Over the past decade or so we’ve seen, firstly, people disconnecting from traditional media. Just think about the number of people you know who happily admit to not having a telly, or the number of refuseniks you know who still buy all their music on physical formats, or friends who always seem to see the latest films before they hit the cinema (only to go watch them again in the big screen).

We’ve also borne witness to a fractured media landscape that has evolved rapidly and where nothing replaces anything any more. Vinyl records sit comfortably next to mobile phones chock full of mp3s, which in turn sit next to streaming services such as Spotify, Rdio and the like—and that’s just a quick look under the hood of the music industry. All these formats, products, services and ideas are jostling for our time-impoverished attention. Whereas in the past there might have been a sense of progression from one format or technology to the next—now, there is chaos.

Just as the media landscape has splintered into numerous off shoots, so too has the role of the graphic designer. Never before has graphic design covered such a wide gamut of creative endeavours. From the more traditional brand-savvy, identity-led designers, to digital experts such as ‘designer-developers’, to art directors and editorial bods to artisanesque type designers, to screen-based designers creating work for broadcast and online. The list is becoming infinite. And while there are still many full-service design studios that seek to encompass all that being a modern creative agency entails, there are also many designers, young and old, finding the space to specialise. And not just in a particular design practice, but also in a particular aesthetic approach, sifting through the vast history of visual culture so easily accessible online.

Previously, all-encompassing aesthetic movements such as Swiss Modernism in the 1960s or American Vernacular in the late 80s/early 90s would blow through design practice around the world, transforming the design landscape of whole continents.

Nowadays we’re used to visual trends and motifs coming and going so quickly that a splintered approach starts to make sense. For example, take a look at the work of print studio such asThe Hungry Workshop with their unique take on vernacular design, then flick over to somewhere like Hunt Studio, whose publication work is resolutely ‘modern’ in the strictest definition of the term. 

For this article, we’re going to look at one visually rich trend that might have the longevity to make a lasting mark on our visual landscape and help define the times we live in.

The aesthetics of mistakes

Anti-design is one of the terms that has been attached to an emerging visual aesthetic that investigates, and often celebrates, motifs and techniques that were once considered naive or ‘bad’.
A group of young designers have been picking at the bones of early digital design, unearthing neglected visual nuggets and unpolished gems that have been previously consigned to graphic design’s morgue file. In this respect the trend is not dissimilar to the renewed interest in American vernacular design as parodied
on the Hipster Branding tumblog.

The significant difference is the period of graphic design development being referenced—specifically the point at which
the Apple Mac emerged as a key tool for designers and ‘desktop publishers’ (a job title that has all but died out now).

Misfires, mistakes and oddities created during this period, such as ‘badly’ distorted and/or skewed type, Photoshop bevel effects, awkward use of white space and spartan image arrangements
as well as previously unpopular elements such as the use of ubiquitous, default typefaces like as Arial and Brush Script are
now being investigated and celebrated for their unique qualities, as well as being bent out of shape to create demented new forms.

Prime examples of designers employing this new aesthetic include Joel Evey and his recent work for Urban Outfitters, Valdemar Lamego’s editorial design for Parq magazine, Michael Willis’ work and curation for Panther Club and Metahaven’s various politically charged—although too often impenetrable—project work. On our home turf designers such as Uriah Gray at Coöp, Jordan Dolheguy at Totem Visual and Tomas Shanahan and Kevin McDowell at deign studio Confetti are all forging ahead with their own investigations into early digital graphic design in order to create new visual languages.

Complimenting this is a renewed interested in early website, broadcast and other screen based design from the same era, whose motifs include crudely drawn icons, flashy animated gifs and jagged 3D renders, such as those deployed by Daniel Swan in collaboration with artist LuckyPDF, or designer/illustrator Brian Metcalf who is part of a collaborative project known as Phone Arts which seeks to create new art forms using mobile phones exclusively.

The roots of this new aesthetic can also be found in Finnish agency, Kokoro & Moi’s guest design for Print magazine back in 2010, where they went as far as manipulating arabic letterforms
to appear as English. In the process, eliciting heavy criticism from certain readers not used to having such a radical design agenda thrust on them. It’s also evidenced in editorial design by art directors such as Yue-Shin Lin at Lodown magazine and in Mike Meiré’s intentionally ‘ugly’ redesign of 032c.

Blame the interwebs and services like ffffound, Designspiration, Pinterest or, most notably Tumblr, for the spread of this new form of ‘graphix’. There’s no dodging the fact that the idea of the ‘graphic designer’ as jack-of-all is slowly being consigned to the annals of history, while the emergence of a hit squadron of designers, with
a burgeoning range of expertise, and a plethora of aesthetic approaches are fast becoming the norm rather than the exception.

See also

The Hungry Workshop
— thehungryworkshop.com.au
Hunt & Co.
— huntand.co
Hipster Branding
— hipsterbranding.tumblr.com
Joel Evey
— joelevey.com
Parq magazine
— parqmag.com
Michael Willis
— mwillis.eu
Metahaven
— metahaven.net
U-P (formerly Coöp)
— u-p.co
Confetti Studio
— confettistudio.co
Daniel Swan
— danielswan.co.uk
LuckyPDF
— luckypdf.com
Brian Metcalf
— brianmetcalf.com
Phone arts
— phonearts.net
Kokoro & Moi
Print magazine, June 2011 issue
— kokoromoi.com/work/print-magazine
Yue-Shin Lin
Lodown magazine
— linyueshin.com/work/#lodown
Mike Meiré
032c magazine
— meireundmeire.com/
032c-workshop_032c-magazine