning as an integral part of my work, and being able to relate to those books on the shelves behind me is a very comforting feeling. I like to browse through them and to take time doing it. It makes me feel good. And it makes me think like no other form of media does.
There was a time when there were books only. You traveled abroad because you wanted to learn about other cultures. You walked into a bookshop in London and felt that you could spend a whole life there. Then, you chose a couple of books you could afford (unfortunately, the ones I liked were always the most expensive ones) and that was it until, hopefully next year. That’s how I learned about Scandinavian, Italian and North American design in the first place.
Today, we learn at the click of a mouse, and learning remains the greatest source of personal growth, skills development and creative maturity. But depth of learning is sacrificed for speed of learning, as reflective consideration gives way to instant imitation.
By sheer circumstances, I found myself living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world for a good part of my life when passion towards design and everything around it became the essence of my existence. It was in Barcelona where I truly started discovering the challenges of graphic design. I learned from books, from people and from the projects I worked on.
At the beginning of the eighties satellite dishes were everywhere. It was really ugly but thanks to them we had a first hint of what was about to come with the Internet. We could see TV programs we had never seen before, and savor different aesthetics from abroad. We could judge them, compare them, love them or hate them. And, I can say it now; the most beautiful thing of all was that they were all different.
The BBC was very different from CNN. Polish, Hungarian and Russian TV stations were as original as their folklore or food. Some of them looked better, some worse, but then again, that was the whole point. As time went by, the satellite dishes were substituted with cable and wireless devices. The Internet brought a whole world onto our computer screens and, voila, in less than twenty years, the whole world looks exactly the same.
Suddenly, different design schools vanished. No more design made in Madrid or Barcelona, London or Miami. The only thing that differs is the language. Everything else looks alike. Global design triumphed (whatever that meant). Which is extremely sad and disappointing, and the worst is yet to come. Like cheap design, for instance - we have experienced that our clients sometimes come up with very specific requirements – like “I like my competitors site and I want my website to have the same look and feel” - hmmm, nice.
I guess we are used to the - I like it – I want it - philosophy. It is about how we choose our company, our clothes, our food, drinks, a house, and a car. Why not a website? Downhill is obvious – it looks so easy to copy someone’s idea, and as a matter of fact it is, and by being so easy and feasible, it can’t be expensive either, right?
Imitation at internet speed is the new marketing. The real consequence – that a whole generation of graphic designers has skipped study and reflection, comparison and history – is that we now have an army of computer wizards whose prime goal is to reshape the world based on plagiarism. And the market seems okay with that.
"In Europe, the BBC was very different from CNN. Polish, Hungarian and Russian TV stations were as original as their folklore or food. Some of them looked better, some worse, but then again, that was the whole point. As time went by, the satellite dishes were substituted with cable and wireless devices. The Internet brought the whole world onto our computer screens and, voila, in less than twenty years, the whole world looks exactly the same. Homogenized milk. "