In Praise of Design Bio-Diversity
Last weekend I wandered the aisles of a tent at a country fair in the presence of over 600 varieties of squash. The humble squash, it turns out, has the distinction of being the oldest of cultivated vegetables. I recognized perhaps three or four out of the riotous collection of shapes and colors, most of which were rare varieties, not commercially available. The examples on display were grown by squash fanciers, who in cultivating these obscure, almost-forgotten vegetables, were making a perhaps unconscious statement that in a highly homogenized world, where commercial interests have worked hard for generations to convince us that "one size fits all," in fact, one size fits one.
What the Internet has recently reminded us of is that, in fact, we're all unique. We don't all want the latest whatever that has been concocted for our immediate consumption. Online music repositories and book sales sites like Amazon are showing that older products, as well as new but not well-known ones, can find an audience.
Designers, whether they like it or not, are active participants in the marketplace, and share many of the same commodity-driven assumptions. A case can be made that simply trotting out variations on the same old design solutions is a temptation that's hard to resist, coupled with client expectations that rarely rise above the predictable. But does it have to be this way? Roger Fawcett-Tang, founder of Struktur Design and author of Experimental Formats.2, published by RotoVision, would appear to be among those that thinks not.
A follow-up to Experimental Formats, co-authored by Chris Foges, the .2 version immediately lets you know that it walks the walk by being itself created in an unusual format, in this case as two separately- bound books that have been flipped and stuck together. This second tome covers books, brochures and catalogs, loosely organized into such categories as packaging, formats and binding. Each project, from a wide variety of individual designers and firms, is illustrated via several photos and a brief description.
While many of the materials and processes are exotic, some of the designs use only modest resources. Fawcett-Tang makes the excellent point that "It is not always necessary to have a mega-budget to achieve a successful solution; sometimes financial restrictions can help to focus the designer's mind on alternative methods of binding, printing or formats. Anything that can break the norm will generate interest and stand out from the masses."
While quibbles are few, I have to express disappointment with the extremely thin glossary—the publisher trumpets this as being "definitive" but alas it does not rise to that lofty level. A resource directory of some sort pointing the reader to suppliers of the exotic materials and processes depicted would also have been of value. Finally, to my nose at least, the book simply smells. Literally. And not in a good way. Choice of inks or paper stock? Smell is an important part of the "format," when you think about it.
But as I said, these are quibbles. It's great to see talented designers kicking around conventions of material and presentation. If your designs are paper based, it will be hard for you not to feel rejuvenated after an immersion in this topsy-turvy celebration of the fusion of word, image and substrate.
Perhaps the day will come when we shake our heads in wonder that only 600 varieties of squash are available.
Chris Dickman
Editor, Graphics.com
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