Look at something modern for a moment. Look at modern furniture. Look at modern architecture. Look at modern mainstream fashion. Do you notice anything? You probably see something clean. Maybe something with little to no colour or wild designs. But does it mean it’s any good? The answer is absolutely not.
Modern design has gone down the path of minimalistic design. On paper, it’s not a bad idea. If your wall is white, it supposedly gives you a clear mind. Or if you have less in general it looks less busy. Not a bad concept but to me, it just feels like all the soul has been sucked out when designing something.
It has ruined some of the greatest things for me. I know someone who painted over a cool paint design in their house because they wanted it to look clean. I can’t tell them what to do with their home but it shows what modernism is doing to people. It lacks creativity and looks less fun.
Look at fast food restaurants. Remember when these things were loud? McDonald’s was filled with the rainbow. Taco Bell had cool patterns. Now, these places are just filled with greys, browns, and other dull colours. I would say there’s nothing bad about this but I can’t ignore it anymore. Entering these places back then felt like I was getting something that was playful. When I enter these places now, I’m just reminded of the fact that I chose to have fast food.
However, it has gone past the places themselves and has now affected their brand. Look at the Popeye’s logo. It used to look playful with the letters all jagged and filled with colour. Today, that’s gone and instead, it looks like something you can type up and it the only colours that are present are orange and white if you count it as a colour.
Not only fast food establishments are affected by this, but also other things you buy. The old Smuckers logo had a strawberry on the front. It felt like I was looking at a food company. The new one looks like I’m looking at the logo for an accounting firm. I already don’t like jam and the new logo isn’t convincing me to buy it. If anything, it makes me not want to be near it. It feels like the people buying it are uptight and boring to be around. I also freaked out when Tropicana was planning to change its logo. Something about it felt flat and lifeless to me. I would no longer feel like I was drinking orange juice. I would’ve felt like I was drinking an orange product instead. Thankfully it didn’t go through but if it did, it would feel like a huge portion of my childhood disappeared. We don’t need brands to grow up with us. We need them to keep us happy for as long as they can.
Back to modern architecture, look at what they did to telephone booths. The old ones have character and feel interesting. The modern ones people are designing feel uninspired and just blend in with everything else. Or worse, when they modernize old homes. A lot of old homes were made of brick and it felt lively. Something about the brick pattern especially when they don’t 100% match feels interesting. When they cover it up with white stucco, it looks lifeless and it makes me think the homeowners are the most pretentious people on this planet. The house feels expensive for no reason other than just being expensive.
The before and after photos for a “stunning new renovation” I’ve just seen on Instagram pic.twitter.com/iKemkuzoWp
— Adam James Pollock (@aIIegoricaI) June 17, 2022
On the tech side of things, look at what they did to user interfaces (UI) and websites. Scroll bars now disappear to make it look lean. Good in theory, but in practice it’s impractical. I have to hover my cursor on the side just to make it appear. Thankfully you can fix this in the settings but most people will probably not bother with it. Another one is YouTube changing its channel designs. The old one was better because your entire channel background was filled with personality. However, back in early 2013, they changed it so that the most you can design was the banner. All of a sudden, it gave me less incentive to explore the channel. Even when Instagram redesigned its UI, it felt less interesting to look at. I know it’s all about what’s being posted there but the UI should also live up to that expectation to make the parts that aren’t content worth looking at.
I don’t want companies to keep going down this path of sleek designs and things that lack personality for the sake of modernism. I want them to design things again. I don’t care if it’s a total fiasco. Bring back clear coloured computers. Bring back the over-the-top designs of McDonald’s. Bring back full-coloured backgrounds for YouTube channels. Bring back wallpaper. Bring back what things used to look like. Some of the ugliest things are more interesting to look at than minimalistic garbage.
Back To The Future should’ve been right. We should be in the era of going wild with aesthetics. What made people go down this path of minimalism is kind of a mystery. I’m now stuck with a bunch of boring squares who like “clean” looks. They’re also the type of people who don’t like “clutter” and things that look “ugly”. I don’t own a home yet but I know I’m not going to make it some uninspired Instagram new homeowner place. I need to give it life. I need to be free of people’s judgment so I can be surrounded by joy, not something that makes me miss being a child. So what if something looks out of place? It will at least be interesting.
Modern design is a plague. I think it’s time for things to look interesting again. No more minimalism. No more monochromatic dull colours. No more taking the joy away from our childhoods. I want the world to be different everywhere I look again.