Designing for the Future

Pearl Gerald - Graphic and Media Design 

Anti-design is all about breaking the rules, which I think is crucial as it enables us, designers, to keep on evolving and changing with the times to keep the Future always evolving.
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Anti-design was a design flow and art movement from Italy that spanned from 1966-1980. As Charles Moffatt states in his article, the design flow movement aimed to 'emphasise striking colours and scale distortion. Examples of this include a giant chair that makes you look small where the aim was to 'subvert the way you think about an object. Other examples are more for a humorous factor, such as the products designed by Alessi, such as his bottle opener, which had a face on it, which these new approaches offer a 'fresh new look at the design process. It is important because it encourages people not to settle but keep creating.

​Another  example of anti-design and creating change for the Future is the rise of the Apple cars. Apple is a company predominantly known as a maker of computer and phones user experience technology, but they are challenging design by trying to design cars. Bloomberg in The Los Angeles Times states that Apple is pushing to accelerate its electric car development and is refocusing the project around full self-driving capabilities. This shows the benefits of anti-design as Apple wants to break the rules and have a go at creating a car that can drive all on its own without a steering wheel.  They also want to challenge the current seating arrangement as the article states that the" interior is designed around hands-off driving, and that in the car passengers sit along the sides of the vehicle and face each other like they would in a limousine.' This I think would be a great idea as you could easily have a conversation with someone without turning and facing them and show how one person/ company doesn't have to be confined to one area of design.

​Thinking more deeply about Anti-design, I have come to realise that I do think that it is needed as it keeps me and other designers, constantly thinking on how we can be better and explore more with experimentation.  In graphic  design, Anti- design is seen in terms as  a form of art it  "is a style of design where most rules of design get chucked such as ignoring alignment, clashing colour palettes and in some ways can become a sense of rebellion" I like this idea that anything sort of goes as yes rules are good but too strict rules I feel can prevent some ideas and creativity breaking through.
 
Furthermore, more recently, in my last internship interning for a start-up company, I  also tried to push the boundaries and get my boss to think outside of the lines about her vision for her Instagram page. We slowly evolved adding different things like more bright colours and photos. However, I tried to create some content with a more uniform and cohesive feel using a more refined colour palette to match the logo by seeing what would happen if we did this.  It may not have broken that many rules in terms of its layout, but in terms of the structure of what my boss wanted for her Instagram page, as she kept on saying how she liked the things that had been done previously, but we keep pushing our new ideas forward. I feel that this was successful, it looks much more unison than before. 

​So, to conclude in light of what we have gone through recently in the last year and a half change is inevitable, however it is for the better as it can force us to slow down and reassess which is where some great ideas can be born and change the way we look at the world and start to shape and create the future that we want go see.
 
Bibliography:
 
Alessi – corkscrew
https://uk.alessi.com/products/anna-g-corkscrew-1
 
Bloomberg Nov 18 2021 Apple Hits the Accelerator on Autonomous Car Project’ ‘ The Los Angeles Times’ Available at:
https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2021-11-18/apple-hits-the-accelerator-on-autonomous-car-project
 
Macrumours S December 3 2021 ‘ Apple Car’  Avalible at:
https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/apple-car/
 
Moffatt . C  August 2011 ‘ Anti- Design’ The Art History Archive ‘ Available at
http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/antidesign/
 
Reset MSM Start up Company Instagram Page
https://www.instagram.com/resetmsm/channel/
 
Satori Graphics – 10th November 2021 – Will Anti- Design take Over the world?
Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv7a3TcxugQ