I'm starting to believe that most people, when given the challenge of choosing something new, or something familiar, default to what is familiar. SO I have this theory - one which is not unlike the current trend of overusing antibacterial soap with the hope that one is eliminating germs and virus', while the germs and virus' mutate at a faster rate, becoming immune to the antibacterial soap.
Stay with me now....
In our over-designed world, where little seems new, visually, the problem may be greater than many of us believe. I've noticed that as I present new designs that are more original, they rarely are selected, while the more cliche solutions are often the winner. This safer choice seems to reassure people who I believe are growing dangerously immune to the idea of NEW. Fearful of anything different, are people growing conservative in our unstable financial world? Or does anything NEW seem strange since we rarely encounter ANYTHING original any more? For that matter, is originality, itself becoming extinct?
Familiar = safe
Original = risky
We can't be familar and risky, and we cannot be Original and safe.
Obviously, people want what is familiar to them. Any brand that can ride the coattails of an established concept instantly can be endowed with a particular identity. We hear it all the time. ‘How very Starbucks-y” “Hey, That ad was so Ikea”, “Those Macy ads are looking alot likeTarget”. Copycat design and homage design can only go so far, at the end of the day, these trends signify a despartate uncertainty that our global visual culure is reaching a point of slow development, but this has happened before.
For thousands of years, human cultures have grown, flourished and died, but generally, not without first having their effects on other cultures. Think about the connection between text today as we know it and the Romans... architecture today and the Greeks... China and cuisine... Italy and music. The lists are long and the influences are complex, but undeniably, influences are there and we’re working with them every single day.
Visual and artistic culture often develops towards idealism eventually reaching a zenith, often right after a period of contradiction, then flamboyant expression (such as the Italian Renaissance or Victorian architecture), and then eventually exhausting itself once it has exercised a full range of possibilities. Most cultures then enter a long period of undifferentiation. It all sounds a bit like today, doesn’t it?
