Tomorrow's Cool | Retinart

A date is what you stamp upon your design when you aim for ‘cool’.

Cool is a temporary thing, based on emotions and thoughts and ideas of the time in which it was made. More often than not, what’s cool is a taste of what people guess tomorrow will bring.

But tomorrow hasn’t happened yet. What we guess will look cool tomorrow is an assumption based on how we feel today.

Then once tomorrow is yesterday, its cool will look dated because how we feel has changed.

But making it look good regardless of immediate taste, fashion and style means that it’ll look cool no matter the day.

(Unless, of course, you deliberately want to tie it to a moment, for a moment.)

Tags

Advice, Creativity, Mind, Opinion, Theory

Comments

29 pieces of brilliance put forth by the audience

Kris Noble
23rd of July, 2010 • www twitter
A lovely hedera

Absolutely agree – designs that try to keep up with trends look dated very quickly, whereas designs more rooted in fulfilling their purpose have much more longevity.

The exception being if you can produce something so groundbreaking and influential that it influences designers for years to come. In that case, it will seem as though you predicted the future, whereas in fact you shaped it.

Jin
23rd of July, 2010 • www twitter
A lovely hedera

What makes a design timeless? I wonder if we lived in 60s, at the time would we think Dieter Rams’ designs were genius? Of course I love his designs, but I wonder if that’s because they strike a sense of nostalgia?

It seems a lot of the designs we consider as timeless, are often minimalist. Is it because they’re safe? In fashion, I think a black tee and a pair of blue jeans are always timeless.

Kris Noble
23rd of July, 2010 • www twitter
A lovely hedera

@Jin – black tee / blue jeans is a perfect example.

I think you’re right – minimal designs tend to be more timeless. Maybe it’s because in being minimal, we strip away all the fluff and padding, and expose what’s really underneath.

Trying to be “cool” is often just an exercise in dressing up a design with shiny buttons, diagonal stripe backgrounds etc, so it’s like taking your black tee and adding your name in diamante studs – you might think it’s cool now, but in hindsight you’ll probably regret it.

Alexander Ross Charchar
23rd of July, 2010 • www twitter
A loverly hedera

I think you both hit it on the head — it’s about stripping away the fad and style and just having something organic to the project.

Minimal is a good way to put it, but I think it should be the effective, natural end that minimalism brings (stripping away the unnecessary), not minimalism for the sake of minimalism.

I’m actually writing an article on it at the moment, and I think the two things that come into play is the quality of the aesthetic and the effectiveness of the communication. The first can last forever, the second is always changing as the way in speak to one another changes and evolves.

But I’m not so sure about it necessarily being the safest option, but the best one — which is often going to appear to be the safest, but might be very, very hard to find as a conclusion… I’m sure many would say the design of the iPod is so simple and obvious that their 5 year old could have done it … but no one had thought of it before (okok, maybe Braun) and it takes a lot of restraint as a creative to not put some outlandish splash (or little nod) of expression on the end design.

It’s an interesting topic! Thanks for expanding on it!

BlueGrapho
25th of July, 2010
A lovely hedera

Well captured thoughts Alex, could it be that you were pondering the emphasis of ‘cool’ design on branding and campaigns? It will be interesting to see what damage to a brand cool might have and what the next evolution beyond cool is.
Hope I’m keeping on-topic.

Travis
26th of July, 2010 • www
A lovely hedera

Great article. I always know at the back of my mind to not get caught up with web trends, but it’s so hard.

Alexander Ross Charchar
26th of July, 2010 • www twitter
A loverly hedera

Thanks Bluegrapho and Travis!

I think what will happen with any brand that aims for cool is that the cool will quickly fall away and be replaced with stale.. what would be worse than a stale logo is a stale logo that took the place of a well established and an emotionally invested one!

It can be very hard to not get caught up in trends, can’t it Travis? I think we aim for trend when we aren’t sure of how to answer the question at hand in the best way… The cure to this is an absurd amount of reading and questioning :)

But more than that it’s just about having fun … enjoy what you’re doing and something interesting always grows from it

Stephanie Webb
10th of August, 2010 • www
A lovely hedera

I agree with this, taking a style that is of the moment can work really well. But you have to consider the time that this work will stay ‘cool’ for and not just go along with we trends, as they change and evolve so quickly that you won’t be able to keep up. Eventually the style that was current will become dated.

Alexander Ross Charchar
13th of August, 2010 • www twitter
A loverly hedera

and there’s also the gamble, isn’t there? Hoping that you’re catching the wave at the right moment to get away with using whatever fad is in fashion at the time.. or the really brave – predicting what will become fashionable, as is the case with the 2012 olympic games’ logo

Mike Mayfield
20th of August, 2010 • www
A lovely hedera

How refreshing! I’ve always thought that the “essence of cool” is not being concerned with what everyone else is doing. Once you try to be cool, you aren’t.

I just discovered your blog. I’m really enjoying it. Keep up the good work.

Alexander Ross Charchar
23rd of August, 2010 • www twitter
A loverly hedera

Mike Mayfield
So glad you’re enjoying the blog, thanks for dropping past, I really appreciate it :)

I can’t help but remember an (older) episode of the Simpsons where the parents are trying to understand what being ‘cool’ means ;)

I agree totally – trying to develop cool work on purpose is not how to have cool work. It’s about having the guts to do your own thing because you believe it’s the right solution, is interesting and you have fun (so it’s a reflection of you as a creative). Whenever someone does this, it’s original. Then someone copies it, and it’s cool… then a few more copy it, and it’s no so cool… So why bother trying to be part of that loop? Just have fun!

Paul
15th of February, 2011 twitter
A lovely hedera

Well put. I really never made a difference between the two. I ‘ve always treated the two as one complementing the other.

Thanks.

Symptoms Of An Epidemic: Web Design Trends |
16th of March, 2012 • www
A lovely hedera