Do you ever feel like all trendy coffee shops look kind of the same? And how many book covers look alike, SUV’s are all so similar and cars in general are all black, white, silver or grey nowadays. Why do office and residential buildings look so plain, compared to the decorative architecture of earlier centuries? Why do so many logos and branding look identical? These are some of the questions discussed by Alex Murrell and Thomas Klaffke in two interesting reads about how design nowadays seems so…bland.
Especially with the explosive surge of AI design tools, it will be likely that more and more people will resort to the same tools for design. What globalization did for the homogeneity of culture (and visuals), AI-generation tools could potentially do for the output of creative work and design around the world. Hence why the need for true and distinctive creativity will only increase.
An interesting brand that goes against the grain and isn’t afraid of taking creative risks is the water brand Liquid Death. It alternates its branding and commercials between a strange mix of fringe biker/hard rock aesthetics, cartoons, and (purposely) low-budget sci-fi productions. Oh and– speaking of creative risks, they just launched a collectors edition enema alongside a can of Liquid Death in collaboration with Travis Barker.
Read more about the age of average in our previous posts:
– The beauty ideal in the age of algorithms
– Designed for likes instead of people
– Brands: To be different or not to be?
